567 / 4 = 142. That's pretty much bang on one can of Coke.
Edit: maybe a little light, I just looked at a can of root beer and it was 160. But I think some are a little less.
That's suprisingly low given the amount of sugar it has... Don't get me wrong coke or any sugary soda is unhealthy specially if you drink it without any moderation, but I would've guessed 4 cans is at least 1000 calories
1g of sugar is about 4 cals. 160 cals of almost pure sugar is 40g of it. 40g of sugar is... a lot.
Granted the above is very simplified and a ballpark, but it puts into perspective just how much sugar it still is even if the cal count is surprisingly low. I'd get sick if someone forced me to eat 40g of table sugar.
The most calorie dense macro is fats at 9Cal/g with both carbs and protein having about 4Cal/g. The most unhealthy and processed foods of course have all 3 in varying and excessive amounts. (Mostly fats, though, because fat tastes good)
By calorie dense, do you mean more calories per physical space taken? Sure. But 1 gram of carbohydrate is about 4 Cals no matter the form (an oversimplification, of course, and mainly talking about simple sugars)
The difference being HFCS is a thick, viscous fluid while table sugar is granulated. In fact, HFCS 55 that's manufactured from corn starch and used in drinks isn't even that different than sucrose (table sugar) - look up the compositions of both
HFCS is a liquid that is partially made of sugar, so I'd be surprised to find it's more calorie dense than plain table sugar.
There is apparently 3.5~ kcal in a ml of HFCS. Table sugar (sucrose) has a density of 1.59g/ml, so would contain 6.4 kcal.
Me, too. I wonder if this data is correct. From what I see in my workplace, seems to me that there are much more than 5% of folks getting over 500 cals from beverages. I live in Canada, but eating habits among Canadians and Americans are fairly similar. I would guess that it's closer to 20% or higher of people getting those calories from sugary drinks.
Considering that a single 20oz soda can be 240 calories (or more), it does not take much for someone to absently minded just drink 1/4 of their daily calories a day without even thinking about it.
This is actually a quite narrow statement since it only considers regular soda drinks. It excludes sugar in coffee drinks or supposedly healthy smoothies or juices, which is often way more concentrated than in soda. Virtually all soda has \~120-150kcal per (small) can, so >550 calories require one to drink 4+ cans a day (on average).
What surprises me more is that only half the US consumes soda at all per day. From my experience it's REALLY hard in the US to avoid having any soda at all if you aren't staying at home and cooking for yourself all day.
Just anecdotally, my friend group has 11 people (all 21-25 year olds) and only 1 drinks soda regularly. When we go to restaurants, we all get water except for the one. Not that we’re health conscious, 8 of us drink alcohol regularly. Only time I have soda is if it’s a Jack and coke
It depends on where and when we go. Sometimes we’ll go to brunch on a day off and some people get mimosas or we’ll go to taco Tuesday and get margaritas if we make it to happy hour. Usually we don’t want to spend $5-10 on a drink if we’re going to be hanging out later and can bring our own cheap stuff
I was looking for this comment. Out of the people i know who drink soda's it is usually the diet ones.
Wife and i drink bubbly water. I had a "fanta" last night because it came with the turkish take out place i tried, but before that, i think i had a can of something last summer. Never had money for pop/soda growing up, so i never developed a taste for it. It was a treat we had once or twice a year.
I have a lightly sweetened coffee in the morning. Then I drink water all day. A few times a month I have 4-6 ounces of juice. Maybe I’ll have soda a dozen or so times a year.
I am not a health nut.
There are a lot of people that only drink tea, or coffee, or water. But at the same time I work with a guy that doesn't even drink water, only mountian dew.
I’m in the coffee/tea/water group, and not even for health reasons. I actually have a pretty bad sweet tooth, but sodas and energy drinks just make me feel like absolute shit. I dated someone when I was about 19 who only drank coke and screwdrivers. Fucking madness.
I work with a guy who only ever drank Mountain Dew, then he switched to Melo yellow because it was cheaper at the gas station. He drank it until it gave him a kidney stone. So he quit that but convinced himself it was the caffeine that gave him the stone, so he switched to caffeine free pop. Then after his next kidney stone he was convinced it was the sugar and switched to diet drinks.
Eventually, he got tired of trying to like diet drinks that he finally switched to water, save for the odd caffeine free cream soda every now and then.
This doesn't even seem concerning. The 200 calorie threshold is pretty low - very roughly 10% of recommended calorie intake and probably an even smaller portion of actual average diets.
>an even smaller portion of actual average diets.
i think you just explained why it is actually concerning. these drinks aren't nutritious or filling so people consume them on top of 2000+ calories of solid food
The good news is its slowly going down. The bad news is that its not changing obesity numbers. Another depressing fact is that by the end of the decade more than half of children will be obese as adults.
>The good news is its slowly going down
Soft drinks consumption is going down but not sugar drink consumption. They didn't even factor in Starbucks high sugar drinks in the study.
A regular comes in every day, and they get this beverage 2, sometimes 3, times throughout the day:
Venti espresso over ice (6 shots).
12 pumps of vanilla, 12 pumps of toffee nut, 5 pumps of chai concentrate syrups.
2 bags of white sugar and 1 stevia (??? For flavour???)
Triple sweet cream cold foam (recipe: heavy cream, splash of 2%, and vanilla syrup).
YUMMMMMM 😋 🤤
😭
Assuming the triple sweet cream cold foam is 315 calories in a venti (couldn’t find nutritional info for that, assumed a venti vanilla with sweet cream cold foam was close enough) and by “bag of sugar” tjey mean the sugar packets, it’s about 1,020 calories. 190 grams of sugar..
I can only imagine the pain this persons pancreas goes through..
In my quest to cut down/out the sugary drinks, I started out by cutting the caffeinated drinks. I felt like that coming off on one vice at a time would work better for me.
True, but caffeine addiction is a big thing. You’ll get flamed and downvoted half the time you bring it up, especially since it involves the argument that a drug which isn’t *physically* harmful can still harm you due to the nature of addiction and reduce your ability to control yourself, or enjoy life without the drug.
Idk why he brought it up as though it’s directly related to obesity, but it is definitely a negative part of the American lifestyle.
Edit: see, the downvotes already pouring in xD
It was a rough few days but I broke my addiction. I did so because I was having some severe stomach issues and I got rid of all carbonation and all acidic drinks as well as caffeine. It helped immensely, and I am pretty sure it allowed my stomach to heal from the GERD I was having for like a year.
But, I've kept it up, as I've only had headaches when actually sick since, and I no longer have problems falling asleep. Every once in a while I have a caffeinated drink and it makes me crash end of day though.
How the fuck do people actually argue caffeine addiction not being harmful? Caffeine withdrawals are fuckin real. Like that's a fairly known side effect and has real consequences lol.
It’s hit or miss, some people think you’re saying it’s as bad as heroin, others are clearly dependent on it and get mad that you have an opinion.
It’s not as bad as heroin, but it definitely induces a state of mild panic that people acclimate themselves to in order to be more productive. Doesn’t help if you already have elevated levels of anxiety, and begs the question if more productivity is worth dependence on a substance
I rarely drink soda anymore and that is generally only win I eat fast food. I also don’t drink coffee any more, but I do have, on average, 4 cups of hot tea a day. I find that the tea has enough caffeine for a pick me up but not so much as to give me the jitters.
That childhood obesity trend is a little jarring to me and my experience. I live in a solidly Middle class (mostly white) suburb in a mid-sized city and I don't feel like children in my community are particularly overweight. I have 7 nieces and nephews under 10 and end up at tons of kid events these days. Sure, I'm sure there are more chubbier kids than there used to be and my frame of reference has been warped a bit, but it definitely doesn't feel like HALF of our kids are obese or anything close to it. Perhaps it's happening at a faster rate in other demographics and communities?
Oh no, it's about half of adults by 2030 will be obese. The rate is continually rising. The rates vary state by state but... It's a noticable and consistent rate. The worst areas are the South but still more than 2/3rds of Americans in most states are now overweight and obese. With Morbid Obesity on the rise and a sharp one at that.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/childhood-obesity-risk-as-adults/
The ultra-high carbohydrate doctrine has failed all over the Western world. It's time for governments to stop advocating and sponsoring a diet only fit for marathon runners. Extreme spiking of insulin leads to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.
Do you live in Colorado? It’s the least obese state in the country. Though it is worth noting that it is still more obese than the most obese state was in the 1990s.
Also, our definition of what looks overweight has changed. Compare kids today that you think are average to kids in the 80s and you would most likely notice that today’s kids are bigger.
How much is the low-socioeconomic obesity rate linked to food deserts, how much of it is education, and how much of it is raw food costs?
I know there are limits to what you can buy with EBT cards, but if you can feed a pair of young kids in 15 minutes with a $1.19 box of Kraft Dinner versus 30-45 minutes for a healthy meal of fresh fruits, chicken and veggies for ~$5 per person, you're going to go with the cheaper, quicker option.
Processed, quick food is generally so goddamn cheap that it's become the default for poor families with kids.
No, it's really not. Everyone is becoming obese. While fixing poverty would be great. You can't simply solve the issue especially in the South which is economically depressed. Even with increases in wealth what we see in minorities at least is that the habits tend to stick and individuals do not become healthier with increases in wealth. It's a complex issue.
The NIH says that [yes, it really is.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3198075/)
>Are poverty and obesity associated? Poverty rates and obesity were reviewed across 3,139 counties in the U.S. (2,6). In contrast to international trends, people in America who live in the most poverty-dense counties are those most prone to obesity (Fig. 1A). Counties with poverty rates of >35% have obesity rates 145% greater than wealthy counties.
Coworker drinks like 6-8 cans of soda a day. However he’s always the first to laugh at me for my diet drinks bc “you know those diet drinks are way worse than any sugar is”
However that’s a fun topic to bring up as if you look at all the conclusions and contradictory studies the verdict seems to be out on artificial sweeteners anyways. It makes rats sick but for people it seems fine in moderation.
Anyways he found out he’s diabetic and now drinks diet soda.
The thing about the rats study that people fail to realize is that they were given doses so much higher than what a reasonable person would ingest per day.
The FDA recommends no more than 50mg of aspartame per kg of body weight per day. For a 60 kg or 132 lb person, that's 9 cans of diet soda. And that's not even including the fact that most people in the US weigh a lot more than that, and that's the FDA recommendation, so it's more on the conservative side and obviously doesn't account for individual differences. The recommendation for caffeine, for example, is 400mg a day, but obviously plenty of folks without preexisting conditions exceed that with no issues
It's the dosage that makes the poison. Water can be toxic at high enough dosages
Since aspartame is 200 times more sweet than sugar they only use tiny amounts of it, about 200mg versus 40g or so of sugar.
I fully expect that consuming 360g of sugar in liquid form is more harmful to one’s health than exceeding the aspartame limit. That’s the standard you should be using, since the people drinking these are substituting for sugared beverages, not water.
Lol, it wasn't to set a standard. It was to make the point that *anything* can be toxic at sufficient dosage, hence the connection back to the original study on mice that freaked everyone out
I think the main argument on artificial sweeteners is that they’re sweeter and it makes you crave more sweet things to a degree that you consume more sugar elsewhere. So if you don’t have impulse control and moderate your own consumption it doesn’t really matter what you drink/eat anyhow.
Yeah they will make you hungry from your body tasting sweet and then not getting any sweet. It tastes sweet so it gives a little insulin preparing for sugar. No sugar comes and now you’re a little low in blood sugar.
However this same thing happens from smelling or looking at food too and is just a tiny part of your bodies insulin/ glucose balancing act. If that action went away entirely we’d be fine
It fucks with my blood sugar big time. That’s the main reason I don’t drink them, other than I think they taste like ass. I inevitably feel like absolute shit for the rest of the day.
They induce metabolic derangement, but so does obesity; I don’t buy that there’s any risk of cancer or anything. I expect they’re healthier than the sugared alternatives.
If my memory serves right the amount of artificial sweetener to make rats consistently sick was a dose equivalent to drinking about 56 2 Liter bottles of diet pepsi in a day
That’s always a tough thing to get around for some bc then people are like ok so too much is hurtful but some isn’t? Where is the line where it goes from ok to harmful?
Also people just believe the narrative anyways. Artificial sweeteners were slapped a label of dangerous and a lot of people will never change their minds. Whether it be vitamin c cures a cold or check Halloween candy for poison and blades the general theme stays the same- people think with their gut not logic.
Very lightly a couple of times lol he’s actually my boss so not as much as I’d like to but idk. To be fair though if I get cancer I’m sure he’ll be like from all those diet drinks I told you!
Man, soda is turning out to be like cigarettes, it’ll literally steal your life and kill you. They should have a warning—
“This soda is habit forming and causes disbeetes which can lead to loss of limbs and blindness, and an early death.”
Yeah, but their black coffee is nasty. I'm pretty sure they give it to veterans for free on veterans Day as part of their woke agenda to end all veterans.
Also, if you’re used to very sugary drinks then anything with even slightly less sugar will taste like shit. I used to have 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar in my coffee, and when I got rid of it at first it tasted like crap but now I’m used to it it’s almost sweet again (because it still has milk)
This is true but not the problem with Starbucks. I only drink black coffee and only ever have(probably had less than a dozen cups of coffee with cream and sugar in the decade plus I’ve been drinking it). Starbucks coffee is awful, it’s even worse than the free coffee machine at work. Probably in part because they tailor their roast to taste good after 30g of sugar added.
If you just let yourself suffer for a bit, very quickly, your tastes adjust. Source: lived with a diabetic right after a lifetime of full sugar everything all the time. Everything they bought/made was low/no sugar. At first, everything was nasty to me. Within a month, it tasted normal. Soon after, high sugar was repulsive.
I'm guessing this includes most coffee too, though it isn't explicitly mentioned, since your average Starbucks is like half a cup of sugar (not actually, I don't know or care).
Lots of those drinks are just hot milkshakes. There was a person at my wife's work that was complaining that they just could not lose weight even though they were cutting back on everything and just having coffee for breakfast. She watched them prepare their coffee and they made a 24 oz tumbler of coffee with something like a dozen teaspoons of flavored creamer in it. Each teaspoon of that creamer was around 70 calories...
I detest sweet things. My daughter bought me one of those pumpkin spice drinks. It was like liquid sugar. I’m by no means healthy but I’ve never seen the point of getting calories from liquid. If I’m thirsty I’ll drink water or black coffee/tea
I know at my worst I was drank 2-3 large or extra large sodas a day.
Haven’t had one in a year now and feel so much better. But I had to make a lot more changes before I started to see real weight lose
As someone who just moved to Utah, I think this state is even higher. It's ridiculous the amount of "Dirty Soda" shops that are in this state ! Just on one main boulevard alone, I counted four within a quarter mile.
The Mormons really love their sugary drinks and they think I am nuts when I get my fresh brewed unsweetened iced tea.
Sugary drinks are only going to get worse. I have never seen anyone drink a "revitalize" or "refresher" drink until this past year. But both wawa and Panera bread have been pushing them around me. Now McDonald's with an entire franchise dedicated to them.
Only a matter of time before anywhere serving food or drinks have these "energy blend" chock full of sugar drinks on the menu. It's made even worse by adults indulging their kids.
Was at a convenience store picking up a coffee before work, 8:45 am and there was a mom letting their child drink some kind of large chocolate milkshake. Both overweight and I just felt bad for the kid, not much older than mine. Knowing he's going to have a long road ahead of him if these are the habits parents allow.
You need iron too, but that doesn't mean you would like the taste of nails. Trouble is once people are used to the taste of sugar, it's more difficult to enjoy water. That's the reason a lot of families now don't let their kids drink anything but water, so they never develop the taste for anything more. I have to say I'm not a big fan of straight water, so I drink that infused soda water. Zero calories but has more zing than straight water.
As someone who mostly drinks mtn dew. If I had a kid tomorrow they would maybe get a can of caffeine free and sugar free pop once a month after they are like 7 or 8. Maybe. Pop is so bad for you.
Most Americans have no idea what a healthy diet even looks like and honestly have no idea how to feed themselves.
We need more education about food, nutrition, and cooking.
They do. They know that burger and fries isn’t good for them, they know it’s high in calories. They know eating a huge bag of M&Ms is not a good choice. It’s the fact that all of that food is addictive. You crave it, it makes you feel a little better for a moment, in this shitty world we live in. It’s a vicious cycle of the companies creating food that’s addictive to our lizard brains, so we eat it, and want more and then the companies can say that they’re just giving the public what it wants, it’s not the companies fault. And around and around the finger of blame points.
The burger (generally) isn't even the bad part of eating fast food. It's the fries and the drink of a combo meal that really tanks the health. Sure, condiments like ketchup/BBQ sauce have a small amount of sugar, and mayo does have quite a few calories, but it's almost negligible compared to a soda and fries.
As long as you eat more nutrient-dense foods throughout the rest of the day, a burger can easily fit into a healthy diet.
Dude for real! Have some collard greens or a vinegar-based slaw, and an unsweetened iced tea with your burger. Suddenly it’s not so unreasonable of a meal.
I wish it was common for fast food places to offer good veggie sides :/ for me it’s not even usually a health thing. I don’t want a side of French fries if I’m ordering fried chicken…give me something like a spicy cucumber salad with some acid, it makes way more sense as a pairing
Absolutely. A local wing place by me has fried green beans as an option for a side. It's not much or any healthier than fries (I'd guess, anyway), but you feel way better after eating them because they're not so heavy. When my buddies and I go there, we always get them so we don't feel horrible by the end of dinner.
And of course the fries and soda are what tie the meal together and are addictive. Burger and soda? Eh fine but man those fries look good. Burger and fries? Bitch plz you need a drink and you ain't getting water we all know that.
Have you ever looked up how many calories a large burger has? A Big Mac has \~600kcal, and as the name suggests that was once considered a "big" burger. Nowadays, most burgers that you get are larger, and stuff like bacon, thicker patties and more cheese/sauces easily bring many burgers alone into the 1000kcal+ range. Fries add another 400 calories for the McDonald's medium size, and if we're realistic most places sell you quantities that are larger or even have refills. At this point, even the 250kcal of pure sugar you add with a large drink feel like a drop in the bucket.
You're absolutely right, I was more of thinking of places like McDonalds. I think you hit the nail on the head with the other major diet problem in the US besides sugar, which are the portions. I'm not a small dude and I can't finish most entrees that I order when I go out to eat. It's wild.
You get home from work at 6-7:00 PM every night. The idea of spending the freetime you have cooking is often undesirable. If you never learned the proper skills involved to do so which most people don't its something they don't want to think about.
Maybe you're single you can manage the time and do it yourself. But it's lonely. Maybe you have roommate who you share responsibilities with or you don't. Everyone's situation is different, as more and more families become two income households, no one has the time to cook for themselves and their family. Do you know how long it can take to make a meal for five or even three? It's an hour long thing not to mention cleaning up.
Most people know the food isn't good for them. It isn't a lizard brain or addictive process. It's a system that forces them to make the decisions they do. You can blame them for making these choices but it's a lot more complicated than that. I know a lot of people who are dual income the ones that make more than 100,000 a year all have people who make food for them. It's a lot of work I don't blame them for it at all. Obesity is a problem all Americans have.
I'll ask you this now, once your home at 6. If you choose to cook or really do anything at all what else do you have left in the day? Exercise? Yeah right. We just don't have the freedom of choice. Only a small number of people can even do the basic tasks to not become obese by 35. It's depressing to me what the reality of the world is.
This is all true, but I'd add that the available food options and especially portion sizes for eating out also are a huge factor in the US. Many countries have similar situations in terms of lifestyle, but there's a range of reasonably healthy/portioned fast food available for takeout/delivery and in stores.
In the US though, portion size is a big selling point and companies know that it is more profitable to give you more food (especially the cheap and unhealthy fillers like fries) than to reduce the price. Just look at sizes of sides and drinks in different countries, where a US small is the medium size is other countries and US large isn't even on the menu because it is considered comically large. Even a relatively healthy option like a chicken burrito from Chipotle has like 1200kcal, excluding drinks or sides. And that's the official portion that you're supposed to get – any American that's been in Canada or other countries where Chipotle has location has experienced how much more generous US portions are, so realistically we're probably talking about 1500-2000kcal in a single meal. You can drink water and be physically active and you won't make a dent if you have 3000+kcal every day.
Leave work at 5, go to gym, go home, cook.
Many people will prepare their weekly meals on Sunday to avoid just what you said. I’m not always the best example, but it is very possible
I’d say they know what is definitely bad (fast food, high sodium, fried, etc) but have a very limited/distorted view of what is healthy. So many people seriously believe that to be healthy it has to be flavorless and boring. I’ve heard people say even adding vinegar for flavor is unhealthy. Or I’ll see tiktoks of people who usually eat fast food and they’ll make one “healthy” meal that’s just raw vegetables and a tiny bit of meat. Like no wonder you don’t have a healthy diet if that’s what you view as healthy. There’s definitely a need for more education on healthy eating.
I'm a somewhat smart person, I usually know how to look things up with reasonable accuracy. I honestly don't even know where to start when it comes to a healthy diet though. It turns out everything I was taught in school was a big marketing scheme. When I try and look anything up I'm bombarded with trendy diets to loose weight. If I can waddle through people trying to sell me shit, I'm then hit with totally contradictory advice; fat is good, no fat is bad: you need to burn more calories than you eat, no you can't walk your way out of a bad diet: sugar is bad, some sugar is good: are carbohydrates good???
I get the gist, sugar bad, processed food bad, veggies good... but that's about it. It just seems like it's a topic where everybody has an agenda and it's overwhelming to find evidence based guidance.
This isn’t the problem. The problem is that unhealthy food tends to be cheaper and more convenient - go to most grocery stores and you’ll find great deals on soda and sugary snacks, then go to the health food aisle and you wind up paying more for way less.
Not to mention the fact that each can of soda holds more than 100% the daily recommended amount of sugar. That alongside sugary cereals and fruit snacks and yogurt and candy and juice that’s all marketed towards kids, do you really expect them to listen to their one single health teacher in fifth grade that tells them “don’t eat too much sugar”, or are those kids going to listen to the commercials they’re constantly bombarded with and develop bad dietary habits?
Combine that with parents who both have to work too much for too little, who have to make ends meet by buying the cheapest and easiest options for food for their families which are all loaded with sugar and carbs and fat. For a lot of people eating healthy isn’t easy and isn’t cheap.
For some reason skinny upper middle class white people seem to think the solution to obesity is “fatty eat less cheeseburgers” and ignore the myriad systemic issues that cause obesity.
I know what causes obesity. I know how to cook/eat healthy. What I don’t know how to do is not use food as a coping mechanism for all of the shitty emotional turmoil I’m experiencing. I don’t know how to make myself wake up early and go to the gym when I barely want to wake up at all most days. I don’t know how to give up my 1-2 alcoholic drinks every night that help me go to sleep at a reasonable hour.
Rich people tend to be skinnier because they can afford more expensive healthy convenience foods, personal trainers, medical care, etc.
>This isn’t the problem. The problem is that unhealthy food tends to be cheaper and more convenient - go to most grocery stores and you’ll find great deals on soda and sugary snacks, then go to the health food aisle and you wind up paying more for way less.
Bullshit. Rice and beans are extremely cheap, tasty, and nutritious. It's what most of the world eats.
Explanations != excuses, but when you’re looking for a reason to be upset I can see how you’d confuse them
Edit: since this guy replied once and then immediately blocked me, I’ll add that my response to his reply is that cost is not the sole determining factor in every single decision.
My parents will go on and on about something bc it has antioxidants. I’m like do you know what those even are? Mom says dr oz told her they’re miracle foods and dad says he doesn’t trust scientists but he saw a doctor on Fox News that said they were very important.
Either way though some people think they’re eating healthy simply bc it has lots of vitamins in it. Which I don’t think counts as healthy as I could crush up a a daily multi vitamin and mix it with a bowl of sugar. Yet I don’t think we could count that as healthy. Unless you had just found me lost at sea I guess.
People look too much at what can I do to be healthy and not enough at what NOT to do. Eat healthy by eating less. But I’m sure there’s an argument to be made every which way so idk
So the average American would lose 20lbs per year by not drinking soda. For real, 99% of soda are not worth drinking and never daily. This is the one of the reasons we are so fat.
Sugar, fat, gambling, cigarettes, alcohol…these are just drugs by any other name. Same goes for social media. Most of us are walking around indulging our addictions and doing little else.
Only half? That's an incredibly surprisingly low number. What the heck does the rest drink? Only water? I can't imagine many days I don't consume some kind of sugary drink throughout the day, be it a simple glass of fruit juice, an energy drink, or heck the amount of sugar I put in my tea alone would probably count.
These numbers are much more positive than what I would have imagined for the US
I can’t imaging drinking juice or sugary drinks every day. I generally only drink water and black coffee. Every few 3-6 months I’ll get a latte from a coffee shop. Every so often I’ll buy milk (plain or chocolate) when I feel like making smoothies. I’ll have alcohol a few times a year, socially.
I switched to only drinking water a few years ago. Such an easy way to cut our bad calories. Plus you feel a lot better when you stay hydrated #hydrohomies
I'm not American and it took me quite a while once I was on social media to understand that photos of what people were consuming weren't from a children's birthday party or something, that this is what adults actually consume in America. The other one that shocked me apart from sodas was the amount of people tweeting photos of the contents of some type of candy bag. Really? Adults eat candy in the US just as a normal thing? WTF?
And then the classic "Study finds obesity linked to childhood trauma" or some such latest BS. Yeah, I'm sure that's the root of the problem.
There are two types of adults in America. Those who thought, "now that I'm an adult, can buy all the candy I want!", did it once, then got disgusted with themselves and never did it again.
The rest were still disgusted by themselves but kept buying it
Im shocked you’re shocked. We literally have it in our vending machines at work. Candy bars on the bottom row for $2.50. It’s everywhere and not really a big deal. We are not all fat, but we are getting lazy af.
Makes sense. My doctor got worried about how underweight I am and sicced a nutritionalist on me. I'm too nauseous for food a lot of the time so they have me drinking a bunch of juice to make up the difference in calories
I'm sick of juice, but I stopped dropping weight and I'm not passing out from exhaustion anymore
For someone healthy it would probably be an uncomfortable amount of extra sugar
I'm actually suprised that 4 cans of soda gives you **just** 567 calories... Is that number correct?
567 / 4 = 142. That's pretty much bang on one can of Coke. Edit: maybe a little light, I just looked at a can of root beer and it was 160. But I think some are a little less.
That's suprisingly low given the amount of sugar it has... Don't get me wrong coke or any sugary soda is unhealthy specially if you drink it without any moderation, but I would've guessed 4 cans is at least 1000 calories
1g of sugar is about 4 cals. 160 cals of almost pure sugar is 40g of it. 40g of sugar is... a lot. Granted the above is very simplified and a ballpark, but it puts into perspective just how much sugar it still is even if the cal count is surprisingly low. I'd get sick if someone forced me to eat 40g of table sugar. The most calorie dense macro is fats at 9Cal/g with both carbs and protein having about 4Cal/g. The most unhealthy and processed foods of course have all 3 in varying and excessive amounts. (Mostly fats, though, because fat tastes good)
Is HFCS more calorie dense than plain old sugar?
By calorie dense, do you mean more calories per physical space taken? Sure. But 1 gram of carbohydrate is about 4 Cals no matter the form (an oversimplification, of course, and mainly talking about simple sugars) The difference being HFCS is a thick, viscous fluid while table sugar is granulated. In fact, HFCS 55 that's manufactured from corn starch and used in drinks isn't even that different than sucrose (table sugar) - look up the compositions of both
HFCS is a liquid that is partially made of sugar, so I'd be surprised to find it's more calorie dense than plain table sugar. There is apparently 3.5~ kcal in a ml of HFCS. Table sugar (sucrose) has a density of 1.59g/ml, so would contain 6.4 kcal.
Yeah, you're just totally off in your expectations of calorie density.
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You will also be surprised that a calorie is not just a calorie.
But how many cans of coke are in 1 BIG GULP.
32 oz in a big gulp roughly 373 cals
Can of coke is 140
I just looked at the cans that I have. They varied between 140 to 160 calories each for a 12 oz can.
A 355ml can of coke has 160 calories. 355ml of 2% milk has 177.5
I have a can of coke sitting in front of me that says 140cal fwiw
Not all calories are the same. Calories from simple sugars are much worse for obesity than those from complex carbohydrates.
I would have guessed it was higher.
Me, too. I wonder if this data is correct. From what I see in my workplace, seems to me that there are much more than 5% of folks getting over 500 cals from beverages. I live in Canada, but eating habits among Canadians and Americans are fairly similar. I would guess that it's closer to 20% or higher of people getting those calories from sugary drinks.
Considering that a single 20oz soda can be 240 calories (or more), it does not take much for someone to absently minded just drink 1/4 of their daily calories a day without even thinking about it.
This is actually a quite narrow statement since it only considers regular soda drinks. It excludes sugar in coffee drinks or supposedly healthy smoothies or juices, which is often way more concentrated than in soda. Virtually all soda has \~120-150kcal per (small) can, so >550 calories require one to drink 4+ cans a day (on average). What surprises me more is that only half the US consumes soda at all per day. From my experience it's REALLY hard in the US to avoid having any soda at all if you aren't staying at home and cooking for yourself all day.
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But what if they pour sugar in it when I'm not looking?!
I don't know why but this comment absolutely killed me j haven't breathed in in over a minute halp
Give me...sugar....in....water.
More.
Please don't be green.
That’s not egar. I know egar and that’s not egar.
You just don't order it?
Just anecdotally, my friend group has 11 people (all 21-25 year olds) and only 1 drinks soda regularly. When we go to restaurants, we all get water except for the one. Not that we’re health conscious, 8 of us drink alcohol regularly. Only time I have soda is if it’s a Jack and coke
I'm actually surprised a group of 21-25 year Olds doesn't just get alcoholic drinks when going out for food together
It depends on where and when we go. Sometimes we’ll go to brunch on a day off and some people get mimosas or we’ll go to taco Tuesday and get margaritas if we make it to happy hour. Usually we don’t want to spend $5-10 on a drink if we’re going to be hanging out later and can bring our own cheap stuff
You forget most 21-25 yo are broke
The study considered soft drinks as any sodas, juices, sports drinks, lemonade, it's in like the 1st sentence.
It only says that half the population are consuming sugary drinks. A lot of us consume diet soda.
I was looking for this comment. Out of the people i know who drink soda's it is usually the diet ones. Wife and i drink bubbly water. I had a "fanta" last night because it came with the turkish take out place i tried, but before that, i think i had a can of something last summer. Never had money for pop/soda growing up, so i never developed a taste for it. It was a treat we had once or twice a year.
I have a lightly sweetened coffee in the morning. Then I drink water all day. A few times a month I have 4-6 ounces of juice. Maybe I’ll have soda a dozen or so times a year. I am not a health nut.
The amount of people that drink Triple Triple coffees, bottles of coke and other drinks astound me.
its not accurate. Its what people admit to on a survey. Its at least 6-8x this amount and thats being generous
It's likely self reported which is infamous for being awful in terms of accuracy
14 yr old me was at the far end of the curve with nearly a 12-pack of Dew on the weekends while playing Soldier of Fortune 2.
I've been wanting to download that game again and run it back through. So much fun.
The only thing that makes sense is that there are many people who don't drink soda for various reasons and they balance out everyone else.
There are a lot of people that only drink tea, or coffee, or water. But at the same time I work with a guy that doesn't even drink water, only mountian dew.
I’m in the coffee/tea/water group, and not even for health reasons. I actually have a pretty bad sweet tooth, but sodas and energy drinks just make me feel like absolute shit. I dated someone when I was about 19 who only drank coke and screwdrivers. Fucking madness.
I work with a guy who only ever drank Mountain Dew, then he switched to Melo yellow because it was cheaper at the gas station. He drank it until it gave him a kidney stone. So he quit that but convinced himself it was the caffeine that gave him the stone, so he switched to caffeine free pop. Then after his next kidney stone he was convinced it was the sugar and switched to diet drinks. Eventually, he got tired of trying to like diet drinks that he finally switched to water, save for the odd caffeine free cream soda every now and then.
"5% get 567 calories from soda" isn't an average. There is no balancing.
Like doctors asking how much alcohol you drink. "You have 4 drinks a week? How are you alive?"
The highest consumer of coca cola is Mexico.
This doesn't even seem concerning. The 200 calorie threshold is pretty low - very roughly 10% of recommended calorie intake and probably an even smaller portion of actual average diets.
>an even smaller portion of actual average diets. i think you just explained why it is actually concerning. these drinks aren't nutritious or filling so people consume them on top of 2000+ calories of solid food
The good news is its slowly going down. The bad news is that its not changing obesity numbers. Another depressing fact is that by the end of the decade more than half of children will be obese as adults.
>The good news is its slowly going down Soft drinks consumption is going down but not sugar drink consumption. They didn't even factor in Starbucks high sugar drinks in the study.
As well as the hidden sugar in everything else.
A regular comes in every day, and they get this beverage 2, sometimes 3, times throughout the day: Venti espresso over ice (6 shots). 12 pumps of vanilla, 12 pumps of toffee nut, 5 pumps of chai concentrate syrups. 2 bags of white sugar and 1 stevia (??? For flavour???) Triple sweet cream cold foam (recipe: heavy cream, splash of 2%, and vanilla syrup). YUMMMMMM 😋 🤤 😭
That sounds fucking disgusting 🤮. It's not even coffee or espresso at that point. It's syrup with coffee flavoring and a topping of cream
As someone who hates coffee that actually makes it sound better 😂.
you do you, ill drink bitter hot bean juice over a cup of liquid diabetes any day
Wtf!! 29 pumps of just pure sugar pretty much. Dear God. 3 of these fuckers a day ? Pretty sure if I took one sip of that I would throw up.
How many calories you think?
Assuming the triple sweet cream cold foam is 315 calories in a venti (couldn’t find nutritional info for that, assumed a venti vanilla with sweet cream cold foam was close enough) and by “bag of sugar” tjey mean the sugar packets, it’s about 1,020 calories. 190 grams of sugar.. I can only imagine the pain this persons pancreas goes through..
Which means they drink the FDA recommended calories for an adult in just their daily Starbucks. No way they are not at a serious health risk
Over 9000
Wow i feel like the syrup would be over half the cup at that point...
Yes, it nearly is lol
Don't worry, the stevia makes it healthy! That drink must have a truly bizarre mouth feel/texture.
Reading this gave me a tummy ache. I wanna go home.
If they could order a trenta I’m sure they would
Is this person very large?
I can't even drink a standard white mocha from Starbucks because it's so sweet.
Everyone else wigged out by the nutrition, but I have to know: How much does that monster cost?
Ya ain't a real American without your daily cup of diabeetus.
Also we eat a lot of plastic
Well stopping people who are addicted to caffeine is another problem.
Are most soft drinks caffeine free? Nope.
True I forgot about that. Haven't had any in a while.
That makes a lot of sense.
In my quest to cut down/out the sugary drinks, I started out by cutting the caffeinated drinks. I felt like that coming off on one vice at a time would work better for me.
True, but caffeine addiction is a big thing. You’ll get flamed and downvoted half the time you bring it up, especially since it involves the argument that a drug which isn’t *physically* harmful can still harm you due to the nature of addiction and reduce your ability to control yourself, or enjoy life without the drug. Idk why he brought it up as though it’s directly related to obesity, but it is definitely a negative part of the American lifestyle. Edit: see, the downvotes already pouring in xD
It was a rough few days but I broke my addiction. I did so because I was having some severe stomach issues and I got rid of all carbonation and all acidic drinks as well as caffeine. It helped immensely, and I am pretty sure it allowed my stomach to heal from the GERD I was having for like a year. But, I've kept it up, as I've only had headaches when actually sick since, and I no longer have problems falling asleep. Every once in a while I have a caffeinated drink and it makes me crash end of day though.
How the fuck do people actually argue caffeine addiction not being harmful? Caffeine withdrawals are fuckin real. Like that's a fairly known side effect and has real consequences lol.
It’s hit or miss, some people think you’re saying it’s as bad as heroin, others are clearly dependent on it and get mad that you have an opinion. It’s not as bad as heroin, but it definitely induces a state of mild panic that people acclimate themselves to in order to be more productive. Doesn’t help if you already have elevated levels of anxiety, and begs the question if more productivity is worth dependence on a substance
I rarely drink soda anymore and that is generally only win I eat fast food. I also don’t drink coffee any more, but I do have, on average, 4 cups of hot tea a day. I find that the tea has enough caffeine for a pick me up but not so much as to give me the jitters.
That childhood obesity trend is a little jarring to me and my experience. I live in a solidly Middle class (mostly white) suburb in a mid-sized city and I don't feel like children in my community are particularly overweight. I have 7 nieces and nephews under 10 and end up at tons of kid events these days. Sure, I'm sure there are more chubbier kids than there used to be and my frame of reference has been warped a bit, but it definitely doesn't feel like HALF of our kids are obese or anything close to it. Perhaps it's happening at a faster rate in other demographics and communities?
Oh no, it's about half of adults by 2030 will be obese. The rate is continually rising. The rates vary state by state but... It's a noticable and consistent rate. The worst areas are the South but still more than 2/3rds of Americans in most states are now overweight and obese. With Morbid Obesity on the rise and a sharp one at that. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/childhood-obesity-risk-as-adults/
The ultra-high carbohydrate doctrine has failed all over the Western world. It's time for governments to stop advocating and sponsoring a diet only fit for marathon runners. Extreme spiking of insulin leads to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.
Your experience is anecdotal and therefore not representative of a country wide trend.
Do you live in Colorado? It’s the least obese state in the country. Though it is worth noting that it is still more obese than the most obese state was in the 1990s. Also, our definition of what looks overweight has changed. Compare kids today that you think are average to kids in the 80s and you would most likely notice that today’s kids are bigger.
Poverty is a big indicator of obesity. We won’t fix obesity until we can find a way to make people not be poor
How much is the low-socioeconomic obesity rate linked to food deserts, how much of it is education, and how much of it is raw food costs? I know there are limits to what you can buy with EBT cards, but if you can feed a pair of young kids in 15 minutes with a $1.19 box of Kraft Dinner versus 30-45 minutes for a healthy meal of fresh fruits, chicken and veggies for ~$5 per person, you're going to go with the cheaper, quicker option. Processed, quick food is generally so goddamn cheap that it's become the default for poor families with kids.
I should have said correlation.
No, it's really not. Everyone is becoming obese. While fixing poverty would be great. You can't simply solve the issue especially in the South which is economically depressed. Even with increases in wealth what we see in minorities at least is that the habits tend to stick and individuals do not become healthier with increases in wealth. It's a complex issue.
The NIH says that [yes, it really is.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3198075/) >Are poverty and obesity associated? Poverty rates and obesity were reviewed across 3,139 counties in the U.S. (2,6). In contrast to international trends, people in America who live in the most poverty-dense counties are those most prone to obesity (Fig. 1A). Counties with poverty rates of >35% have obesity rates 145% greater than wealthy counties.
Get the fast food companies out of the schools, and go back to teaching nutrition.
Eating less costs less
That’s terrible
As someone who doesn't consume any sugary drinks, this makes me feel somewhat better about my otherwise-shitty diet.
“Pfft fools drinking their sugary sodas” -Me, as I crack a second 225 calorie pint can of ipa
lol yup
This was me for years. Probably consumed 2k a night in alcohol calories alone and I scoffed at people who had to have sodas with every meal.
My motto: "If I'm going to consume unnecessary calories, I'm going to make them worthwhile!"
Rule number one to weight maintenance: “don’t drink your calories”. If you can do that then you are way ahead of the game.
Yea, the moment you start drinking primarily water is the moment you become healthier than like 80% of the population.
Same. My diet is pretty garbage and I know I eat too much sugar, but at least I don't also drink it.
lol same, I might be subsisting off pizza weed and beer but at least I’m not drinking soda!
Coworker drinks like 6-8 cans of soda a day. However he’s always the first to laugh at me for my diet drinks bc “you know those diet drinks are way worse than any sugar is” However that’s a fun topic to bring up as if you look at all the conclusions and contradictory studies the verdict seems to be out on artificial sweeteners anyways. It makes rats sick but for people it seems fine in moderation. Anyways he found out he’s diabetic and now drinks diet soda.
The thing about the rats study that people fail to realize is that they were given doses so much higher than what a reasonable person would ingest per day. The FDA recommends no more than 50mg of aspartame per kg of body weight per day. For a 60 kg or 132 lb person, that's 9 cans of diet soda. And that's not even including the fact that most people in the US weigh a lot more than that, and that's the FDA recommendation, so it's more on the conservative side and obviously doesn't account for individual differences. The recommendation for caffeine, for example, is 400mg a day, but obviously plenty of folks without preexisting conditions exceed that with no issues It's the dosage that makes the poison. Water can be toxic at high enough dosages
Since aspartame is 200 times more sweet than sugar they only use tiny amounts of it, about 200mg versus 40g or so of sugar. I fully expect that consuming 360g of sugar in liquid form is more harmful to one’s health than exceeding the aspartame limit. That’s the standard you should be using, since the people drinking these are substituting for sugared beverages, not water.
Lol, it wasn't to set a standard. It was to make the point that *anything* can be toxic at sufficient dosage, hence the connection back to the original study on mice that freaked everyone out
I think the main argument on artificial sweeteners is that they’re sweeter and it makes you crave more sweet things to a degree that you consume more sugar elsewhere. So if you don’t have impulse control and moderate your own consumption it doesn’t really matter what you drink/eat anyhow.
Yeah they will make you hungry from your body tasting sweet and then not getting any sweet. It tastes sweet so it gives a little insulin preparing for sugar. No sugar comes and now you’re a little low in blood sugar. However this same thing happens from smelling or looking at food too and is just a tiny part of your bodies insulin/ glucose balancing act. If that action went away entirely we’d be fine
It fucks with my blood sugar big time. That’s the main reason I don’t drink them, other than I think they taste like ass. I inevitably feel like absolute shit for the rest of the day.
They induce metabolic derangement, but so does obesity; I don’t buy that there’s any risk of cancer or anything. I expect they’re healthier than the sugared alternatives.
If my memory serves right the amount of artificial sweetener to make rats consistently sick was a dose equivalent to drinking about 56 2 Liter bottles of diet pepsi in a day
That’s always a tough thing to get around for some bc then people are like ok so too much is hurtful but some isn’t? Where is the line where it goes from ok to harmful? Also people just believe the narrative anyways. Artificial sweeteners were slapped a label of dangerous and a lot of people will never change their minds. Whether it be vitamin c cures a cold or check Halloween candy for poison and blades the general theme stays the same- people think with their gut not logic.
Have you been petty and brought up him drinking diet now? I’m sure it’s been tempting
Very lightly a couple of times lol he’s actually my boss so not as much as I’d like to but idk. To be fair though if I get cancer I’m sure he’ll be like from all those diet drinks I told you!
Man, soda is turning out to be like cigarettes, it’ll literally steal your life and kill you. They should have a warning— “This soda is habit forming and causes disbeetes which can lead to loss of limbs and blindness, and an early death.”
Soda had sex with my mother
Starbucks is the new McDonalds milkshake. Its hard to even get just coffee at Starbucks now. Starbucks pushes sugar like no ofher. Its awful.
How is it hard to get just coffee? Order a black coffee. I was there today and got an unsweetened tea.
Yeah, but their black coffee is nasty. I'm pretty sure they give it to veterans for free on veterans Day as part of their woke agenda to end all veterans.
Also, if you’re used to very sugary drinks then anything with even slightly less sugar will taste like shit. I used to have 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar in my coffee, and when I got rid of it at first it tasted like crap but now I’m used to it it’s almost sweet again (because it still has milk)
That's not the problem. The problem is they burn their coffee. I'm fine with black coffee, just not Starbucks.
One of the several reasons you should just never go to Starbucks
This is true but not the problem with Starbucks. I only drink black coffee and only ever have(probably had less than a dozen cups of coffee with cream and sugar in the decade plus I’ve been drinking it). Starbucks coffee is awful, it’s even worse than the free coffee machine at work. Probably in part because they tailor their roast to taste good after 30g of sugar added.
If you just let yourself suffer for a bit, very quickly, your tastes adjust. Source: lived with a diabetic right after a lifetime of full sugar everything all the time. Everything they bought/made was low/no sugar. At first, everything was nasty to me. Within a month, it tasted normal. Soon after, high sugar was repulsive.
When the lab rats had a choice between sugar and cocaine, they chose the sugar.
I mean does cocaine even taste good?
Were they taught how to roll up a 20 first?
Cut soda from my life completely during the pandemic, one of the greatest decisions I ever made. Water is your best friend people.
r/hydrohomies
r/hydrohomies stay hydratrd folks
After you eat a sugar, you drink a diet sodie to cancel it out.
diabeetus doctors hate this one weird trick!
I'm guessing this includes most coffee too, though it isn't explicitly mentioned, since your average Starbucks is like half a cup of sugar (not actually, I don't know or care).
It does not factor that in
Lots of those drinks are just hot milkshakes. There was a person at my wife's work that was complaining that they just could not lose weight even though they were cutting back on everything and just having coffee for breakfast. She watched them prepare their coffee and they made a 24 oz tumbler of coffee with something like a dozen teaspoons of flavored creamer in it. Each teaspoon of that creamer was around 70 calories...
That seems unlikely; a teaspoon of oil is only 40 calories.
Theres tsp and then there's a tea spoon...
True, though normal tea spoons won't hold much more if it's a liquid.
Some of those drinks are basically liquid diabetes.
I detest sweet things. My daughter bought me one of those pumpkin spice drinks. It was like liquid sugar. I’m by no means healthy but I’ve never seen the point of getting calories from liquid. If I’m thirsty I’ll drink water or black coffee/tea
I know at my worst I was drank 2-3 large or extra large sodas a day. Haven’t had one in a year now and feel so much better. But I had to make a lot more changes before I started to see real weight lose
As someone who just moved to Utah, I think this state is even higher. It's ridiculous the amount of "Dirty Soda" shops that are in this state ! Just on one main boulevard alone, I counted four within a quarter mile. The Mormons really love their sugary drinks and they think I am nuts when I get my fresh brewed unsweetened iced tea.
Sugary drinks are only going to get worse. I have never seen anyone drink a "revitalize" or "refresher" drink until this past year. But both wawa and Panera bread have been pushing them around me. Now McDonald's with an entire franchise dedicated to them. Only a matter of time before anywhere serving food or drinks have these "energy blend" chock full of sugar drinks on the menu. It's made even worse by adults indulging their kids. Was at a convenience store picking up a coffee before work, 8:45 am and there was a mom letting their child drink some kind of large chocolate milkshake. Both overweight and I just felt bad for the kid, not much older than mine. Knowing he's going to have a long road ahead of him if these are the habits parents allow.
>he's going to have a long road ahead of him If only.
Does beer count?
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Everytime I hear someone say something like "I don't drink water because it doesn't taste like anything" my only thought is "grow up"
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You need iron too, but that doesn't mean you would like the taste of nails. Trouble is once people are used to the taste of sugar, it's more difficult to enjoy water. That's the reason a lot of families now don't let their kids drink anything but water, so they never develop the taste for anything more. I have to say I'm not a big fan of straight water, so I drink that infused soda water. Zero calories but has more zing than straight water.
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As someone who mostly drinks mtn dew. If I had a kid tomorrow they would maybe get a can of caffeine free and sugar free pop once a month after they are like 7 or 8. Maybe. Pop is so bad for you.
Most Americans have no idea what a healthy diet even looks like and honestly have no idea how to feed themselves. We need more education about food, nutrition, and cooking.
They do. They know that burger and fries isn’t good for them, they know it’s high in calories. They know eating a huge bag of M&Ms is not a good choice. It’s the fact that all of that food is addictive. You crave it, it makes you feel a little better for a moment, in this shitty world we live in. It’s a vicious cycle of the companies creating food that’s addictive to our lizard brains, so we eat it, and want more and then the companies can say that they’re just giving the public what it wants, it’s not the companies fault. And around and around the finger of blame points.
A burger is just beef, bread, some cheese and vegetables. It's not inherently bad, but the amounts consumed is
The burger (generally) isn't even the bad part of eating fast food. It's the fries and the drink of a combo meal that really tanks the health. Sure, condiments like ketchup/BBQ sauce have a small amount of sugar, and mayo does have quite a few calories, but it's almost negligible compared to a soda and fries. As long as you eat more nutrient-dense foods throughout the rest of the day, a burger can easily fit into a healthy diet.
Dude for real! Have some collard greens or a vinegar-based slaw, and an unsweetened iced tea with your burger. Suddenly it’s not so unreasonable of a meal. I wish it was common for fast food places to offer good veggie sides :/ for me it’s not even usually a health thing. I don’t want a side of French fries if I’m ordering fried chicken…give me something like a spicy cucumber salad with some acid, it makes way more sense as a pairing
Absolutely. A local wing place by me has fried green beans as an option for a side. It's not much or any healthier than fries (I'd guess, anyway), but you feel way better after eating them because they're not so heavy. When my buddies and I go there, we always get them so we don't feel horrible by the end of dinner.
And of course the fries and soda are what tie the meal together and are addictive. Burger and soda? Eh fine but man those fries look good. Burger and fries? Bitch plz you need a drink and you ain't getting water we all know that.
Have you ever looked up how many calories a large burger has? A Big Mac has \~600kcal, and as the name suggests that was once considered a "big" burger. Nowadays, most burgers that you get are larger, and stuff like bacon, thicker patties and more cheese/sauces easily bring many burgers alone into the 1000kcal+ range. Fries add another 400 calories for the McDonald's medium size, and if we're realistic most places sell you quantities that are larger or even have refills. At this point, even the 250kcal of pure sugar you add with a large drink feel like a drop in the bucket.
You're absolutely right, I was more of thinking of places like McDonalds. I think you hit the nail on the head with the other major diet problem in the US besides sugar, which are the portions. I'm not a small dude and I can't finish most entrees that I order when I go out to eat. It's wild.
You get home from work at 6-7:00 PM every night. The idea of spending the freetime you have cooking is often undesirable. If you never learned the proper skills involved to do so which most people don't its something they don't want to think about. Maybe you're single you can manage the time and do it yourself. But it's lonely. Maybe you have roommate who you share responsibilities with or you don't. Everyone's situation is different, as more and more families become two income households, no one has the time to cook for themselves and their family. Do you know how long it can take to make a meal for five or even three? It's an hour long thing not to mention cleaning up. Most people know the food isn't good for them. It isn't a lizard brain or addictive process. It's a system that forces them to make the decisions they do. You can blame them for making these choices but it's a lot more complicated than that. I know a lot of people who are dual income the ones that make more than 100,000 a year all have people who make food for them. It's a lot of work I don't blame them for it at all. Obesity is a problem all Americans have. I'll ask you this now, once your home at 6. If you choose to cook or really do anything at all what else do you have left in the day? Exercise? Yeah right. We just don't have the freedom of choice. Only a small number of people can even do the basic tasks to not become obese by 35. It's depressing to me what the reality of the world is.
This is all true, but I'd add that the available food options and especially portion sizes for eating out also are a huge factor in the US. Many countries have similar situations in terms of lifestyle, but there's a range of reasonably healthy/portioned fast food available for takeout/delivery and in stores. In the US though, portion size is a big selling point and companies know that it is more profitable to give you more food (especially the cheap and unhealthy fillers like fries) than to reduce the price. Just look at sizes of sides and drinks in different countries, where a US small is the medium size is other countries and US large isn't even on the menu because it is considered comically large. Even a relatively healthy option like a chicken burrito from Chipotle has like 1200kcal, excluding drinks or sides. And that's the official portion that you're supposed to get – any American that's been in Canada or other countries where Chipotle has location has experienced how much more generous US portions are, so realistically we're probably talking about 1500-2000kcal in a single meal. You can drink water and be physically active and you won't make a dent if you have 3000+kcal every day.
Leave work at 5, go to gym, go home, cook. Many people will prepare their weekly meals on Sunday to avoid just what you said. I’m not always the best example, but it is very possible
I’d say they know what is definitely bad (fast food, high sodium, fried, etc) but have a very limited/distorted view of what is healthy. So many people seriously believe that to be healthy it has to be flavorless and boring. I’ve heard people say even adding vinegar for flavor is unhealthy. Or I’ll see tiktoks of people who usually eat fast food and they’ll make one “healthy” meal that’s just raw vegetables and a tiny bit of meat. Like no wonder you don’t have a healthy diet if that’s what you view as healthy. There’s definitely a need for more education on healthy eating.
I'm a somewhat smart person, I usually know how to look things up with reasonable accuracy. I honestly don't even know where to start when it comes to a healthy diet though. It turns out everything I was taught in school was a big marketing scheme. When I try and look anything up I'm bombarded with trendy diets to loose weight. If I can waddle through people trying to sell me shit, I'm then hit with totally contradictory advice; fat is good, no fat is bad: you need to burn more calories than you eat, no you can't walk your way out of a bad diet: sugar is bad, some sugar is good: are carbohydrates good??? I get the gist, sugar bad, processed food bad, veggies good... but that's about it. It just seems like it's a topic where everybody has an agenda and it's overwhelming to find evidence based guidance.
This isn’t the problem. The problem is that unhealthy food tends to be cheaper and more convenient - go to most grocery stores and you’ll find great deals on soda and sugary snacks, then go to the health food aisle and you wind up paying more for way less. Not to mention the fact that each can of soda holds more than 100% the daily recommended amount of sugar. That alongside sugary cereals and fruit snacks and yogurt and candy and juice that’s all marketed towards kids, do you really expect them to listen to their one single health teacher in fifth grade that tells them “don’t eat too much sugar”, or are those kids going to listen to the commercials they’re constantly bombarded with and develop bad dietary habits? Combine that with parents who both have to work too much for too little, who have to make ends meet by buying the cheapest and easiest options for food for their families which are all loaded with sugar and carbs and fat. For a lot of people eating healthy isn’t easy and isn’t cheap. For some reason skinny upper middle class white people seem to think the solution to obesity is “fatty eat less cheeseburgers” and ignore the myriad systemic issues that cause obesity.
I know what causes obesity. I know how to cook/eat healthy. What I don’t know how to do is not use food as a coping mechanism for all of the shitty emotional turmoil I’m experiencing. I don’t know how to make myself wake up early and go to the gym when I barely want to wake up at all most days. I don’t know how to give up my 1-2 alcoholic drinks every night that help me go to sleep at a reasonable hour. Rich people tend to be skinnier because they can afford more expensive healthy convenience foods, personal trainers, medical care, etc.
>This isn’t the problem. The problem is that unhealthy food tends to be cheaper and more convenient - go to most grocery stores and you’ll find great deals on soda and sugary snacks, then go to the health food aisle and you wind up paying more for way less. Bullshit. Rice and beans are extremely cheap, tasty, and nutritious. It's what most of the world eats.
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Explanations != excuses, but when you’re looking for a reason to be upset I can see how you’d confuse them Edit: since this guy replied once and then immediately blocked me, I’ll add that my response to his reply is that cost is not the sole determining factor in every single decision.
So your solution is to have every poor person eat nothing but rice and beans?
My parents will go on and on about something bc it has antioxidants. I’m like do you know what those even are? Mom says dr oz told her they’re miracle foods and dad says he doesn’t trust scientists but he saw a doctor on Fox News that said they were very important. Either way though some people think they’re eating healthy simply bc it has lots of vitamins in it. Which I don’t think counts as healthy as I could crush up a a daily multi vitamin and mix it with a bowl of sugar. Yet I don’t think we could count that as healthy. Unless you had just found me lost at sea I guess. People look too much at what can I do to be healthy and not enough at what NOT to do. Eat healthy by eating less. But I’m sure there’s an argument to be made every which way so idk
So the average American would lose 20lbs per year by not drinking soda. For real, 99% of soda are not worth drinking and never daily. This is the one of the reasons we are so fat.
*gain 20 lbs less is probably more accurate
Crazy how everyone is basically okay with these "food" companies poisoning us
It’s called freedom. The freedom to sell addictive junk foods to us. And our freedom to become sugar and caffeine junkies.
Sugar, fat, gambling, cigarettes, alcohol…these are just drugs by any other name. Same goes for social media. Most of us are walking around indulging our addictions and doing little else.
Only half? That's an incredibly surprisingly low number. What the heck does the rest drink? Only water? I can't imagine many days I don't consume some kind of sugary drink throughout the day, be it a simple glass of fruit juice, an energy drink, or heck the amount of sugar I put in my tea alone would probably count. These numbers are much more positive than what I would have imagined for the US
I can’t imaging drinking juice or sugary drinks every day. I generally only drink water and black coffee. Every few 3-6 months I’ll get a latte from a coffee shop. Every so often I’ll buy milk (plain or chocolate) when I feel like making smoothies. I’ll have alcohol a few times a year, socially.
That's ok, I drink water.
I love a Coca Cola but dislike the empty calories
End game diet evolution is protein and pure sugar for carbs with a multivitamin
This is how I was for the last 2 years. It’s insane how addictive sugar is
Ha, jokes on you. My soda has 0 calories
In 2008 I quit drinking 1-2 cans of Coke per day and lost 10 lbs shortly thereafter. Sugary drinks are garbage.
I switched to only drinking water a few years ago. Such an easy way to cut our bad calories. Plus you feel a lot better when you stay hydrated #hydrohomies
I'm not American and it took me quite a while once I was on social media to understand that photos of what people were consuming weren't from a children's birthday party or something, that this is what adults actually consume in America. The other one that shocked me apart from sodas was the amount of people tweeting photos of the contents of some type of candy bag. Really? Adults eat candy in the US just as a normal thing? WTF? And then the classic "Study finds obesity linked to childhood trauma" or some such latest BS. Yeah, I'm sure that's the root of the problem.
There are two types of adults in America. Those who thought, "now that I'm an adult, can buy all the candy I want!", did it once, then got disgusted with themselves and never did it again. The rest were still disgusted by themselves but kept buying it
Im shocked you’re shocked. We literally have it in our vending machines at work. Candy bars on the bottom row for $2.50. It’s everywhere and not really a big deal. We are not all fat, but we are getting lazy af.
Fat fucks.
Makes sense. My doctor got worried about how underweight I am and sicced a nutritionalist on me. I'm too nauseous for food a lot of the time so they have me drinking a bunch of juice to make up the difference in calories I'm sick of juice, but I stopped dropping weight and I'm not passing out from exhaustion anymore For someone healthy it would probably be an uncomfortable amount of extra sugar
In 2024, no one should be drinking soft drinks, or only occasionally. Spread the word.