Hacker News Reader

Comment by cladopa | Hacker News Reader

The main problem the US has is food. As a Spaniard myself, every time I go to the US it is really hard for me to eat well. Good quality food is extremely expensive and inconvenient (full of friction) compared to Japan or Europe.

The solution are not better Hospitals to deal with your diabetes or cancer after all your food has sugars it should not have like corn syrup because sugar is cheap. You have so much additives in your food for preservation. Meat is full of Hormones.

Antibiotics on your vegetables that destroy your microbiota. Genetically Modified to fill the fields with pesticides.

Now Americans are obese as they process the growth hormones from their meat and their microbiota dies from the antibiotics they eat in their vegetables and their meat.

Waiting until your children has autism or asthma or cancer is not the solution.

View on HN

I really don't think this is the issue.

I've been overweight in my life and I hate it. You know how I lost weight and kept if off? I ate healthier, I walk a lot (to the grocery store, for example). US grocery stores have all the same healthy foods as every other country. You can eat healthy at restaurants too, if you must.

It's just people don't. There's nothing inehrently bad about food in the US. We at eat too much and don't exericse (walk). Now, if you'll look at all the other countries joining us in this because it isn't a US thing anymore.

You've added all these extra explanations (corn syrup, antibiotics, growth hormones) but it really isn't that complicated. BTW, I'm sure if you ate konbini foods every day in Japan and didn't exercise enough you'd get fat, too. There's nothing different about that food than a lot of junk/fast food in the US, it's just the Japanese seem to walk a lot more and I don't know how many people only eat out of 7/11.

> There's nothing inehrently bad about food in the US

Except that sugar (or more often, corn syrup) is added to everything.

Just as a small example: most regular people don't have the time to bake their own bread or make their own spaghetti sauce from scratch, so they get both from the store. However, in the US, unlike most European countries (and probably the rest of the world), both have tons of added sugar and/or corn syrup. This is true for most foods in the US, and while it's certainly possible to eat healthy, it's a lot harder to do so here.

> and don't exericse (walk)

A big part of this, too, is that not only are most areas in the US not designed to be walking-accessible, but I daresay most are designed to be openly hostile to pedestrians. Added bonus: in the case where you do happen to live in a walking-friendly area, you still can't send your kids out to walk around, lest you invite visits from CPS.

That isn't to say people in the US can't be doing more than they are to get healthy, but arguing it's no more difficult to stay in shape in the US versus other parts of the world is at best self-delusion.

Bro I don't think food causes autism but ok - I hear you about our food quality. Again it just goes to money for the corporations

Everything you address makes sense. I’m not a Texan by birth but most of my life here, have traveled overseas, learned French language, culture, and cuisine. The issue is, unfortunately, profit drives everything here. Now it’s driving the most successful post-war boom economy into debt, because, well, Boomers.

The saying is the US doesn’t have “health care” we have “sick care.” Preventing diseases? Not profitable. Giving people diseases then charging them for treatment? Profitable.

Fortunately the obesity epidemic has a cliff like tail end, as those people tend to eat themselves into an early grave and lack the resources to pay to prolong their participation in Planet Earth.

Unfortunately I don’t think your last point is true. The chronically sick, diabetic, unhealthy obese people (to say nothing of our plethora of druggies) limp along for dozens of years, racking up healthcare costs all along the way.

> Waiting until your children has autism or asthma or cancer is not the solution.

One of these is not like the other.

> The main problem the US has is food. As a Spaniard myself, every time I go to the US it is really hard for me to eat well. Good quality food is extremely expensive and inconvenient

What inherently prevents you from cooking a tortilla or baking bread in the US vs Spain? Do frying pans and ovens work differently? Has the US outlawed paella?

American food has issues, but obesity in America comes down to the simple fact that people eat too much and do too little.

Calories in > calories out.

The great news is that when you eat less, it brings down the relative costs of better food. Instead of pounds of low quality ground beef, 3 packs of Twinkies, and a case of beer; buy some higher quality organic chicken, or even better, some organic vegetables.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com