Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why is the American diet so deadly?

newyorker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 196 posts

Re: Why is the American diet so deadly?

#161

Post by Pigalowda »

gscott wrote: post #97
snarf21 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even worse, our food has been specifically engineered to be as addictive as possible without increasing manufacturing costs.

During the packaging process I am pretty sure they spray on chemicals that cause addiction.

It’s just sugar, fat, and salt but at scale. No need for more.

Get it when you want and as much as you want. Doctors will say you can be healthy at size and advertisers will tell you to be body positive. Then when you’re over served and obese you can get weight loss injections and start all over. It’s the American way. An endless orgy of consumerism. Binge and purge like a hedonist Roman could never even imagine.

Re: Why is the American diet so deadly?

#162

Post by shermantanktop »

healsdata wrote: post #33
shermantanktop wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m blissfully unaware of that POV. Links? Are they claiming that boiling noodles is “ultra processing” or something?

The problem is that there's no definition of ultra-processed. It's generally a "I know it when I see it" type of thing but of course that means it's unevenly applied in a world without nuance. To use your example, surely hand made noodles aren't ultra processed. But are Bertolli noodles ultra processed? The only difference in ingredients is what emulsifier is used. Food, biology, etc. is complicated and reducing it t…

I routinely make noodles by grinding durum wheat in a home flour mill and making the dough by hand. Probably the lowest level of processing possible I guess.

Re: Why is the American diet so deadly?

#163

Post by cafard »

tonymet wrote: post #49
Workaccount2 wrote: post #20

I think a big part of the problem is that even prepared foods are packed with garbage. There are a lot of Americans who can't/don't cook mainly for time reasons, and instead eat lots of prepared foods, whether that be from restaurants, shops, or grocery stores. If you are not cooking it from scratch yourself, it is almost guaranteed to be brimming with fat, salt, and sugar. This is true regardless of the source. Whet…

When asked why restaurant food tasted so good, Anthony Bourdain chuckled and quipped that "everything you are served begins and finishes with a stick of butter". People would gasp if they prepared that food for themselves. When I finish a steak with 2 tbsp of butter it tastes luxurious, and any respectable steakhouse is finishing a steak with a stick of butter and garnishes it with an ice cream scoop of butter.

Years ago we were in Bologna. The ragu was splendid, but I would wake up in the middle of the night feeling absolutely parched. If it wasn't a lot of salt, I don't know what it would have been.

Re: Why is the American diet so deadly?

#164

Post by nradov »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #20

I think a big part of the problem is that even prepared foods are packed with garbage. There are a lot of Americans who can't/don't cook mainly for time reasons, and instead eat lots of prepared foods, whether that be from restaurants, shops, or grocery stores. If you are not cooking it from scratch yourself, it is almost guaranteed to be brimming with fat, salt, and sugar. This is true regardless of the source. Whet…

It's mostly the sugar that's the killer. Fat isn't necessarily a problem, depending on the specific type. Part of what made the "standard American diet" so deadly is when packaged food manufacturers replaced fat with extra sugar based on junk science that appeared to show a correlation between fat consumption and heart disease.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/price-we-pay-9781635574128/

And even extra salt isn't necessarily a problem for most people with typical genetics, either. The issue with hypertension is more to do with osmolality than absolute quantity. A lot of people have taken the "low sodium" fad a little too far.

https://peterattiamd.com/rickjohnson/

Re: Why is the American diet so deadly?

#165

Post by nradov »

deeviant wrote: post #91
cableshaft wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brown rice isn't that good for you. Although if you remove that (or at least tell them to do 'light' rice) and add the lettuce, one of the salsas and the fajita veggies instead it starts getting pretty healthy (at least as far as I know).

> Brown rice isn't that good for you Based on what, exactly? Japan has one of the highest average lifespans, and the healthiest demographic in this already top-of-the-lifespan-pack nation consume significant amount of white rice, let alone brown.

Brown rice tends to contain more arsenic. A little bit is fine but if you eat large amounts frequently then that can be problematic.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2023.1209574

Many foods can become toxic in excessive quantities. That's why it's best to eat a wide variety of different foods and not get too many calories from any one food. Everything in moderation.

Re: Why is the American diet so deadly?

#166

Post by BenjiWiebe »

tombert wrote: post #99
jayd16 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Short of a kegeraror, one can develop a taste for tea or black coffee. As long as you don't put anything in it, it's basically zero calorie and trivial to prepare.

I tried, but I absolutely despise coffee. I think I'm really sensitive to the bitter compounds, I think it's vile even when I put a lot of sweetener in it, to a point where a small irrational part of me is kind of convinced that everyone who says they like it playing some kind of elaborate and expensive joke on me. Tea isn't as bad but I still dislike it. That said, if you can develop a taste for coffee or tea, that'…

Have you tried adding cream (but no sweetener)? I've done it on occasion to get down a cup of coffee that's more bitter than usual.

Re: Why is the American diet so deadly?

#167

Post by tombert »

BenjiWiebe wrote: post #166
tombert wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried, but I absolutely despise coffee. I think I'm really sensitive to the bitter compounds, I think it's vile even when I put a lot of sweetener in it, to a point where a small irrational part of me is kind of convinced that everyone who says they like it playing some kind of elaborate and expensive joke on me. Tea isn't as bad but I still dislike it. That said, if you can develop a taste for coffee or tea, that'…

Have you tried adding cream (but no sweetener)? I've done it on occasion to get down a cup of coffee that's more bitter than usual.

I have; I think I've tried everything. I've tried instant coffee black, I've tried it with creamer, with sugar, with artificial sweetener. I've tried it at chain restaurants like McDonalds, I've tried yuppier places like Starbucks and a bunch of their concoctions, I've tried hipster independent places and different blends from them.

I've tried cold brew, coffee slushies, different quantities of frapp'd up milk, different coarseness of the grind, different types of beans, different roast levels, etc. and the only time it's tolerable is when there's so much milk and sugar in there that it's debatable to even call it "coffee" anymore. I can't even stand coffee ice cream.

I think it's just not for me.

Re: Why is the American diet so deadly?

#168

Post by BenjiWiebe »

jeffbee wrote: post #94
piltdownman wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Emphasis on vegetables and fibre, niacin and trace mineral rich seafood, and pickled/preserved foods. Also ultra-processed is contextual. They're eating Nattō for breakfast, not McMuffins.

The McMuffin is pretty much the most balanced meal at McDonalds! If you wanted to quibble over it, you could make it with a poached egg white instead of a whole egg, and dress it with olive oil instead of butter, to cut down on the cholesterol without removing too much energy. At ~300 calories a McMuffin is hardly sufficient for many people to get through the morning.

I got a bottle of Corto EVOO for Christmas and I love the flavor.

Now I'm thinking I might try using it in an egg sandwich for breakfast and see how it is.

Re: Why is the American diet so deadly?

#169

Post by bumby »

johnkpaul wrote: post #90
verteu wrote: post #53

For me, the biggest mystery is this: If obesity is caused by poor diet, why doesn't dieting work long-term? https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/when-dieting-doesnt-work... > 121 eligible trials with 21 942 patients were included and reported on 14 named diets and three control diets ... At 12 months the effects on weight reduction and improvements in cardiovascular risk factors largely disappear.

You might find this NYT piece on the winners of the Biggest Loser TV show interesting. Basically, "dieting" as a reduction in calories is a lose-lose game because your basal metabolic rate goes down so you have to keep eating less and less to keep it up. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weig... Keeping up the basal metabolic rate is part of the rationale behind intermittent/extended fasting ins…

If you are changing you metabolic rate, you are changing the "calories-out" so it's not like it's an entirely different approach.

Re: Why is the American diet so deadly?

#170

Post by ifyoubuildit »

tombert wrote: post #167
BenjiWiebe wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried adding cream (but no sweetener)? I've done it on occasion to get down a cup of coffee that's more bitter than usual.

I have; I think I've tried everything. I've tried instant coffee black, I've tried it with creamer, with sugar, with artificial sweetener. I've tried it at chain restaurants like McDonalds, I've tried yuppier places like Starbucks and a bunch of their concoctions, I've tried hipster independent places and different blends from them. I've tried cold brew, coffee slushies, different quantities of frapp'd up milk, diffe…

I used to be this way. I ended up liking coffee through a pretty ridiculous way - microwaving half of a Starbucks cold brew that I dumped a bunch of milk into.

Now I can drink whatever coffee with nothing in it, though I wouldn't say it tastes "good". It just scratches that itch. I think it's more of a minor compulsion than a preference.

Post reply on HN