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Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#171

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

benatkin wrote: post #107
stickfigure wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't blame this on Americans. Walk into any tiendita in rural Mexico and you will find isles of candy and sugary beverages, much of which Americans wouldn't recognize. Mexico loves sweets. I'm glad they're recognizing that dietary health is a serious issue and trying to make changes. But I wonder what effect this will have on paleterias? They're one of the many things I miss from Mexico.

We certainly can. There's a huge amount of influence america has on global eating habits. Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay, and McDonald's are some of the major corporate villains, in case you forgot, and they deserve their reputations.

I'm not totally sure - if you go out to rural, poorer Mexico, away from the corporate chains and packaged snackfoods, the traditional Mexican diet isn't especially healthy. Lots of lard, simple carbs, etc.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#172

Post by munk-a »

controversy wrote: post #146
munk-a wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't really go any way towards explaining why Canada, Europe or the Oceania[1] democracies have done so well in the crisis - nor does it explain how Brazil has done so poorly. I think there is more counter evidence then supporting evidence for authoritarian governments being necessary for dealing with pandemics. 1. Please note - comparatively well, Canada, Europe & Oceania aren't doing perfect they're just do…

The United States has done poorly because we are a country whose population hates each other. It’s a country comprised entirely of people whose ancestors said, “You know what? I hate you so much that I’d rather cross an ocean, face bears, wolves, and the elements than to spend another day with you.” That’s why we won’t wear masks.

I mean - Canada is in the same boat right? Canada might even be worse off since the country was originally french and then that entire population (along with first nations & Metis which are a more significant portion of the population up here) was second-classed when the English won a war that one time. Quebec secessionist is far more serious than any state in the US[1] and western Canada tends to begrudge the arbitrary french bilingualism while wondering why Mandarin or Punjabi isn't the other official language.

All that said - Canada is still a country that identifies as a country. If anything is causing a real divide in America it's the entirely manufactured hatred of modern divisive politics. As someone who grew up in Boston I went to school with a wide array of skin tones and original nationalities - there weren't Irish and Italian gangs beating up the black kids - there were suburban entitled white-kid gangs beating up the black kids... Any sort of origin based racism left in America is from more recent immigrants - it's totally bullshit and needs to stop - but I've never met anyone in America that said "Hey - you look Prussian - I don't like Prussians since they moved in on my Pomeranian ancestors. I don't take kindly to you folk."

I am uncertain where you've observed it, but I certainly never saw it in either New England nor the south west.

1. That isn't to say they're leaving tomorrow, there is just actually a serious portion of the population unlike all of the US states.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#173

Post by spodek »

Nutrition writers struggle to name the industry without using the word food. "Junk food," "fast food," "ultra-processed food," "frankenfood," and so on all help the industry obfuscate that they've refined out and sell the addictive parts, which resemble their sources as much as heroin resembles poppy or cocaine coca leaves.

We don't call heroin "fast poppy" or cocaine "junk coca." Doing so with the addictive refinements from other plants only confuses people that temporarily filling their bellies resembles nourishing themselves. Heroin would make us feel less hungry temporarily too, but we recognize it harms.

Michael Pollan's "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" implies non-food isn't food, but he doesn't come up with the needed name for what's not food that he recommends avoiding eating.

The word "doof" -- food backward -- is catching on among some nutritionists and food writers. The change in your world view that comes from differentiating food from doof is tremendous. You see 90% of the supermarket as a wasteland of addiction, plastic, and pollution. When people say poor people choose fast food over vegetables because they can buy more with their limited funds, you hear that they're buying doof instead of food. Companies selling doof displace farmers markets and people selling food.

Doof is generally packaged, engineered to promote a short-term rush and long-term craving, and its pleasure comes from salt, sugar, fat, and convenience.

I propose using the term doof for doof and avoiding referring to doof with any phrase including the word food.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#174

Post by [deleted] »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #162
devmunchies wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*refined sugar, not all sugar. sugar in a whole fruit aren't bad, the fibers in the fruit help your body break down and absorb the sugar over a longer period of time. just don't eat refined food.

Any kind of concentrated sugar product is going to be unhealthy regardless of the process that got it there. Fresh squeezed orange juice and honey aren't refined, but they're still much too sweet to be consuming large quantities of.

[deleted]

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#175

Post by jachell »

s5300 wrote: post #139
jachell wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet if you ask any random person in the US if McDonald's is bad for you, they will say yes. I don't think the obesity epidemic is from lack of information.

This is incorrect. Honestly - I can't blame anybody who could be found lurking, let alone posting on hackers news to think there's no way that this isn't common sense. However, it's not. It's really, unfortunately, very far from it in the U.S. I now cannot easily find it (at least in a brief search on Google) because of recent bullshit regarding the keywords, but a few years back, there was a medical case that briefl…

I don't appreciate the condescending tone.

"2013 nationally representative phone survey of about 2000 subjects showed that one-fifth of Americans thought FF was good for health, whereas two-thirds considered FF not good. Even over two-thirds of weekly FF consumers (47% of the total population) thought FF not good."

Note: FF = fast food

https://academic.oup.com/advances/article/9/5/590/5062131

There's also this scene from Fat Head: https://youtu.be/evcNPfZlrZs?t=1258

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#176

Post by jachell »

munk-a wrote: post #151
jachell wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet if you ask any random person in the US if McDonald's is bad for you, they will say yes. I don't think the obesity epidemic is from lack of information.

I bet if you ask any random heroine addict if heroine is bad for them they will say yes - they'll just have more compelling reasons to keep using. Addiction is a disease and junk food is super addicting.

You're moving goalposts.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#177

Post by Dylan16807 »

s5300 wrote: post #139
jachell wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet if you ask any random person in the US if McDonald's is bad for you, they will say yes. I don't think the obesity epidemic is from lack of information.

This is incorrect. Honestly - I can't blame anybody who could be found lurking, let alone posting on hackers news to think there's no way that this isn't common sense. However, it's not. It's really, unfortunately, very far from it in the U.S. I now cannot easily find it (at least in a brief search on Google) because of recent bullshit regarding the keywords, but a few years back, there was a medical case that briefl…

A variety of issues? So not something simple like alcohol killing her liver? Then I'm skeptical. There's nothing special about plain water.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#178

Post by s5300 »

asveikau wrote: post #168
s5300 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not see why this comment is complete anecdata?

Do you not see that anecdata is also sometimes correlated with real data? That we may be able to look around us and at life experience and observe real trends? Here's what I get from some quick googling. Decline in underage drinking, 1991-2013: https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/surveillance101/Unde... Youth use of cigarettes declining (though I believe I have read that vaping counter-acts this trend when lookin…

Both of your links seem to have to do with the United States

and I was more specifically commenting towards they who are apparently the arbitrator of "cool and uncool"

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#179

Post by emteycz »

liability wrote: post #161
bantunes wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caving to marketing designed to make children nag their parents.

When I was a kid my parents only let me watch PBS. No saturday morning cartoons -> no sugary cereal commercials -> no desire/nagging for sugary cereal. Install adblockers on any computer your kids use. Cancel your cable television subscription. Deny these corporations the opportunity to pump their propaganda into your kids.

I still remember the hate I felt when I watched my sister turn from a really calm child to a screaming brat because of Hannah Montana. I don't watch the TV, now around 12 years.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#180

Post by liability »

jackfoxy wrote: post #165

17 years ago there was a candy or confection sold in Mexico containing lead. I know this because I briefly contracted to a California state agency charged with reducing lead poisoning among children. Apparently lead, like many metals, imparts a kind of sweet taste, which is why there was, and probably still is, a problem with children eating old flaking paint containing lead. I have not followed this situation since.…

The ancient Romans used lead acetate as an artificial sweetener. It's shocking to consider this practice in the modern era though.
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