Weight and American Food

[catscradle]

So now I'm thinking about weight and food and things like that.

Is American food designed to make us fat and keep us that way? I'm looking at all the foods in the grocery store and seeing that most of the kits and easy food prep stuff is some of the most fattening things you could possibly eat. So people with little time on their hands due to kids and job and what have you, have little choice but to grab these things and make food that's essenially really bad for them.

I stopped buying the kit stuff a while ago. I now just buy the ingredients to make my own meals from scratch - at least I can control how much of what goes into things. But I have to admit, on days I come home from work over heated and dog tired, I really don't feel like making a dinner.

Do other Americans feel this way?

Do those of you that live in other countries feel that you have healthy eating standards, or do you wonder about your foods too?

Comments

[moiradarling.livejournal.com]

I don't know if American food is designed to keep us fat so much as preservatives and other things that enable food to be pre-made and store-able contain a lot of complex fat molecules. It could also be the fact that the velocity with which food can be cooked is prized over nutritional value. That's sort of a cultural thing--it's not that the nuclear family is dead, but that it's not abnormal to eat on the go.

In Spain, for example, especially in Cataluna and Pasco Vais, mealtimes are a family affair. That means the preparation, like daily shopping trips for food and long hours spent cooking, is a really big deal. It *is* easier to eat healthy when you cook from scratch. I don't think that healthy eating standards are different from those in the U.S.--it's more how much the cultural emphasis on speed and efficiency allows one to follow those standards.