Smoking and Obesity

[gaelic cowboy]

What?

This thread is all about how we should not try to implement laws and taxes on smoking fatty foods and instead accept its a choice.

The belief is then the "MARKET" will use its vast wealth and scientific to overcome the addictive natures of the ciggarettes and help us to enjoy bran instead of burgers.

Its cods wallop the simplest way to give up smoking is to stop smoking and the simplest way to get healthy is to stop eating too much junk food.

The idea we can develop both ways to give these things up is a perfect way to avoid your own need to shape up

[rory_20_uk]

The sad truth is that people don't want to take personal responsibility. Look at the diet industry - spend money to loose the weight that spending less on eating would cure...

In all countries especially fatties are a massive drain; in those with a free at use health service even more so. It is pragmatic to intervene, even though personally I agree with your ideals.

[Proletariat]

The sad truth is that people don't want to take personal responsibility. Look at the diet industry - spend money to loose the weight that spending less on eating would cure...

Healthy food is much more expensive than fat food here, probably in the UK too.

[naut]

Healthy food is much more expensive than fat food here, probably in the UK too.

I believe he is talking about quantity.

[Beskar]

Healthy food is much more expensive than fat food here, probably in the UK too.

Actually, making something yourself is far cheaper than take-away or microwavable dinners and far more healthy for you.

You can even get really meaty burgers, compared to the wafer cast-offs they serve you are Mc Donalds for the same/similar price at a massive difference in quality.

I challenge this belief.


Also, Psychonaut raises another point of people going out and having 4 different takeaways a day, common practise in the USA. Why do you need so much food? Unless you hardcore gym enthusiast, there is no need for you to get that much calories/etc.

[Proletariat]

http://shop.netgrocer.com/shop.aspx?...px&k=beef&ns=1

7 bucks for a pound of ground beef (you could get a cheaper brand for prolly 5 where I live). Then go buy one tomato, one lettuce head, one onion and whatever other topping you like on your burger. Unless your feeding more than two people, fast food is much, much cheaper than fixing the same meal at home.

No one in the history of this entire plant ever would or ever will pay MORE for a McDonald's quality burger than a home made one. It's popular because it is dirt cheap.

[Aemilius Paulus]

No one in the history of this entire plant ever would or ever will pay MORE for a McDonald's quality burger than a home made one. It's popular because it is dirt cheap.

No, you forgot the convenience factor. Fast food is popular because of its low prices, superb (in the customers' views) taste, and convenience. People do not have time to cook, cannot cook very well, and the opportunity cost of cooking a marginally less expensive burger is higher than that of a slightly more expensive, but unbeatably fast and effortless ordering of the junk food at the restaurants.

I would say that out of the three factors, cost is currently the least, at least for upper-lower class and lower-middle class. Now, if the cost were to rise, this would change, but now people buy fast food because it is fast and relatively delectable (at least compared to the other similarly-priced options - canned food, TV dinners/ready-to-eat meals, sandwiches/other improvised sustenance or amateur and shoddy home-cooking.

EDIT:
My family is blessed with a mother who has a degree in culinary arts (along with accounting degree) and my mother happens to be an avid cook. She cooks, often times, relatively sophisticated, very healthy dishes, and in general, she cooks nearly every day - all of quite high quality. My family has noticed that cooking, from the scratch as she does it, with fresh ingredients, is at least twice cheaper than eating the cheapest fast food from restaurants. We always buy plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, yet our expenses on foodstuffs are negligible compared to our friends and acquaintances.

In general, this sort of practise is more or less uncommon in say, nations such as US, but in Eastern Europe this is the norm. Beskar is absolutely correct, although the sort of approach my family takes to food is largely unrealistic for a regular Western family, or at least in US and UK, as I know less about the situation of this matter in other Western Europeans states. For one, my mother is a home-maker, a housewife. She does not work any more. Secondly, her culinary skills are much more advanced than that of an average American, boasting aside. Thirdly, she enjoys this, and since she has time, thus her comparative advantage is high, but the opportunity cost is low, creating a near-perfect environment. If you do not enjoy cooking, or ahve no time for it, junk food may be less overall costly option for you.

[Reverend Joe]

http://shop.netgrocer.com/shop.aspx?...px&k=beef&ns=1

7 bucks for a pound of ground beef (you could get a cheaper brand for prolly 5 where I live). Then go buy one tomato, one lettuce head, one onion and whatever other topping you like on your burger. Unless your feeding more than two people, fast food is much, much cheaper than fixing the same meal at home.

No one in the history of this entire plant ever would or ever will pay MORE for a McDonald's quality burger than a home made one. It's popular because it is dirt cheap.

Unless you put the entire onion, tomato and head of lettuce on your burger, those ingredients will actually last you over 5-6 burgers; so while they may all add up to around $10-15, you're getting about five good burgers out of it. The biggest expense will be burger meat. You can also cut out the extra ingredients to save money. That's also not generic beef, so of course it will be more expensive.

I would say, on average, I pay about $5-7 dollars on each individual meal I make; it's just a mixture of a chicken breast (or a thigh if I want to go REALLY cheap), half an onion (bough in bulk in the big bags,) a clove of garlic, half a can of diced tomatoes, one beer and a few spices (varies depending on the meal, but the cheapest is the Italian, because the herbs are optional and are added in very small amounts.) It takes a while to make, but it tastes great and is very healthy. Plus it's really easy to cook, so I can drink three or four beers while I'm waiting for it to finish. Now, if you compare that to four double cheeseburgers from McDonald's, yeah, it's more expensive, but taken on its own seven dollars a night maximum for a full dinner is a pretty damn good deal.

[rory_20_uk]

Healthy food is much more expensive than fat food here, probably in the UK too.

Depends what you want. There is plenty of food that is good for you and affordable:

Tinned fish: c, 50p a can
Spaghetti c. 40p a kilo
Potatoes / carrots etc are again cheap.

Sure, minced steak is expensive. So either a treat or don't get it. Chicken is cheaper.

Making single meals is expensive. Make a lot and save most of it; so buy in bulk which is cheaper too.

Lacks variety? Not exciting? Tough.

[Aemilius Paulus]

~:smoking

Better correct that smiley, rory! Things are indeed going disagreeably if rory does not post his trademark smoking smiley on his posts.

You have yet to fail us - do not set a dangerous precedent.

[rory_20_uk]

[Azathoth]

I actually eat only TV/frozen dinners, microwavable rice, and canned soup (unless someone makes something else for me, ie. fried chicken, potatoes with mushrooms, fried salmon). I'm not going to get fat off of this diet (a bag of rice has A LOT of sodium and up to a thousand calories, but frozen dinners and cans of soup average 250-400 calories), so I'll likely continue with it through college and into my adult life.

The only way this could possibly change is if scientists invented some sort of tasteless block of food-like material that is calorie and nutrient rich in the future.