[quote=ocrenter]of course we can all do our best to limit consumption.
but that’s also like telling buyers during the peak of the bubble not to buy. of course it was personal responsibility ultimately, but how many exercised personal responsibility and how many actually thought it through and resisted the urge to buy?
same thing here, of course ultimately it boils down to personal responsibility. but how many are listening about the need to fight and resist the cheap food?
What is scary here we have the additional element of chemical dependency. The cheap food and high calorie does create a cheap HIGH followed by emotional LOW. This is the perfect set up for addiction pattern. So if someone learns this pattern at childhood, you are looking at an addictive pattern that will be extremely hard to correct. even if that person knows full well of the need to make changes.
The pattern of obesity and food addiction is very similar compared to other addictions. Just like addicts moving in and out of rehabs, most people with weight issues move in and out of diets. And the only explaination here is the food is now a lot more potent at activating the pleasure pathway and it is also a whole lot cheaper. Like I said before, cocaine was much less of an issue before some guy figured out how to make it into cheap crack.
As to your price comparison to before, there were no remotes in the 70’s, so I’ll assume 25 cent fries were 70’s prices as well. Adjusted for inflation you are looking at $1.5 which is pricier compared to today. Plus the amount of fries per serving has increased dramatically as well. Remember, child size hamburger of today was the regular sized hamburger of yesteryears.
I understand what you are trying to say about children being less active and how folks are glued to the TV. Fitness and an active lifestyle is extremely important. But again, while there are a lot of other important issues that promote the obesity crisis, the number one issue that dramatically altered the landscape is still the change in food.[/quote]
Though I think a sedentary lifestyle is very much a part of our “obesity epidemic,” I do agree with you about the food supply problem as well.
Like another poster pointed out above, healthy food is expensive, and junk food is cheap. Not sure what could be done to rectify that, though. Not sure higher taxes on the cheap stuff is the way to go; poor people are having a difficult enough time as it is. We need to reduce the cost of healthy food, instead.
Though I don’t think any particular kind of food should be banned (unless it contains actual carcinogens or toxic substances), it would be great to get some truthful disclosure about what is in our foods. You’re exactly right about them not wanting to give their customers that information, and that’s a big problem.
