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How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

nytimes.com

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Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#211

Post by vel0city »

OJFord wrote: post #199
vel0city wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of "basics" did you find missing in actual grocery stores, and what were the actual stores in question?

Not GP, but I can offer: real cheese (not squares of individually wrapped plastic, nor grated and mixed with whatever to prevent caking), Walmart.

What? Just about every Walmart with a grocery I've been to sells blocks of cheese. These are all available at multiple Walmarts around me.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Block-Sharp-Cheddar-C...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Low-Moisture-Part-Ski...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Frigo-Parmesan-Cheese-Wedge-5-oz-...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Tillamook-Medium-Cheddar-Cheese-B...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Swiss-Cheese-Block-8-...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Dutchmark-Smoked-Gouda-Cheese-7-o...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Castello-Gourmet-Creamy-Danish-Ha...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Kerrygold-Grass-Fed-Dubliner-Iris...

and on and on and on and on and on...

It might not be right next to the pre-shredded cheese (usually those house brand blocks of cheddar and what not are), sometimes they're in a fancier part of the deli area. But I can't think of a time I've gone to a Walmart looking for a block of cheese and not found any cheese.

Its not going to be the fanciest varieties, but once again the question was for "basics" that don't exist. Having cheddar, swiss, parmesean, gouda, etc. is having the basics.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#212

Post by robinsoncrusue »

My ancestors are from Asia. Over there, a saying goes something like this if I can translate it without the color of the language: "Give a man a solid breakfast and he will not make noise around the kitchen rest of the day". Even less colorful way to say it is if you want to be healthy, start with a healthy breakfast.

As much as there are all the science around low carb diet and optimizing calories, macros and what not, I think there are some wisdom to it in the long game view.

Someone that had a good nutritious breakfast (you will notice every major culture has its variant of breakfast akin to "English breakfast"), would have less difficulty resisting food with empty calories and doing frequent snacking. Contrary, if you had packaged "cereal" with questionable ingredients and nutrition density, no wonder by 11 you will feel the need to snack. And then if you happen to have a lunch in one of the typical take out restaurants optimized for cost at the expense of quality, a 3pm snacking is more likely than not.

By the end of the day, you had racked up calories intake with bunch of empty calories from those snacking episodes that could be entirely prevented with a solid dense breakfast.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#213

Post by stonemetal12 »

joshyeager wrote: post #151
supportengineer wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fucking hate beets. For bacon, what do you think of these? Applegate: https://www.raleys.com/product/10400628/applegate-naturals-h... Coleman: https://www.raleys.com/product/103101180/coleman-natural-bac...

The Coleman bacon doesn't list ingredients. But the Applegate bacon lists celery powder because that is a source of nitrates. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celery_powder

Found an image of coleman bacon ingredients list, celery powder is on it as well.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#214

Post by vel0city »

volkl48 wrote: post #130
Jensson wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, when I visited USA I was shocked to find lots of larger "grocery stores" didn't even stock the basics. In Europe that isn't a thing, everything larger than a regular room has fresh vegetables and meat and other staples, even in immigrant areas. Sure it might be possible to find that in USA as well, but its so much harder as not every store has it.

Were you actually visiting what Americans would consider a grocery store? I'm not saying this is specifically the case for you, but it is remarkably common for visitors from other parts of the world to visit, go into what we consider a "convenience store", and then be confused that there's basically nothing in terms of actual groceries in there, with probably 80%+ of the "consumable" shelving devoted to snack/"junk"…

I do wonder if people are stopping into a CVS or Walgreens and thinking those are grocery stores. In a lot of the rest of the world, a small corner market like that would be a grocer, but in the US grocers are much larger stores.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#215

Post by wenc »

hvb2 wrote: post #89
wenc wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Canadian living in the US, I’d say your sentiment depends on where you live and what you’re willing to pay. In the Seattle area there are overpriced grocery stores like PCC and Met Market that sell healthy food at a premium. There is also Whole Foods. Even normal grocery stores like Safeway and Kroger have a ton of healthy foods — you just have to read the label. The one thing you have to know if that American g…

> they carry way more SKUs Not compared to France :) you can buy a dishwasher a tv and stuff for your car all in the same supermarket... Don't ask me why, just stating a fact

Those are the larger format stores in France. In the US they are called Fred Meyer, Meijer, etc.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#216

Post by dgb23 »

supportengineer wrote: post #123
rolisz wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Romanian here: the tomato quality varies by a lot. All stores have crappy "plastic" tasting tomatoes. It's not that easy to find really good tomatoes (in summer you can find them at local markets, in winter... Fancy imports I guess).

Even in the SF Bay Area, we have this problem. The best tomatoes are from someone's backyard.

They actually taste like tomatoes.

Unfortunate that they can be a bit difficult to grow. Very weather dependent.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#217

Post by nradov »

t-writescode wrote: post #178
delichon wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're having a hard time affording groceries, failing to plan ahead and instead throwing away food is a luxury you can't afford. (A blender and an affection for green smoothies is a good solution.) But that's still cheaper than paying for the health problems downstream of ultraprocessed food. Unfortunately my source for both claims is personal experience. I'd like to have an app that estimates the cost of groceri…

Being poor is expensive. Just like $50 shoes that last 6 months and $200 shoes that last 10 years, when you’re poor, you often have to chose the less expensive, short-term option because the more expensive, far far better option is literally out of reach.

I'm always skeptical when someone posts that little nugget about shoes. Maybe it used to be true but I don't think it still applies in the era of high-quality mass manufacturing. I have worn shoes that cost $50 to well over $200 and if anything the more expensive shoes tend to fall apart faster.

Walmart has plenty of shoes and work boots for about $50 that will last more than 6 months unless you really abuse them. They don't look great but they're functional and reasonably durable.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#218

Post by stonemetal12 »

robinsoncrusue wrote: post #212

My ancestors are from Asia. Over there, a saying goes something like this if I can translate it without the color of the language: "Give a man a solid breakfast and he will not make noise around the kitchen rest of the day". Even less colorful way to say it is if you want to be healthy, start with a healthy breakfast. As much as there are all the science around low carb diet and optimizing calories, macros and what n…

The American version "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" started as a breakfast cereal marketing line, not an endorsement for eating an "English breakfast".

I will take the science over old wives tales and marketing bs any day. Even if the science is as poorly done as most nutrition science is.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#219

Post by Herring »

apparent wrote: post #86
enraged_camel wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rice cooker is great. I also use my Instant Pot a ton. Incredibly convenient and an invaluable time saver.

We use our IP to make yogurt (discussed in depth above). Easy to make and when strained, better than any store bought Greek yogurt. Also decent for sous vide. I use a big glass jar instead of plastic bags, which are a health concern.

Have you tried making kefir? It’s much easier and likely better if you’re going for probiotics.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#220

Post by BirdieNZ »

fsckboy wrote: post #163
tptacek wrote: post #93

This all has very big "uncured bacon" energy to me (if you didn't already know: there's no such thing; vendors of uncured bacon performatively drive the same chemical nitrite reaction using vegetable extracts). For example: yogurt becomes a UPF simply by dint of adding carrageenan, which is on the order of calling dashi a UPF because of the kombu. It's not that there isn't a very legitimate issue underneath all this:…

> which is on the order of calling dashi a UPF because of the kombu when you use a comparison like this, you choose an example that people will understand so they can then, by analogy, extend that understanding to the point you are trying to make... like the kombu in the dashi, you say? dash-it-all, that's a combunation I hadn't considered!

I found it a helpful analogy. Cooking almost any Japanese food will quickly introduce you to dashi and kombu, and I didn't know what carrageenan was.
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