Are some people too 'anti' for their own good?

rudebwoy – Member
Funny how you look at things from a subjective view

As opposed to? 😉

Don’t we all do that by definition?

Just going back to that link I posted to the Guardian article on nutrition – there were a few families scrimping big time when buying food for themselves and their children. Interesting though that they continued with their basic £25 per month Sky subscription.

My priority would have been feeding the kids properly and doing without Sky.

That is pretty awful. Just goes to show that we really need to improve education and understanding of the benefits of good food and nutrition, and somehow stop, or at very least, reduce the influence of the advertising that makes things like Sky seem like a necessity.

People seem to care more about what they’re eating, (and drinking)

so if that is so, how come obesity is getting worse ??

My point is that if you are worn out from work, you are less likely to cook a meal from scratch,

The supermarket always sees off the local competition, and like all the big fast food outlets, take money out of the ‘local’ economy,subsidised low wages — oh yes the wonders of market forces !!

So the obesity epidemic is a myth then eh ?

Glad you ave a lovely local butcher, and that you are not working shifts, or on a building site.
Awesome levels of drivel there.
butchers, like most shops open at more or less the same times as most non-shiftworkers work. Like me. So I shop at one of 2 butchers, one almost next door to me but closes well before I get home (oh, if only I worked shifts), so only good for early morning or weekend shop, the other is further away but better and is open till about 6.
As far as I know, neither of these fine establishments has a policy of banning people who work on building sites.

The supermarket always sees off the local competition

Not necessarily. Just exercise some choice. I do. Its not hard.

Same principle as obesity not being McDonalds fault. Its the fault of people who can’t make the decision to stop shoveling food into their gobs, then look for someone else to blame, as always. If they weren’t doing it at McDonalds, they’d just be doing it somewhere else.

I think it’s safe to say that crack is significantly more dangerous than big macs.

Are we facing a ‘national crack time bomb’ then?

Binners +1

Not necessarily. Just exercise some choice. I do. Its not hard.

Same principle as obesity not being McDonalds fault. Its the fault of people who can’t make the decision to stop shoveling food into their gobs, then look for someone else to blame, as always. If they weren’t doing it at McDonalds, they’d just be doing it somewhere else.

I agree that its not MacDonald’s fault, however I’m not sure its as simple as being “the fault of people who can’t make the decision to stop shovelling food into their gobs”. How is that you are able to make that decision but they aren’t? Are you innately superior in some way, or have you had an education/upbringing/life that has taught you the value of good food and good nutrition?

Obviously if you’re just innately or genetically better than other people then we’ll never solve the obesity problem unless they all die out or we sterilise all the fatties, so we can create a perfect master race who only shop organic. If its the product of a better education and upbringing, then we have to work out a way to give that to more people.

pleaderwilliams – Member
How is that you are able to make that decision but they aren’t?

Because, taking personal responsibility is not THAT hard, despite the list of excuses we come up with these days.

Are you innately superior in some way, or have you had an education/upbringing/life that has taught you the value of good food and good nutrition?

I am sure than binners will respond, but equally sure that he uses common sense. Certainly sounds like it!

Are you innately superior in some way,

To most people, Yes! 😉

Actually…. far from it. I’m a complete bloody idiot. So I’m just not having it that people constantly shoveling junk food down themselves, are blissfully unaware that its bad for them?

I’m sure they’re not “blissfully unaware”, they must know something of the dangers, you can’t live in this country in this day and age and not. But, they still do it.

Why do they do it? Why can you use common sense and take personal responsibility when they can’t? If you can do it, then there must be some reason why they don’t do? What is it that makes the difference between you and them?

Erm….. Binners isn’t exactly a svelte figure IIRC (and nor am I for that matter) so I’m not sure he’s an authority on self-discipline. 😛

Well, whether its binners, whose svelteness I have no idea about, or somebody more svelte, the point stands. Why do some people eat well and exercise, when others are obese?

CAVE dweller.

Well I would suggest it’s mainly about how successful parents are in fighting against the tide of ubiquitous and heavily advertised junk food. Some do better than others, but I’m not sure those who don’t manage that so well should be demonised, while the people selling the junk get off scot free, which is what some people here are arguing for.

Obviously if you’re just innately or genetically better than other people then we’ll never solve the obesity problem unless they all die out or we sterilise all the fatties, so we can create a perfect master race who only shop organic

Sounds familiar.

Eek!!

Big Mac or 1/4lber and cheese?

Very diplomatically put Grum! 😉 Svelte certainly isn’t an accusation you could level at me!

I’m no stranger to the pie! Though I’m just about to cook salmon fillets, new potatoes, and asparagus in a peppercorn sauce! Get me and my fancy northern ways!!! 😀

Sorry, may have gone a little off-track with the master race analogy, but I’m genuinely interested to find out what we think it is that stops other people from being able to keep off the junk like us (assuming you do think that you can!!).

FWIW I generally agree with grum, although I don’t really think we should demonise MacDonalds either, I just think we should reduce the influence of advertising, particularly on children, and increase education, again, particularly for children.

Sorry, may have gone a little far with the master race analogy, but I’m genuinely interested to find out what we think it is that stops other people from being able to keep off the junk like us (assuming you do think that you can generally keep pretty healthy).

Genetic predisposition. 😉

Personally I have a soft spot for rubbish food but I am riddled with guilt once I have eaten it. I’m not overweight but I dread to think what my cholesterol is like! It’s a choice though, not a good one but I’m adult enough to make it without needing to blame the big corporations for daring to tell me that they have it for sale and how delicious it all is.

I had practically zero education on food/healthy eating etc when I was at school but again, I don’t blame my education for my sweet tooth. Likewise my parents occasionally took me to McDonalds when I was a nipper. Again I don’t blame them for my constant temptation to raid the biscuit barrel.

As a grown up I am informed enough about the ills of eating junk food not least because when I eat it, I literally feel like junk so I don’t eat it as regularly as I easily could. I make that choice because I don’t want to die when I’m 40, I don’t want to be out of breath going up the stairs, I don’t want to be so lacking in energy I can’t ride my bike. Likewise when I eat junk food I have to deal with the consequences of that. It is pointless me blaming McDonalds, Tescos etc for supplying it, because I can still choose to either eat a packet of crisps and chocolate bar because it’s convenient or I can chop up some veg and throw together a healthy stew. I still have that choice as far as I am aware, like everybody else.

It’s not as hard as you think to become obese.

I’m not, but I know some people who are or have been. And they aren’t gluttons. Well, some of them ate rather a lot at mealtimes and drank a fair bit, but even that didn’t look terribly excessive. Especially if you’ve been brought up to expect a certain portion size cos it’s what you’ve always seen. And there are people I know who don’t eat anything out of ‘the ordinary’ and are still quite overweight.

I think the problem is mostly people making poor choices when they do eat and not realising it.

Supermarkets do well, not because of a lack of alternatives, but mainly because of the sheer bloody laziness of a lot of people IMHO. A lot of them being the same NIMBY’s who bemoan the death of local shops, while doing all their shopping at Tesco’s

Pretty much all my groceries come from the supermarket because they’re actually open when myself or my other half are available to go shopping. The local grocers, bakers, candle-stick makers et al are conveniently only open when I’m at work.

BTW, dunno if you’ve noticed but in many areas (perhaps the less, erm, affluent ones) there are no bloody local bakers, butchers etc. so you’ve no option really. Unless you do all your shopping once a month at the “farmers” market and want to spend shed load extra for some “artisan” carrots just cos they’ve left the green bits on for you so to make your suburban kitchen look all rustic and authentic.

Diet. Is that the stuff people buy at home, or is everyone just eating badly when they go to McD’s? Education, not availability of the product, is to blame. People can still buy cigarettes, but less do because of education – and death of course – but education is the answer.

This, I think.
I’m pretty sure that most of those turning up at MaccyD’s in the evening in their Corsa/Saxo/whatever and then leaving a trail of debris along the country lanes for several miles aren’t school kids.
I regularly see kids on their way to the local secondary school, often clearly overweight, scoffing a packet of crisps, or chugging a can of liquid sugar, or stuffing a chocolate bar into their gob. They’re the ones with the problem, and their parents are often the same. A burger with fries once in a while is nowhere near as bad as sticky sugary sweet things ingested pretty much every day.
I can honestly say, btw, that I have eaten a McD product only once in my entire life; a Big Mac. And it was a crushing disappointment, after seeing what they were supposed to look like on telly.
I do eat Burger King occasionally, ‘cos they’re a decent size burger, but I usually get mine from the independent place in town once or twice a month, after the pub. A double blue cheese, with fries, and a load of salad for £4.70, mmmmmm, I could just go for one of those right now… 😈

I’m pretty sure that most of those turning up at MaccyD’s in the evening in their Corsa/Saxo/whatever and then leaving a trail of debris along the country lanes for several miles aren’t school kids.
I regularly see kids on their way to the local secondary school, often clearly overweight, scoffing a packet of crisps, or chugging a can of liquid sugar, or stuffing a chocolate bar into their gob.

Or to be more concise:
“I see young people being reckless and I see kids eating sweets”

Doesn’t look like anything new to me.

*Wonders if Mike’s bike shop really closed, or just went down the road to West End Lane instead….) 😉

Anyway, I’ve just been to the pub. You’ll be pleased to know I only had a half.

Of Mikkeler Black Tequila Speyside. AWOOOGA, AWOOOGA, AWOOOGA!

Very restrained there Flashy! My salmon was lovely BTW 😀

Salmon? Do they do a McSalmon now? 😉

Or is it a Fillet-o-Salmon?

A burger with fries once in a while is nowhere near as bad as sticky sugary sweet things ingested pretty much every day.

Yes, which is why I was criticising the junk food industry in general, not just McDonalds. Yes kids have long eaten sweets and drunk sugary drinks, just not in the industrial quantities they do now – with a strange correlation between that and obesity, and the massive increase in advertising spend on promoting such ‘foods’.

But of course there’s no connection.

This thread seems to have moved on a bit from its original question – but here’s my tuppence worth anyway.

Yes, a lot of people are too ‘anti’ for their own good.

Nobody bothered with the place before, nobody bothered with it when it was empty and becoming derilict – how can anyone be ‘anti’ in this specific case?

There are instances where I can understand being ‘anti’ because of the hyper-aggressive tactics of some chains. For example, Starbuck used to have a policy (according to Naomi Klein) of setting up branches that deliberately cannibalised the sales of their own pre-existing branches as that would ‘prove’ that they had taken as much of the market as possible in that area and most likely killed off all competition. I doubt this would go down too well with shareholders in the current climate though.

This is erring towards simple bullying of small businesses by a big player – but those small businesses must also move with the times. Perhaps they needed to re-decorate or encourage a sort of localism by marketing themselves as niche, anti-Starbucks, fiercely independent etc.

When it comes down to it, there will always be successful independents – but they will be ones that are well-run (and so profitable), and offer some quality and character. Chains will always struggle to oust these as they are too rigidly rule-driven to adapt.

As a potential customer, if you let a particular business go to the wall by not frequenting it, then you can’t expect to have the right to decide what should replace it.

Binners or Grum earlier?

WTF is that!?

Whole wheat couscous and roasted vegetables for tea here btw. 🙂

I have eaten a McD product only once in my entire life; a Big Mac. And it was a crushing disappointment

Don’t eat the burgers in McDs, they are awful. I always have something with chicken in it – either a wrap of some kind or chicken selects or something, which is quite nice fried chicken tenders.

Don’t eat the burgers in McDs, they are awful

Snob. 😉

I quite like the 1/4 pounder with cheese. Not a fan of Big Macs at all.

Fortunately fried chicken is one of my favourite ever things – dunno why, but I could eat it all day 🙂

I quite like the 1/4 pounder with cheese. Not a fan of Big Macs at all.

Do you know what they call a Quarter Pounder in France?

Is it to do with the metric system?