Devolution Of Food Into Lowest Common Denominator

The following chart shows food availability for U.S. consumers in 2008 based on U.S. food balance sheets adjusted for spoilage and waste.

Grains, added fat, and added sugar account for 65% of calorie intake. Most of the grains are refined wheat flour. Added fat comes mainly from vegetable oils (corn, soy) and added sugar from corn syrup. Processed soy is a common additive that attempts to boost what would otherwise be a low level of protein in processed food derived from inexpensive refined grain.

In spite of some promoters of diets high in farmed land mammal fat in the conspiracy-flavored media complaining about fruits as if people eat too much of them and making faulty claims that they cause obesity by spiking insulin, only 3% of daily calories are from fruit Much of this is canned and processed fruit and not the high fiber, fresh and whole form that has low calorie density due to the native water content. Apples are apparently the only fruit in the U.S. subsidized with federal money in contrast to the highly subsidized farmed land mammal beef, pork, and dairy industries.

Only 5% of calories come from vegetables. Data show that about half of this is potato and much of it is in a processed form such as french fries, potato chips, and potato found in ready-to-eat dinners, as opposed to whole baked potato. Such industrial-prepared products are high in added vegetable oil, sodium, advanced glycation end products and acrylamides due to the high temperature processing.

In short, food balance data confirms that calorie intake in the U.S. has become dominated by foodstuffs derived from inexpensive, profitable cash crops grown in the U.S. (wheat, corn, soy). Such food products are typically lacking in fiber, nutrient diversity, and micronutrients and protein in native form.

 

Oscar Mayer lunchables (trashables)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-f-jacobson/children-nutrition_b_1163253.html

 

Lots of garbage out there, and sadly, most of it is consumed by people who are low income.

 

My sister-in-law calls those types of food "food-like substances".

 

What is your thoughts about eating fresh fruit......?
not canned...nothing added, but in its natural state?...as a main part of the diet daily?

 

Fruit is good, but I don't think it should be the main part of a person's diet. I think a greater emphasis should be on vegetables and protein sources (meat, fish, eggs, etc.).

 

Other sources of protein are beans, right, so brown rice and beans ares excellent, too.....no?
Let me know if not. I was always taught it was.....also for proteins...walnuts and almonds seem to be the ones that are the best for a person, as far as i have learned. i don't know for sure, though, about what I have been taught, so i ask.

 

It sort of disgusts me how society is so obsessed with meat. I don't judge other people, but it's as if they want to force it onto you, extra meat on this, that and whatever. Do you want meat in your pasta? Really, you don't? No, actually I just want my pasta. You really just want plain pizza, no pepperon, no sausage!!!! What's wrong with you?

I mean its really hard to avoid if you want food that actually is good, and tastes good. Now I'm sure some intelligent culture could come up with some great recipes and dishes that were nutritional, and tasted great if they really thought about it and put some effort into it, but they don't. People do try to make "vegi meat" or imitation meat (fake meat), or emulate it .... why the obsession with fuckin' meat?

Why emulate it? Why can't you just come up with something completely new that's maybe even better, because TBH, meat tastes disgusting. The only thing that makes it taste like anything less than death (literally) is all the seasoning, spices, and herbs (yea, umm, plants) that mask the taste of blood.

 

Yeah, beans and brown rice are good too, but I don't like to rely on them to meet my protein requirements because they do not have the same amino acid profile as beef, chicken, fish, whey, dairy and eggs, and their proteins are not as readily absorbed by the body.

 

Meat might taste disgusting to you, but not to a lot of people. I am not really sure where all the demonization of meat comes from, but I will be the first to admit that factory farmed meat is probably not the healthiest thing a person can eat. I don't think people are obsessed with meat any more than they are bread and pasta.

 

I read a book once called The Raw Food Diet, and it claimed that anything closest to its natural uncooked state was best....so do you want to kill that animal and eat it raw?....no.....I only ever ate meat disguised in , as you say, its seasonings and sauces....and cooked....Will I sit down with the wolves and eat on that freshly killed carcass....? No, but then I am not in the woods starving or I might join them. I cannot say I wouldn't if starving to death....but as a cultured person that can think of other things, it is a different mind set. i really don't know what I am trying to say....

ok, back to the book....pick a fruit or vegetable and eat it in its natural state...? hell, yes....so that is healthy.....but for canines and other creatures....they do need fresh meat, and I think humans as a species really needs less of it than it consumes....I am not an expert, even though I have read tons of books on the subject...but that book made sense to me. So many books...so many different opinions about it all, too.

 

Moonglow--

There are a niche of people who think that food is best consumed raw, I've heard that too. I think a lot of the good research currently finds that certain foods are more nutritionally rich when consumed raw, and some are better when cooked. I don't know which are which. I know people who have eaten exclusively raw food for several years, and they seemed happy and healthy. There doesn't seem to be one golden path to health, when looking at diet alone.

I don't eat meat, don't need to. Certainly just about any person would if they were starving or had no other options. But I would be surprised if that ever happened. I try to be realistic, and center situations around my actual life...not hypothetical situations. I don't need to eat meat (which, in my mind, is causing undue suffering to animals which have an interest in not suffering) in my daily life, so I don't. I chose to minimize suffering when it's possible.

 

I feel the same way, YOUFREEME....I was being liberal before. It is heartbreaking to me to see such little respect given to other creatures on this planet....You are dirt poor and can only eat a good meal unless you kill something....that is one thing.....but show some respect to your kill and don't give me big ass grin wearing a camouflage outfit...because let's be honest....most hunters just want to kill something because they want to kill and they just disguise it as something different..

 

and here is something else to consider...an animal knows it is being killed and you are eating that fear and suffering.....

 

How corn made its way into just about everything we eat
by Roberto A. Ferdman
July 14, 2015

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/07/14/how-corn-made-its-way-into-just-about-everything-we-eat/