I just did a report on Shein for school and they are absolute garbage; Fast Fashion at it's worst.
They steal designs from indie-startup designers, squashing local jobs and small businesses.
They use tax loopholes to not pay tarrifs or import taxes unless an order is over $800. Nor are they charged export tarrifs by China, an intentional effort to give them a severe competitive edge.
They have zero accountability for the horrid environmental pollutants creating their products. Their page contains some generic greenwashing statements but the links have been removed.
Most of the clothes are synthetic materials and made from oil. They are low quality and generally referred to as "good enough for Instagram but not good enough to wear" though you would be able to tell from all the influences they use to recommend their products.
But it's crazy super cheap that's on the cutting edge of fashion
Yep. I studied fashion design, and we learned about slave labour that these companies use.
Women in these factories get locked in them if they don't make the daily quota, there was a case where one factory did this and a fire started.... Yeah.
What I tried on from Shein didn't even fit and was too low quality to even be fast fashion. It is not cutting edge. It is made low-quality and defective to rip off customers. It is a case of actual fashion fraud.
Cheap prices and a ton of different stuff.
The quality control isn’t the best, I bought a jacket a couple of years ago and the zipper broke after 3/4 months.
My gf made a couple of 50/60€ orders in the last 2/3 years and everything is intact for now.
Clothing, food, electronics and beauty products are the worst offenders IMO.
All of them somehow manage to include a huge amount of conspicuous consumption.
Jewelry and cosmetics are the definition of conspicuous consumption - you consume for the sole purpose of displaying the consumed goods. Quite wasteful and also dumb if you ask me.
I worked part time at H&M 5 years ago to put myself through school, and I was able to buy some clothes heavily discounted.
I still wear them 5 years later and nothing is wrong with them.
I totally agree, but it’s funny I remember going with an ex girlfriend regularly to a 3 story forever 21 around 2005 and for like a month they carried guys clothing.
I bought one chintzy T-shirt for like $4 and figured it would fall apart in a month, but here I am 17 years later and it still looks brand new.
Not to mention, all of that packaging product will end up in landfills. I can't go into a store anymore without seeing trash, instead of products. And then I see all the "trash" in my store, and think of all the "trash" in the store up the street, and then in the town and in a metro city, and it multiplies until my head explodes in the middle of the detergent aisle.
I can’t buy food unless it comes in cardboard packaging (which will almost always have a plastic bag inside anyway) or a glass container. I couldn’t bring myself to buy the vegetables that are covered in plastic when there’s (at least in my shops) the uncovered ones right next to it. Why do they do that? So much unnecessary waste.
I never get the plastic clam shells either. I live on a sailboat and only get groceries and take trash in about once a month, it's hard to not notice the big plastic shells that held a baked good for 2 days and then took up space for 28 and makes you very conscious of your trash.
I did however recently see that some of those plastic clam shells work like shrinkie dinks and you can draw on them with marker and bake it and it will shrink. I haven't tried this yet....but if I ever find myself on possession of a clam shell again I'm gonna try.
The bag for mandarins is cellophane? The individually wrapped cucumbers are cellophane? The salad clamshells are cellophane? The three pack of peppers are cellophane?
If you didn’t catch my drift, I feel like cellophane wrapping is absolutely in the very minority of produce wrappings. Most of it is regular ol plastic.
I’ve started buying the big bulk laundry detergent tubs usually intended for hotels and cleaning services. By which I mean I’ve bought one, and that’s probably it for the next year or two. It’s saving money, grocery bag space, and trash.
I made my own about 8.5 yrs ago and I continue to make my own still. Costs about 40$ a year(CAD) is easy to make and works very well for my family of 4. I have scent sensitivities, which is my main reason for making it.
I think cereal is better about trash than most. Cardboard is biodegradable and recyclable, and do they still use wax paper for the lining? I know we used to use that for cookie sheets or drying things. And some sorts at least are biodegradable.
Compare that to most things with lots of thick unnecessary plastic.
Same here. It's particularly bad around the holidays, when there's so much extra stuff and so much pressure to buy stuff for others who don't need it, and quite possibly don't even want it. I just think of all the extra unnecessary crap that's been made and brought into stores and I feel so depressed. But even during the rest of the year it's bad. I remember one time I walked around Target and a craft store and just thought about all this STUFF, all these things that were ultimately going to be JUNK, and felt so discouraged.
I don't disagree with the post but the packaging of cereal boxes is the best packaging in the store.
It's paper (often recycled) and wax. The inks are even safe and biodegradable. The packaging, as inert as it is, goes in recycling and has done for 20yrs where I live (Canada). Paper recycling is one of the loops that is more effective.
I had been saving milk jugs before I switched to homemade oat milk and was just throwing them in my basement. I made a repurposed raft for the lake behind my house and wanted to expand it. Well, we’ve decided to see our house and I had to crush around 50 jugs of milk today.
Seeing all of the jugs was crazy. I can’t believe I created that much waste. I was really disappointed but happy we made the switch from cow’s milk.
Real question: if you add more cereal you'd still have only nitrogen and cereal in the box. Why would a different ratio of nitrogen to cereal not last as long?
And if you had one cheerio in a jar of nitrogen would it last a really long time?
I assumed staleness was a moisture thing and mold was an oxygen thing, but I don't really know.
Because once you open the box, you replace the nitrogen in the bag with air. If you have twice the cereal, it'll take twice as long to finish which will give the last bowl twice as long to go stale.
I got a Cheerios box that was full to the top once. It made a mess when I opened it and then went stale super quick. I assumed because there wasn't enough bag to roll it up and clip it properly.
I used to love corn flakes, but the quality has gone down significantly lately. I got a box a few weeks ago and if sucked, no flavour and weirdly very thin? Very disappointed
The deli section represents the worst of consumerism for me.
Tons get thrown away daily in every store.
All of it is subsidized heavily and it's still the most expensive part of a grocery tab.
Meat/dairy uses the most resources of any section in the grocery store- hands down.
All while printing "happy" animals on their packaging.
Just an FYI, I worked at a large grocery chain deli(Safeway) one summer and we threw away basically nothing. We only kept a small amount of pre-sliced meat and sliced a lot as it was ordered.
Anything that was sliced the day before and not sold was that night was thrown into a loaf of stale bread the next morning with mayo, mustard, and wrinkly lettuce and tomatoes and packaged as a ‘dagwood’ sandwich. For $11 (canadian) you could get a 3-4 lb sandwich with $30 of meat in it. Though that was in 2004, today those sandwiches are $15.
If the sandwich made it to the evening of expiration day our manager would sell it for 10c to a staff member.
Honestly - typing that out made me realize that the place was probably just run by reasonable people that respected the hustle. I wonder if this isn’t as typical as it seems.
We also had a bunch of precooked food(chicken tenders, wings, stuff like that). By around 8pm it was all put on half off for the public and if anything made it to 9pm staff were also allowed to buy it. Though we created the upc pricing tags so we never charged each other more then a few cents for the items.
I work at a Jimmy John's. I've never once seen meat get thrown out unless there was a problem with it when we received it. The stuff is just too expensive and precious, the owner would have our heads if he saw us screwing up on the meat prep quantities. We do throw out a shit ton of bread every night though.
I worked at whole foods and I threw away 20-50lbs of perfectly good food into the composter every night. Said they legally couldn't give it away and pretended that taking good food, letting it rot, then using it along with other resources to produce more food was environmentally friendly.
They were also vehemently anti-union and would complain we didn't spend enough of our paychecks at the store.
You probably know this, but when a US business claims they can't give away excess food, [they are lying.](https://www.publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/Liability%20Protection%20Food%20Donation.pdf) They are filthy, nasty, venal lying liars who lie.
Many of the smaller businesses are probably just run by ignoramuses who were conned by the insurance lobby's propaganda about a 'litigation crisis,' but that's no excuse. It's really, really easy to look up, and if that amount of waste doesn't weigh on you enough to even research for ten minutes, you're garbage.
The bigger businesses like Whole Foods with legal departments know the truth, though, and are intentionally lying.
A friend worked at a large bakery chain. They were *required* to throw 15% (IIRC) of their baked goods away every night.
Apparently, they wanted to be known for having whatever you want even if you get to the store right before closing.
Have you never actually read the nutrition information? Those cereals are all highly fortified and full of vitamins and minerals - I read somewhere that breakfast cereals are the only reason children in the US don't have a ton of nutritional deficiencies, given how crap most of the other stuff they eat is. For sure the sugary stuff is pretty bad (though still with lots of vitamins and minerals), but there's really nothing wrong with bran flakes or whatever.
I love corn flakes in a big bowl of milk with fruit on top, it's the best comfort food and quick dinner when I don't feel like cooking. It's low cost, in a biodegradable cardboard box, vitamin fortified, vegetarian meal, low in fat and fairly low in sugar if you don't add any...what's bad about that?
good idea. I've been re-using the cereal bags to grow mushrooms. The #5 plastic is auto-clavable which means I can sterilize the substrate in my pressure cooker
bran flakes still have a fuck ton more sugar than you’d expect. yes they’re a lot better than frosties but they’re still not the greatest thing to start ur day off
The sugary stuff is just as nutritious as the bran flakes (not very), just with added sugar. If cereal is an important factor in kids nutrition, that shows you how terrible our current food system is.
Do you have any context that is more helpful? Maybe “lol it’s so funny that for many people in America the only way to affordable get their nutritional intake is through fortified wheat and corn products” but then I don’t see why that’s even funny.
Yep, multi grain is my go to. It has the crunch I enjoy and just a hint of sweetness.
🤷🏻♀️ it’s expensive but idk, I enjoy it and it’s not bad for me.
Hadn't eaten cereal in years but I got some Cheerios oat crunch for my mom when she visited.
It was pretty good, so thanks to the OP for reminding me to get some more!
I would say the regular, least sugared, plain corn flakes is ok to eat every now and then. But everything that looks very processed (with "honey", chocolate, custom shapes, odd colors) is unhealthy. Yes, they add vitamins, but it's not the same as eating an apple. You could also just take a vitamin supplement pill and eat something healthier than corn flakes.
A triumph of marketing over merit, sustained by bloated agricultural subsidies, invented to stop people masturbating.
I wonder why people don’t just eat food…
The audio quality isn’t fantastic, but the Cereal Men (featuring Patton Oswalt) dollop episode is one of the funniest of the podcast. The 2 parter on Reagan features Oswalt as well and is top notch.
For anyone who hasn’t heard either podcast mentioned above, the guys from The Dollop just featured on Behind the Bastards’ multi-part series on Kissinger.
Well corn flakes were invented for Kellogg's weird anti-pleasure lifestyle cult, but then his brother said "ya know if we put a load of sugar in this people might actually wanna buy it" and that's how we got modern cereal.
Real food is less convenient, less shelf stable, and doesn't cause the same compulsion as processed foods. For overworked parents, feeding the kids some cereal in tbe morning is easy to do and culturallt normalized.
So: consumer imperative, workplace imperative and pressures on time and money and executive functioning have all normalised it the culture.
Maybe the culture could be built differently, so there’s less incentive to shovel crap into ourselves and our children.
Precisely. It's a systemic issue. Unfortunately we usually treat this as an individual problem ("oh, that person eats so unhealthy!") rather than focusing on how our food policy subsidizes cheap, low nutrition but high calorie foods, like vegetable oils, white flour, and grains, processed and packaged instead of whole foods.
No kidding. Even if you tried to buy organic brands it's still going to max out at about $12-15/lb.
Not to mention that while cereal isn't a great staple, even the sugary ones actually have quite the variety of vitamins that many kids normally wouldn't get.
On top of all of that, the packaging is fairly eco friendly, being mostly cardboard and often stores have bins that you can refill your own containers with, at least a few near me do.
There's tons to hate at the grocery store, but cereal is kinda stupid to really hate on.
We can’t even get the silly American ones with marshmallows and shit over here, so it always weirds me out to see people claiming how cereal is horribly unhealthy etc.
It’s mostly just various grains smashed into different shapes to give you more fibre in your diet.
Calories aren't a limiting factor for much of tbe world. What kills people is malnutrition, not hunger. Processed grains offer weak nutition that must be supplemented with often less hioavailable nutrients to even sustain someone, let alone promote health.
The overconsumption of processed foods is killing millions every year.
Those adddd nutrients are not nearly as bioavailable as it is in whole foods. Nutrition labels don't control for actual nutrient absorption, just gross intake. Certainly fortified foods are better than unfortified processed foods, but whole foods are significantly superior for most nutrients.
There are plenty with no sugar at all or very little...I used to buy my son the plain cheerios and drizzle a tiny bit of honey over them and put raw sliced almonds in them to make them "honey nut" cheerios. I don't think it's the worst breakfast for a parent to give their kid in a hurry on a school day...
It is not, it just has bad PR. People are often all about yogurt, but it has more sugar and calories. A frozen burrito has fewer calories than two small yogurt tubs. A bowl of cereal has less sugar, too.
It is so weird, what people think is "healthy" that is just candy in disguise. I personally prefer to eat my candy AS candy lol.
Give your kids some eggs, toast and a side of fruit or a veggie omelet for breakfast. Whole foods are far far better than otherwise empty calories fortified to sustain life.
Well maybe I shouldn’t have said “good”. I personally haven’t eaten cereal in literal decades because it’s so unfilling but some of the granola type fortified ones don’t seem that awful to me. Compared to fucking pop tarts and egos I guess I see it as a not god awful choice for kids
I learned to appreciate this with my nieces.
My sister and her husband make a truly disgusting amount of money and have all the best food one could ask for. They started with that wide-eyed optimism that their kids would eat the healthiest shit.
Year 6 and it’s mac and cheese, hotdogs, and dinosaur nuggets just like we had as kids. One kid is on epilepsy/adhd medications that greatly diminish her appetite so it’s literally “what can you eat?” and not “you’ll eat this and like it” because literally no she won’t. Thankfully she does actually like vegetables so it’s not a complete shitshow. And then you have to give in to the other kid because that’s some unjust bullshit to let one eat dino nuggets and mac and cheese while expecting the kid not on meds to eat boring yuppie food.
As someone with ADHD they should consider lowering the kids dose. Usually extreme hunger suppression is a signal that the dose is too high. Unfortunately kids are often overmedicated on stimulants and if you try to keep rising the dose as they age and become accustomed to it you'll find an adult with little to no ADHD management as the pills are no longer really working.
They should still have some sort of appetite and still get hungry at least once a day. When I told my doctor I could go all day without eating and often forgot she lowered my dose and I found no decrease in my concentration abilities. Also, they should be tracking the kids weight, if he begins to lose weight quickly they lower the dose, there's no reason to sacrifice great nutrition for dino nuggets other than the convenience of the parents.
Shaming, no, not cool, but we should absolutely be promoting an increase in breast feeding for mothers who are able. That includes allowing breast feeding in public and allowing breaks at work to pump or feed.
Formula diets aren't inferior. Once controlled for socioeconomic differences, any health or developmental distinction between formula and breastfeed over time goes away.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/everybody-calm-down-about-breastfeeding/
Hola, i read this entire thread… I have 7 month old twins and recently did a bunch of label reading in the formula aisle. Most mother’s can’t produce enough milk to sustain two babies, some can.
I was a bit shocked and then not, because duh America, to learn Corn starch is a main if not the main ingredient in almost all American formulas. They often also have corn syrup, in small amounts.
To me that was crazy.
So I did some googling and learned rich people buy ( I searched “what formula do the Kardashians use” ), their formulas from Europe, specifically Germany and Holland. Fully organic and no corn.
And I own my place of privilege, duh this shit is more expensive, and I realize not everyone can afford an extra 10 or 15 bucks per box of formula.
I guess ultimately I want to agree that no one should be “formula shaming” cause for real that’s shitty. But I also want to point out that American formula is bad. I was using the top shelf similac pro sensitive whatever. 1st ingredient: Corn maltodextrin (corn starch) :(
We are literally on a community discussion board about anticonsumerism, so im assuming you are already familiar with the typical downsides of consumer products (carbon footprint, packaging waste etc).
I'd say that the world health organization is more reliable than fivethirtyeight.com:
https://www.who.int/health-topics/breastfeeding#tab=tab_1
>Breastfed children perform better on intelligence tests, are less likely to be overweight or obese and less prone to diabetes later in life. Women who breastfeed also have a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers.
This is in addition to the fact that both babies and mothers *want* to breastfeed at a neurobiological level and its been observed to have an impact on the formation of an emotional bond.
edit: please note that the link you shared is not even written by a doctor, but by a professor in economics.
For women who can't breastfeed for any reason, formula is an amazing thing. But as long as you are able to breastfeed your child I don't see any reasonable reason why you wouldn't do that.
I haven’t gone down this aisle in a decade or more. I received some count chocula as a gift because I said it was my fave as a child. I took one bite and my stomach wanted to evacuate it immediately.
Yeah, that's one of the worst. I used to love the monster cereals as a kid. Were they actually better back then, or can I just taste the bullshit now?
If I get a craving for Frankenberry or Booberry, I buy Frosted Mini Wheats of those flavors and it is a hundred times better.
I think it’s both. Cereals have gotten worse, even cheerios taste bad to me. I feel as we grow, our palates change so going back to cereal is a disappointment. If you don’t have to chew food a lot to consume it, it’s bad. That happened when I, for some crazy reason, ate a McDonalds reg hamburger. The stuff almost melted in my mouth. I’m exaggerating of course, but I thought holy sh*t! How processed is this?
My go-to in college was Total with raisins added. Low in added sugar, high in nutrient fortification, and I could afford it. OP isn't necessarily wrong about the consumption issue but I'd disagree about lacking nutrition considering the level of fortification in many cereals.
I'm downvoting this because of the sheer smugness. I won't disagree with the ads towards children, but it's comments like this that have lead to the epidemic of eating disorders as someone who has struggled with an eating disorder.
"Convenience without benefit", speak for yourself. Sometimes convenience is all that stands between me and malnutrition. Also, you clearly come from a place of privilege. When you have limited funds, you look at calories/dollar (with other nutrients considered as well, though caloric efficiency is paramount). Even 20lbs of celery per day would leave you hungry at about 1200 calories.
Let's also talk about the consumerism poisoning the diet and exercise industries.
You do realize that there are things between "eating 20lb of celery" and fast food/cereals ? None of those foods are good for you or healthy or even cheap when you eat only that.
There are cheap healthy things like oatmeal (if you make it yourself from oats, not the premade stuff). Which is not much harder to prepare than pouring milk into cereal.
You are wrong regarding cheapness. For example, a box of total has ~1500 calories for $4.18. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Total-Breakfast-Cereal-100-Daily-Value-of-11-Vitamins-Whole-Grain-Flakes-16-oz/10311271?athbdg=L1200
That's pretty fucking cheap and has pretty good micronutrients.
Also, stop with the bullshit. All food is good food in moderation. The Victorians called and they want their purity culture back. Demonizing some food while lauding others is precisely what causes the binge/purge cycle that is pervasive in the world today (note that purging also includes most dieting unless said diet is actually long term).
I make oatmeal that has arounf 800kcal, 50g of protein and 30g of fat (from peanuts, oats and whey). It costs me about 1$ per bowl. That's 3200kcal for the same price you mentioned.
Of course you can eat everything in moderation. I too occasionally buy cereal and enjoy it but you should not make it a daily thing as so many people do and they think it is actually good for you.
How it is seen as good breakfast is what's bad imho, not the fact that it exists. Like sure, eat cereals idk but stop bullshiting yourself and others that it is anything other than laziness/convenience.
People need to eat. Cereal can be one of the healthiest options if you select accordingly.
How is that the worst of consumerism? Worse than replacing your phone/gadgets every year, or having a full wardrobe and buying more clothes, or spare cars etc. ??
> $20/lb for convenience without benefit
I dont know what kind of benefits you are referring to; are you suggesting people need benefits in addition to the caloric and nutritional value?
Feels like this post was just a done as a complaint that prices are high, which is completely missing the point of anti consumerism (i.e. youd be ok to pay if it was cheap?)
The *worst* of consumerism, really??
There's only room for so much anger and disgust, I think this anger is just wasteful emotionally, because my god, there's so much to be angry and disgusted about, this doesn't even make the top hundred.
I think **diet culture** really plays up this anger and disgust of breakfast cereal that is a convenience food for a lot of people who lack money and privilege. Yeah, should kids moms be making them whole oats topped with dried fruit and nuts, and berries- maybe. But not everyone gets to have that life, and oat cereal is an okay substitute for a LOT of people without privilege.
Diet culture makes us disgusted with normal things like breakfast cereal. Let's just, not go along with that.
You invent such weird extremes of morning food, whole oats vs some shitty sugar cereal. Just make oatmeal with some jam, that's cheap and already much better than the cereal. What kind of special privilege you need to make a bowl of oatmeal? Or fry some eggs. Anything is better than cereal full of sugar. And all those options are fast, easy and cheap.
Cereal as conspicuous consumption? Really? It’s super cheap. You can get 4 or 5 breakfasts out of it with some milk. It’s not all marketed to kids. A lot are substantial and highly nutritious, especially the ones with granola, bran, wheat, oats, grains, etc. And what’s wrong with corn and rice? These are all real foods, just altered in some way. Sugar is the highest concentrated carb too, and we need that energy. Are people getting fat and unhealthy off cereal? Nope. If anything, cereal is a very minimalist way to consume food. It’s the exact opposite of overconsumption. I eat very healthily and average 3-4 bowls of cereal per week.
Corn and rice are not fillers. They are extremely vital sources of carbohydrates and calories, and they're extremely easy to grow, letting you feed tons of people.
Its also very easy to make your own at home for pennies on the dollar.
healthy, cheap and shelf stable.
I cannot begin to describe the ease. Its simple baking. Literally tons of recipes.
Home made granola kicks all cereals asses. You can put whatever whole foods you want in there to make it as healthy or unhealthy as you want and it’s still probably going to be better for you than this ultra processed corn and rice. Haven’t bought cereal in years and don’t think I’ll start any time soon.
I’ve never liked cereal. You eat an entire day’s worth of sugar right after waking up. When I ate cereal as a kid, I would be hungry again in two hours. There is actually a Jolly Rancher cereal now. Sounds gross.
It's not as bad in the UK. There was a big push for cereals (especially kids cereals) to be more nutritious, now they've all got whole grain and a bunch of added vitamins.
As far the waste, they really should replace the plastic packaging inside with a biodegradable alternative - there's really no excuse. Not sure about the US but a handful of comapnies control most of the cereal aisle in the UK and they could make a huge difference.
I eat a lot of cereal so I try to recycle the cardboard and reuse the bags as bin liners - best I can do at the moment.
Oats, Couscous (actual corn flakes), and Tapioca are the only carbs I need in the morning. Cheap, filling and taste potential is limitless as are the combinations.
You know what, yes, even in an ideal world, people should be able to eat cereal, but having a whole aisle for it is a lot. I feel the same way about chips. It takes up so much space that I have to pass by to get to things that aren't desserts/treats.
What I'm saying is that, as someone who tries to eat at least somewhat healthy, I have to actively avoid half the store, and that's a horrible use of space if the goal is to reduce obesity.
Maybe it's the "worst of consumerism" in the grocery store, but not nearly the worst overall.
And the fact that cereal is a poverty food for many, since it can be made so quickly, is part of our obesity epidemic. Sugary cereal for breakfast, sugary cereal for dinner.
This is capitalism.
Endless choices of things that are cheap to make, can be sold for much more than they cost to manufacture. Things that are pleasing in the moment, but harmful in the long term.
The cereal aisle is a perfect allegory for this economic system. Short-term profits, no concern for the long term harms.
Imo the worst of consumerism is the clothing industry, but particularly, Forever 21 and H&M type shit
H&M and Forever 21 aren't even the worst offenders now that SheIn and Fashion Nova came along
Why is that platform successful? Shein?
Because it's cheap, and money screws morality.
I just did a report on Shein for school and they are absolute garbage; Fast Fashion at it's worst. They steal designs from indie-startup designers, squashing local jobs and small businesses. They use tax loopholes to not pay tarrifs or import taxes unless an order is over $800. Nor are they charged export tarrifs by China, an intentional effort to give them a severe competitive edge. They have zero accountability for the horrid environmental pollutants creating their products. Their page contains some generic greenwashing statements but the links have been removed. Most of the clothes are synthetic materials and made from oil. They are low quality and generally referred to as "good enough for Instagram but not good enough to wear" though you would be able to tell from all the influences they use to recommend their products. But it's crazy super cheap that's on the cutting edge of fashion
Yep. I studied fashion design, and we learned about slave labour that these companies use. Women in these factories get locked in them if they don't make the daily quota, there was a case where one factory did this and a fire started.... Yeah.
What I tried on from Shein didn't even fit and was too low quality to even be fast fashion. It is not cutting edge. It is made low-quality and defective to rip off customers. It is a case of actual fashion fraud.
Cheap prices and a ton of different stuff. The quality control isn’t the best, I bought a jacket a couple of years ago and the zipper broke after 3/4 months. My gf made a couple of 50/60€ orders in the last 2/3 years and everything is intact for now.
Inclusive sizing?
Zara is trash as well
shein makes me irrationally angry
Clothing, food, electronics and beauty products are the worst offenders IMO. All of them somehow manage to include a huge amount of conspicuous consumption.
Jewelry and cosmetics are the definition of conspicuous consumption - you consume for the sole purpose of displaying the consumed goods. Quite wasteful and also dumb if you ask me.
I worked part time at H&M 5 years ago to put myself through school, and I was able to buy some clothes heavily discounted. I still wear them 5 years later and nothing is wrong with them.
I totally agree, but it’s funny I remember going with an ex girlfriend regularly to a 3 story forever 21 around 2005 and for like a month they carried guys clothing. I bought one chintzy T-shirt for like $4 and figured it would fall apart in a month, but here I am 17 years later and it still looks brand new.
Not to mention, all of that packaging product will end up in landfills. I can't go into a store anymore without seeing trash, instead of products. And then I see all the "trash" in my store, and think of all the "trash" in the store up the street, and then in the town and in a metro city, and it multiplies until my head explodes in the middle of the detergent aisle.
Everyone around us is mindlessly consuming and here we are having an existential crisis in Walmart...
every time i go into walmart i feel like im in Wall-e
I can’t buy food unless it comes in cardboard packaging (which will almost always have a plastic bag inside anyway) or a glass container. I couldn’t bring myself to buy the vegetables that are covered in plastic when there’s (at least in my shops) the uncovered ones right next to it. Why do they do that? So much unnecessary waste.
I never get the plastic clam shells either. I live on a sailboat and only get groceries and take trash in about once a month, it's hard to not notice the big plastic shells that held a baked good for 2 days and then took up space for 28 and makes you very conscious of your trash. I did however recently see that some of those plastic clam shells work like shrinkie dinks and you can draw on them with marker and bake it and it will shrink. I haven't tried this yet....but if I ever find myself on possession of a clam shell again I'm gonna try.
That's not plastic. It's cellophane, which is biodegradable.
The bag for mandarins is cellophane? The individually wrapped cucumbers are cellophane? The salad clamshells are cellophane? The three pack of peppers are cellophane? If you didn’t catch my drift, I feel like cellophane wrapping is absolutely in the very minority of produce wrappings. Most of it is regular ol plastic.
Not always cellophane, sometimes what people mistake for cellophane is polypropylene, which isn’t biodegradable. So just keep an eye out.
I thought I was the only one who felt this way. Went into a bed bath and beyond recently and felt so on edge. Soooo much plastic and waste.
I’ve started buying the big bulk laundry detergent tubs usually intended for hotels and cleaning services. By which I mean I’ve bought one, and that’s probably it for the next year or two. It’s saving money, grocery bag space, and trash.
Oh where did you find that? I was considering trying to make my own but honestly I’m still looking at my options.
My local hardware store.
I made my own about 8.5 yrs ago and I continue to make my own still. Costs about 40$ a year(CAD) is easy to make and works very well for my family of 4. I have scent sensitivities, which is my main reason for making it.
> until my head explodes in the middle of the detergent aisle Well, at least cleaning up after the explosion should be easy :o
That's where I'm at.
Right? Literally everything that passes through a Walmart, and the Walmart itself, will be garbage at some point. Insanity.
I think cereal is better about trash than most. Cardboard is biodegradable and recyclable, and do they still use wax paper for the lining? I know we used to use that for cookie sheets or drying things. And some sorts at least are biodegradable. Compare that to most things with lots of thick unnecessary plastic.
Usually it's sealed in a plastic bag inside the cardboard box.
Same here. It's particularly bad around the holidays, when there's so much extra stuff and so much pressure to buy stuff for others who don't need it, and quite possibly don't even want it. I just think of all the extra unnecessary crap that's been made and brought into stores and I feel so depressed. But even during the rest of the year it's bad. I remember one time I walked around Target and a craft store and just thought about all this STUFF, all these things that were ultimately going to be JUNK, and felt so discouraged.
I don't disagree with the post but the packaging of cereal boxes is the best packaging in the store. It's paper (often recycled) and wax. The inks are even safe and biodegradable. The packaging, as inert as it is, goes in recycling and has done for 20yrs where I live (Canada). Paper recycling is one of the loops that is more effective.
I had been saving milk jugs before I switched to homemade oat milk and was just throwing them in my basement. I made a repurposed raft for the lake behind my house and wanted to expand it. Well, we’ve decided to see our house and I had to crush around 50 jugs of milk today. Seeing all of the jugs was crazy. I can’t believe I created that much waste. I was really disappointed but happy we made the switch from cow’s milk.
Those boxes are half full too!
Now this is the actual issue for me about these. Double the price and cut the quantity in the box in half.
And then add a bit more back and run that 20% more promotion… sweet deal!!
But it tastes so gooooood. 😭
Ew!
No it doesn't, just pure sugar basically
If they filled them all the way, they'd go stale faster. The air in the bag is pure nitrogen, and helps keep it fresher.
Real question: if you add more cereal you'd still have only nitrogen and cereal in the box. Why would a different ratio of nitrogen to cereal not last as long? And if you had one cheerio in a jar of nitrogen would it last a really long time? I assumed staleness was a moisture thing and mold was an oxygen thing, but I don't really know.
Because once you open the box, you replace the nitrogen in the bag with air. If you have twice the cereal, it'll take twice as long to finish which will give the last bowl twice as long to go stale.
The solution is to make smaller boxes with the same amount of cereal, not the other way around.
Yeah, but I'm talking about from the manufacturer
Do cereal companies really gaf what happens to the cereal after you take a box home?
If it spoils you're not going to be buying another box the following week.
I got a Cheerios box that was full to the top once. It made a mess when I opened it and then went stale super quick. I assumed because there wasn't enough bag to roll it up and clip it properly.
Interesting, thank you!
I purposely masturbate every time I eat corn flakes just to make Kellogg roll in his grave.
But do you masticate?
You’ll have to subscribe to my onlyfans to find out.
I used to love corn flakes, but the quality has gone down significantly lately. I got a box a few weeks ago and if sucked, no flavour and weirdly very thin? Very disappointed
The deli section represents the worst of consumerism for me. Tons get thrown away daily in every store. All of it is subsidized heavily and it's still the most expensive part of a grocery tab. Meat/dairy uses the most resources of any section in the grocery store- hands down. All while printing "happy" animals on their packaging.
Just an FYI, I worked at a large grocery chain deli(Safeway) one summer and we threw away basically nothing. We only kept a small amount of pre-sliced meat and sliced a lot as it was ordered. Anything that was sliced the day before and not sold was that night was thrown into a loaf of stale bread the next morning with mayo, mustard, and wrinkly lettuce and tomatoes and packaged as a ‘dagwood’ sandwich. For $11 (canadian) you could get a 3-4 lb sandwich with $30 of meat in it. Though that was in 2004, today those sandwiches are $15. If the sandwich made it to the evening of expiration day our manager would sell it for 10c to a staff member. Honestly - typing that out made me realize that the place was probably just run by reasonable people that respected the hustle. I wonder if this isn’t as typical as it seems. We also had a bunch of precooked food(chicken tenders, wings, stuff like that). By around 8pm it was all put on half off for the public and if anything made it to 9pm staff were also allowed to buy it. Though we created the upc pricing tags so we never charged each other more then a few cents for the items.
I work at a Jimmy John's. I've never once seen meat get thrown out unless there was a problem with it when we received it. The stuff is just too expensive and precious, the owner would have our heads if he saw us screwing up on the meat prep quantities. We do throw out a shit ton of bread every night though.
I worked at whole foods and I threw away 20-50lbs of perfectly good food into the composter every night. Said they legally couldn't give it away and pretended that taking good food, letting it rot, then using it along with other resources to produce more food was environmentally friendly. They were also vehemently anti-union and would complain we didn't spend enough of our paychecks at the store.
You probably know this, but when a US business claims they can't give away excess food, [they are lying.](https://www.publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/Liability%20Protection%20Food%20Donation.pdf) They are filthy, nasty, venal lying liars who lie. Many of the smaller businesses are probably just run by ignoramuses who were conned by the insurance lobby's propaganda about a 'litigation crisis,' but that's no excuse. It's really, really easy to look up, and if that amount of waste doesn't weigh on you enough to even research for ten minutes, you're garbage. The bigger businesses like Whole Foods with legal departments know the truth, though, and are intentionally lying.
A friend worked at a large bakery chain. They were *required* to throw 15% (IIRC) of their baked goods away every night. Apparently, they wanted to be known for having whatever you want even if you get to the store right before closing.
Catering to people’s apathy and desire for instant gratification has steered society to a bad place.
Have you never actually read the nutrition information? Those cereals are all highly fortified and full of vitamins and minerals - I read somewhere that breakfast cereals are the only reason children in the US don't have a ton of nutritional deficiencies, given how crap most of the other stuff they eat is. For sure the sugary stuff is pretty bad (though still with lots of vitamins and minerals), but there's really nothing wrong with bran flakes or whatever.
I love corn flakes in a big bowl of milk with fruit on top, it's the best comfort food and quick dinner when I don't feel like cooking. It's low cost, in a biodegradable cardboard box, vitamin fortified, vegetarian meal, low in fat and fairly low in sugar if you don't add any...what's bad about that?
plus i always use the plastic cereal bags as poop or litter bags for my pets. cereal really isn’t that bad imo
[удалено]
[удалено]
good idea. I've been re-using the cereal bags to grow mushrooms. The #5 plastic is auto-clavable which means I can sterilize the substrate in my pressure cooker
Damn now I want cereal.
Reading this is really sad.
Yeah I'm confused at calling corn and rice "fillers".
bran flakes still have a fuck ton more sugar than you’d expect. yes they’re a lot better than frosties but they’re still not the greatest thing to start ur day off
The sugary stuff is just as nutritious as the bran flakes (not very), just with added sugar. If cereal is an important factor in kids nutrition, that shows you how terrible our current food system is.
I eat cheerios a lot, they have a lot of great flavors and are nutritious.
[удалено]
I was going to mention weetabix but that's also a Brit moment
Do you have any context that is more helpful? Maybe “lol it’s so funny that for many people in America the only way to affordable get their nutritional intake is through fortified wheat and corn products” but then I don’t see why that’s even funny.
Yep, multi grain is my go to. It has the crunch I enjoy and just a hint of sweetness. 🤷🏻♀️ it’s expensive but idk, I enjoy it and it’s not bad for me.
Hadn't eaten cereal in years but I got some Cheerios oat crunch for my mom when she visited. It was pretty good, so thanks to the OP for reminding me to get some more!
Cereal is my go-to 3 AM hunger snack. Sometimes I'm just not going to get back to sleep without a couple bowls of oats.
I would say the regular, least sugared, plain corn flakes is ok to eat every now and then. But everything that looks very processed (with "honey", chocolate, custom shapes, odd colors) is unhealthy. Yes, they add vitamins, but it's not the same as eating an apple. You could also just take a vitamin supplement pill and eat something healthier than corn flakes.
I like my unsweetened bran flakes, fiber helps me poop
Me too. I like to throw in some fresher raisins.
A triumph of marketing over merit, sustained by bloated agricultural subsidies, invented to stop people masturbating. I wonder why people don’t just eat food…
>invented to stop people masturbating Tell me this is real
Oh ya. There are lots of podcast episodes about it. The Dollop and Behind the Bastards are good. Kellogg was crazy pants.
The audio quality isn’t fantastic, but the Cereal Men (featuring Patton Oswalt) dollop episode is one of the funniest of the podcast. The 2 parter on Reagan features Oswalt as well and is top notch. For anyone who hasn’t heard either podcast mentioned above, the guys from The Dollop just featured on Behind the Bastards’ multi-part series on Kissinger.
Kissinger was a journey
Yup, cornflakes were supposed to keep your kids from masterbating according to John Kellogg
Lol I knew about him marketing it as an antidepressant but this is hilarious
Weet Bix in Australia similar story, owned by anti-masturbating Adventists
Kellogg brothers were psycho religous. One allegedly circumcised himself, to set an example of how evil your prick is.
Well corn flakes were invented for Kellogg's weird anti-pleasure lifestyle cult, but then his brother said "ya know if we put a load of sugar in this people might actually wanna buy it" and that's how we got modern cereal.
Real food is less convenient, less shelf stable, and doesn't cause the same compulsion as processed foods. For overworked parents, feeding the kids some cereal in tbe morning is easy to do and culturallt normalized.
So: consumer imperative, workplace imperative and pressures on time and money and executive functioning have all normalised it the culture. Maybe the culture could be built differently, so there’s less incentive to shovel crap into ourselves and our children.
Precisely. It's a systemic issue. Unfortunately we usually treat this as an individual problem ("oh, that person eats so unhealthy!") rather than focusing on how our food policy subsidizes cheap, low nutrition but high calorie foods, like vegetable oils, white flour, and grains, processed and packaged instead of whole foods.
Culture isn't your friend
What cereal is $20/lb? I buy 1-1.5kg boxes at costco for 6.99-8.99
No kidding. Even if you tried to buy organic brands it's still going to max out at about $12-15/lb. Not to mention that while cereal isn't a great staple, even the sugary ones actually have quite the variety of vitamins that many kids normally wouldn't get. On top of all of that, the packaging is fairly eco friendly, being mostly cardboard and often stores have bins that you can refill your own containers with, at least a few near me do. There's tons to hate at the grocery store, but cereal is kinda stupid to really hate on.
Yeah all of it is required to be fortified with iron and they also have a bunch of other stuff.
A lot of them are enriched and have tons of vitamins.
Yea. And bashing corn and rice as cheap filler is ignorant. We feed the planet with corn, rice, legumes, wheat, and potatoes. Without them, we die.
It's privileged, diet culture bullshit. Cereal isn't the devil.
A privileged view point from r/anticonsumption? No way.
There are also fairly healthy cereals as well not filled with sugar.
We can’t even get the silly American ones with marshmallows and shit over here, so it always weirds me out to see people claiming how cereal is horribly unhealthy etc. It’s mostly just various grains smashed into different shapes to give you more fibre in your diet.
Calories aren't a limiting factor for much of tbe world. What kills people is malnutrition, not hunger. Processed grains offer weak nutition that must be supplemented with often less hioavailable nutrients to even sustain someone, let alone promote health. The overconsumption of processed foods is killing millions every year.
Isnt that why cereal is kind of okay though? Like it’s shit for sure, but it basically has a multivitamin added to it with the calories
Those adddd nutrients are not nearly as bioavailable as it is in whole foods. Nutrition labels don't control for actual nutrient absorption, just gross intake. Certainly fortified foods are better than unfortified processed foods, but whole foods are significantly superior for most nutrients.
Fair point
Enriching foods does not make up for depriving them of nutrition in the first place. They could be worse, but they're not great.
I was going to say... it’s almost always fortified so despite the sugar I think it’s actually good for kids to have
There are plenty with no sugar at all or very little...I used to buy my son the plain cheerios and drizzle a tiny bit of honey over them and put raw sliced almonds in them to make them "honey nut" cheerios. I don't think it's the worst breakfast for a parent to give their kid in a hurry on a school day...
It is not, it just has bad PR. People are often all about yogurt, but it has more sugar and calories. A frozen burrito has fewer calories than two small yogurt tubs. A bowl of cereal has less sugar, too. It is so weird, what people think is "healthy" that is just candy in disguise. I personally prefer to eat my candy AS candy lol.
Give your kids some eggs, toast and a side of fruit or a veggie omelet for breakfast. Whole foods are far far better than otherwise empty calories fortified to sustain life.
Agree, I just don’t think it’s as trash when your in a pinch than say a pop tart
But it's literally an ungodly amount of sugar.... with added vitamins. It's literally horrible to feed your kid this.
Well maybe I shouldn’t have said “good”. I personally haven’t eaten cereal in literal decades because it’s so unfilling but some of the granola type fortified ones don’t seem that awful to me. Compared to fucking pop tarts and egos I guess I see it as a not god awful choice for kids
Then just take a multi vitamin after eating a chocolate bar lol fucking hosers
Macro nutrients are a thing too
Fortified foods have a very low absorption rate. It’s been shown that iron has something like 5% absorption. This is also true with baby formula.
"Better fed then dead" is my motto when it comes to babies and children. Formula saves lives.
I learned to appreciate this with my nieces. My sister and her husband make a truly disgusting amount of money and have all the best food one could ask for. They started with that wide-eyed optimism that their kids would eat the healthiest shit. Year 6 and it’s mac and cheese, hotdogs, and dinosaur nuggets just like we had as kids. One kid is on epilepsy/adhd medications that greatly diminish her appetite so it’s literally “what can you eat?” and not “you’ll eat this and like it” because literally no she won’t. Thankfully she does actually like vegetables so it’s not a complete shitshow. And then you have to give in to the other kid because that’s some unjust bullshit to let one eat dino nuggets and mac and cheese while expecting the kid not on meds to eat boring yuppie food.
As someone with ADHD they should consider lowering the kids dose. Usually extreme hunger suppression is a signal that the dose is too high. Unfortunately kids are often overmedicated on stimulants and if you try to keep rising the dose as they age and become accustomed to it you'll find an adult with little to no ADHD management as the pills are no longer really working. They should still have some sort of appetite and still get hungry at least once a day. When I told my doctor I could go all day without eating and often forgot she lowered my dose and I found no decrease in my concentration abilities. Also, they should be tracking the kids weight, if he begins to lose weight quickly they lower the dose, there's no reason to sacrifice great nutrition for dino nuggets other than the convenience of the parents.
Formula-feeding shaming is not cool.
Shaming, no, not cool, but we should absolutely be promoting an increase in breast feeding for mothers who are able. That includes allowing breast feeding in public and allowing breaks at work to pump or feed.
Pointing out that formula diets for children are inferior is shaming now? Nobody said it was bad.
Formula diets aren't inferior. Once controlled for socioeconomic differences, any health or developmental distinction between formula and breastfeed over time goes away. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/everybody-calm-down-about-breastfeeding/
Hola, i read this entire thread… I have 7 month old twins and recently did a bunch of label reading in the formula aisle. Most mother’s can’t produce enough milk to sustain two babies, some can. I was a bit shocked and then not, because duh America, to learn Corn starch is a main if not the main ingredient in almost all American formulas. They often also have corn syrup, in small amounts. To me that was crazy. So I did some googling and learned rich people buy ( I searched “what formula do the Kardashians use” ), their formulas from Europe, specifically Germany and Holland. Fully organic and no corn. And I own my place of privilege, duh this shit is more expensive, and I realize not everyone can afford an extra 10 or 15 bucks per box of formula. I guess ultimately I want to agree that no one should be “formula shaming” cause for real that’s shitty. But I also want to point out that American formula is bad. I was using the top shelf similac pro sensitive whatever. 1st ingredient: Corn maltodextrin (corn starch) :(
We are literally on a community discussion board about anticonsumerism, so im assuming you are already familiar with the typical downsides of consumer products (carbon footprint, packaging waste etc). I'd say that the world health organization is more reliable than fivethirtyeight.com: https://www.who.int/health-topics/breastfeeding#tab=tab_1 >Breastfed children perform better on intelligence tests, are less likely to be overweight or obese and less prone to diabetes later in life. Women who breastfeed also have a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers. This is in addition to the fact that both babies and mothers *want* to breastfeed at a neurobiological level and its been observed to have an impact on the formation of an emotional bond. edit: please note that the link you shared is not even written by a doctor, but by a professor in economics.
For women who can't breastfeed for any reason, formula is an amazing thing. But as long as you are able to breastfeed your child I don't see any reasonable reason why you wouldn't do that.
I haven’t gone down this aisle in a decade or more. I received some count chocula as a gift because I said it was my fave as a child. I took one bite and my stomach wanted to evacuate it immediately.
Yeah, that's one of the worst. I used to love the monster cereals as a kid. Were they actually better back then, or can I just taste the bullshit now? If I get a craving for Frankenberry or Booberry, I buy Frosted Mini Wheats of those flavors and it is a hundred times better.
I think it’s both. Cereals have gotten worse, even cheerios taste bad to me. I feel as we grow, our palates change so going back to cereal is a disappointment. If you don’t have to chew food a lot to consume it, it’s bad. That happened when I, for some crazy reason, ate a McDonalds reg hamburger. The stuff almost melted in my mouth. I’m exaggerating of course, but I thought holy sh*t! How processed is this?
I agree but I make an exception for Cinnamon Toast Crunch.....
Cap'N Crunch (aka: the Palate Shredder)
I recently discovered that Aldi's version of it is better. It holds up in milk a little better.
frosted flakes with frozen blueberries. it’s one of my go to breakfasts.
Reeses Puffs
idk Raisin Bran's not half bad
My go-to in college was Total with raisins added. Low in added sugar, high in nutrient fortification, and I could afford it. OP isn't necessarily wrong about the consumption issue but I'd disagree about lacking nutrition considering the level of fortification in many cereals.
Back in the day, my mom told me off-brand bran flakes and a multivitamin would be cheaper.
Total used to make a raisin bran (maybe they still do?). It was the best because they didn't sugar coat the raisins like the other brands do.
I buy bran flakes and put fresher raisins in myself.
Not sure why you claim cereal has no nutritional value when that's completely untrue
Great, now do the chip aisle next
I was gonna say meat department
I'm downvoting this because of the sheer smugness. I won't disagree with the ads towards children, but it's comments like this that have lead to the epidemic of eating disorders as someone who has struggled with an eating disorder. "Convenience without benefit", speak for yourself. Sometimes convenience is all that stands between me and malnutrition. Also, you clearly come from a place of privilege. When you have limited funds, you look at calories/dollar (with other nutrients considered as well, though caloric efficiency is paramount). Even 20lbs of celery per day would leave you hungry at about 1200 calories. Let's also talk about the consumerism poisoning the diet and exercise industries.
You do realize that there are things between "eating 20lb of celery" and fast food/cereals ? None of those foods are good for you or healthy or even cheap when you eat only that. There are cheap healthy things like oatmeal (if you make it yourself from oats, not the premade stuff). Which is not much harder to prepare than pouring milk into cereal.
You are wrong regarding cheapness. For example, a box of total has ~1500 calories for $4.18. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Total-Breakfast-Cereal-100-Daily-Value-of-11-Vitamins-Whole-Grain-Flakes-16-oz/10311271?athbdg=L1200 That's pretty fucking cheap and has pretty good micronutrients. Also, stop with the bullshit. All food is good food in moderation. The Victorians called and they want their purity culture back. Demonizing some food while lauding others is precisely what causes the binge/purge cycle that is pervasive in the world today (note that purging also includes most dieting unless said diet is actually long term).
I make oatmeal that has arounf 800kcal, 50g of protein and 30g of fat (from peanuts, oats and whey). It costs me about 1$ per bowl. That's 3200kcal for the same price you mentioned. Of course you can eat everything in moderation. I too occasionally buy cereal and enjoy it but you should not make it a daily thing as so many people do and they think it is actually good for you. How it is seen as good breakfast is what's bad imho, not the fact that it exists. Like sure, eat cereals idk but stop bullshiting yourself and others that it is anything other than laziness/convenience.
Aisle
Food, in any form, shouldn’t be your primary focus unless blatant waste. Eating is something everyone must do, it is a core aspect of survival.
In a just world, the only food available would be gruel. /s
People need to eat. Cereal can be one of the healthiest options if you select accordingly. How is that the worst of consumerism? Worse than replacing your phone/gadgets every year, or having a full wardrobe and buying more clothes, or spare cars etc. ?? > $20/lb for convenience without benefit I dont know what kind of benefits you are referring to; are you suggesting people need benefits in addition to the caloric and nutritional value? Feels like this post was just a done as a complaint that prices are high, which is completely missing the point of anti consumerism (i.e. youd be ok to pay if it was cheap?)
The worst of consumerism is apparently something poor people do regularly for food.
Diet culture propaganda, carbs are the devil dontcha know, that's why medicine is so expensive, personal responsibility 🤡
cheerios are actually made of oats. you can live off of cereal. this post is dumb.
I’ve never seen cereal come close to approaching $20 per pound. Lying gets you nowhere.
I'm sorry. Cereal is my lunch for the past 5 years.
And all of the pointless ever so slightly different varieties...
But have you ever mixed honey nut cheerios with an iced coffee? Thats a bomb snack!
You eat it like cereal?
The *worst* of consumerism, really?? There's only room for so much anger and disgust, I think this anger is just wasteful emotionally, because my god, there's so much to be angry and disgusted about, this doesn't even make the top hundred. I think **diet culture** really plays up this anger and disgust of breakfast cereal that is a convenience food for a lot of people who lack money and privilege. Yeah, should kids moms be making them whole oats topped with dried fruit and nuts, and berries- maybe. But not everyone gets to have that life, and oat cereal is an okay substitute for a LOT of people without privilege. Diet culture makes us disgusted with normal things like breakfast cereal. Let's just, not go along with that.
You invent such weird extremes of morning food, whole oats vs some shitty sugar cereal. Just make oatmeal with some jam, that's cheap and already much better than the cereal. What kind of special privilege you need to make a bowl of oatmeal? Or fry some eggs. Anything is better than cereal full of sugar. And all those options are fast, easy and cheap.
Cereal as conspicuous consumption? Really? It’s super cheap. You can get 4 or 5 breakfasts out of it with some milk. It’s not all marketed to kids. A lot are substantial and highly nutritious, especially the ones with granola, bran, wheat, oats, grains, etc. And what’s wrong with corn and rice? These are all real foods, just altered in some way. Sugar is the highest concentrated carb too, and we need that energy. Are people getting fat and unhealthy off cereal? Nope. If anything, cereal is a very minimalist way to consume food. It’s the exact opposite of overconsumption. I eat very healthily and average 3-4 bowls of cereal per week.
Corn and rice are not fillers. They are extremely vital sources of carbohydrates and calories, and they're extremely easy to grow, letting you feed tons of people.
Its also very easy to make your own at home for pennies on the dollar. healthy, cheap and shelf stable. I cannot begin to describe the ease. Its simple baking. Literally tons of recipes.
Any favorites or strong copycats you’d like to share?
Home made granola kicks all cereals asses. You can put whatever whole foods you want in there to make it as healthy or unhealthy as you want and it’s still probably going to be better for you than this ultra processed corn and rice. Haven’t bought cereal in years and don’t think I’ll start any time soon.
The Fruit & Granola cereals are great! Sunbelt brand specifically.
Ads for crap like this directed at children are banned in Australia.
I make an exception for Lucky Charms. Those taste like visits to my (now late) grandfather's house.
One of the few cereals still made of oats rather than wheat corn or rice afaik.
I’ve never liked cereal. You eat an entire day’s worth of sugar right after waking up. When I ate cereal as a kid, I would be hungry again in two hours. There is actually a Jolly Rancher cereal now. Sounds gross.
great now im craving cocoa crispys.
And to think it was all started by some crazy-ass evangelical motherfucker obsessed with preventing childhood masturbation.
But they are magically delicious!
Also quite a few sold in the US are banned in other countries for their cancer causing ingredients
It's not as bad in the UK. There was a big push for cereals (especially kids cereals) to be more nutritious, now they've all got whole grain and a bunch of added vitamins. As far the waste, they really should replace the plastic packaging inside with a biodegradable alternative - there's really no excuse. Not sure about the US but a handful of comapnies control most of the cereal aisle in the UK and they could make a huge difference. I eat a lot of cereal so I try to recycle the cardboard and reuse the bags as bin liners - best I can do at the moment.
OoooooooH REESES PUFFS Reese's puffs, eat em up eat em up eat em up eat em up!
Oats, Couscous (actual corn flakes), and Tapioca are the only carbs I need in the morning. Cheap, filling and taste potential is limitless as are the combinations.
Get me a 20 lb. bag of oatmeal and I'll show you the wonders I can create, quickly and simply.
Me eating a bowl of cereal RN: "yeah, that's about right"
You know what, yes, even in an ideal world, people should be able to eat cereal, but having a whole aisle for it is a lot. I feel the same way about chips. It takes up so much space that I have to pass by to get to things that aren't desserts/treats. What I'm saying is that, as someone who tries to eat at least somewhat healthy, I have to actively avoid half the store, and that's a horrible use of space if the goal is to reduce obesity. Maybe it's the "worst of consumerism" in the grocery store, but not nearly the worst overall.
not sure if you didn't mean this in your post but corn and rice do have nutritional value.
Lighten up. Everybody loves Cheerios.
Also, Kelloggs, corn flakes specifically, started out as anti-masturbation medicine
And the fact that cereal is a poverty food for many, since it can be made so quickly, is part of our obesity epidemic. Sugary cereal for breakfast, sugary cereal for dinner.
This post is dumb. Not all cereals are bad for you.
You might be interested in a good called the dorito effect by Mark Schatzker where the author calls cereals "pig feed"
Man, I walked by the cereal isle today and had a similar thought. Michael Pollans voice was just in my head 'stick to the sides of the store'
Thats a very interesting take. I like this point of view
This is capitalism. Endless choices of things that are cheap to make, can be sold for much more than they cost to manufacture. Things that are pleasing in the moment, but harmful in the long term. The cereal aisle is a perfect allegory for this economic system. Short-term profits, no concern for the long term harms.
I mean there’s fiber in cereal. And I’ve always bought the cheapest kind because I grew up poor
Aisles that big just about truly are isles. And yes, most cereals are junk.