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Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

nytimes.com

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Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#11

Post by potatolicious »

hughprime wrote: post #10
potatolicious wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Canadian living in the USA I have to say, we don't eat that differently in Canada, the big difference is we eat less . Canada is just as full of greasy, nutrtionless, processed-to-hell food as America is, but we simply do not consume as much of it, from my observations. When I moved to the USA I immediately (over 4 months) gained a buttload of weight (both figuratively and literally...). This is due to my bad ha…

Well, the Cheesecake Factory is a bit of an outlying case -- those portions are ridiculous even by American standards. But as an Australian living in the US I agree with you -- I find it hard just to get a normally-sized meal for breakfast or lunch. In Australia, if you order a ham and cheese sandwich, you get ham and cheese. In America if you order a ham and cheese sandwich you get a huge stack of ham, a bit of chee…

I've also found that Americans like to lather sauce over everything, which begs the question of if they'd realize if we replaced all their meat with soy protein. This may be part of the diet problem.

In Canada we have ranch sauce, we have mayo, but it wasn't until I got to the US that I started seeing these things going on everything under the sun, in gigantic quantities.

Why have the ham sandwich if all you'll be tasting is the mayo?

Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#13

Post by thesecret »

I work in healthcare and this is my understanding from the responses of patients that I encounter - fast food is cheap. One of the families I work with, both parents are diabetic and the children are all overweight. I asked them about their eating habit and the answer was : McDonalds for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Why? Because it's cheap to eat at McDonalds for a family of 4 than it is to buy vegetables at the market....for 3 bucks, you get a whole meal for one person. $3 at Safeway, you only get..a cabbage and some tomatoes?

They didn't understand that their eating habit is going to cost them much more in health expenses

Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#14

Post by davidw »

potatolicious wrote: post #9
ankeshk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comparing Canada vs USA obesity rates shows that YES indeed eating habits seem to be very different: http://eaves.ca/2008/07/08/fatness-index-canada-vs-united-st...

As a Canadian living in the USA I have to say, we don't eat that differently in Canada, the big difference is we eat less . Canada is just as full of greasy, nutrtionless, processed-to-hell food as America is, but we simply do not consume as much of it, from my observations. When I moved to the USA I immediately (over 4 months) gained a buttload of weight (both figuratively and literally...). This is due to my bad ha…

My wife and I pretty much always split an entree in restaurants in the US, with maybe a side dish to go with it. Every time we get two, it ends up being way too much food.

Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#15

Post by callmeed »

hughprime wrote: post #10
potatolicious wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Canadian living in the USA I have to say, we don't eat that differently in Canada, the big difference is we eat less . Canada is just as full of greasy, nutrtionless, processed-to-hell food as America is, but we simply do not consume as much of it, from my observations. When I moved to the USA I immediately (over 4 months) gained a buttload of weight (both figuratively and literally...). This is due to my bad ha…

Well, the Cheesecake Factory is a bit of an outlying case -- those portions are ridiculous even by American standards. But as an Australian living in the US I agree with you -- I find it hard just to get a normally-sized meal for breakfast or lunch. In Australia, if you order a ham and cheese sandwich, you get ham and cheese. In America if you order a ham and cheese sandwich you get a huge stack of ham, a bit of chee…

"Well, the Cheesecake Factory is a bit of an outlying case ..."

I'm not sure about that. Cheesecake Factory, Claim Jumper, you name it.

Even the fast casual restaurants like Chipotle. They tout the "freshness" of their ingredients–despite the fact their burritos weight as much as my laptop.

Of course, every restaurant now is on the "hamburger slider" craze ... even though the slider is probably the size a normal hamburger should be.

Don't even get me started on the Midwest. When I first started visiting Oklahoma regularly, I was a little shocked. You'd almost think there was a state law that every restaurant had to be a buffet.

Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#16

Post by awt »

Doesn't everyone die? If so, isn't the question what diseases take the longest time to cause death, and thus require the most medical expenditure? Wouldn't medical expenses be lower if everyone died of a heart attack at 55? That would certainly be cheaper than living till 70 and treating cancer, bone loss issues, bladder issues, and cholesterol issues over a period of several years.

Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#17

Post by edw519 »

There’s lots of money to be made selling fast food and then treating the diseases that fast food causes.

All the more reason for each of us to take more personal responsibility for our food and our health. I wouldn't count on anyone else helping me much with either any time soon.

Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#18

Post by dasil003 »

thesecret wrote: post #13

I work in healthcare and this is my understanding from the responses of patients that I encounter - fast food is cheap. One of the families I work with, both parents are diabetic and the children are all overweight. I asked them about their eating habit and the answer was : McDonalds for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Why? Because it's cheap to eat at McDonalds for a family of 4 than it is to buy vegetables at the mar…

The big problem is farm subsidies for corn and soybeans. If they transferred those subsidies to produce we could make it significantly cheaper to eat healthy.

However, if you are smart it's possible to eat much cheaper than McDonalds and almost infinitely healthier. The secret is just eat like they do in poor countries. Start with bulk quantities of some basic staples. I'm Brazilian, so for me it's rice and beans. Then buy veggies and meat that are on sale. Of course if you want it to taste good you have to learn to season and cook it properly, which takes time.

I admit that corn syrup drinks, processed carbs and extremely fatty/salty/msg-y food tastes great and can be quite addictive. I sympathize with people who are stuck in that cycle. However I've found that how I feel from eating healthy and getting a reasonable amount of exercise is far more significant to me than something that tastes good for 5 mins while I eat it. I'm convinced if people were more in touch with their own bodies it wouldn't be hard to convince them to eat healthier. Unfortunately American culture itself is a huge impediment to this, which is why I'm so happy to see Michelle Obama planting a garden. Cultural change is what we need.

Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#19

Post by dasil003 »

awt wrote: post #16

Doesn't everyone die? If so, isn't the question what diseases take the longest time to cause death, and thus require the most medical expenditure? Wouldn't medical expenses be lower if everyone died of a heart attack at 55? That would certainly be cheaper than living till 70 and treating cancer, bone loss issues, bladder issues, and cholesterol issues over a period of several years.

If so, isn't the question what diseases take the longest time to cause death, and thus require the most medical expenditure

Not exactly. You're missing two variables. The rate of infection in the population as a whole, and the rate of expenditure to treat the disease.

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