America's Growing Problem

[kamiller42]

[quote name='sixpence' timestamp='1316583001' post='2307954']
may i haz a source for claims that food inc is full of flaws plez?
[/quote]
The source is me and my brain.

The movie contradicts itself. It spends part of the first 1/3 saying the evil cooperations are killing the small farmer. No way can they succeed. Somewhere in the middle of the movie, they cover a free range farmer who is doing well. So, what is it? Can or can't make it?

The attempt to draw a line between obesity and industrialized farming was wrong. They believe the way the food is made has lead to an obese nation. Right. Because before industrialized farming, there were no fat people. If industrialized food has made people fatter, it's because it's made more food more accessible to more people. Is this a bad thing? As they say in "Fat Head," you have a brain. Use it. You CAN say "no."

Then, the story of the family trying eat healthy on the cheap. That was exploitive and disgraceful. The point of the story was the family was tight on time and money. Because of this, they can't afford a decent meal. They show them shopping for food in the produce department, unable to to find affordable produce. They are then driving down the road, eating fast food.

The flaws are as follows:[list=1]
[*]The fast food meal they bought was $8 or $9. You can create some delicious healthy family meals for that amount of money. My mom and dad on limited income raised 6 boys with never full bellies. Get creative. Yes, we had to spike real milk from time to time with powdered to stretch it out. But, this is one way to make it work.
[*]Ok. The mom, and apparently no one else in the family, has no time to put a dinner together. Throw some beans in a crock pot and a bucket of rice in the microwave! Cut half an hour out of TV watching and cook dinner. I mean, really. I don't buy this. Staged.
[*]Back to their fast food meal. They are tight on money, but they order 2 sodas! How about cut back on the 2 sodas and get water instead? Roll the savings into buying a bushel of bananas.
[*]That's right. They can't buy a bushel because the grocery store charges too much for produce. Why not shop Walmart instead of your local grocer? Costs less. But, they had a point to make, so make it look as dire as possible.
[/list]
That family didn't need healthy food. They needed a course in home economics.

I could go on and on. It is so agenda driven that they end up being sloppy.

I agreed with two points in the movie: subsidies and, if true, legal harassment of farmers that have by accident plants grown from proprietary seeds. Unlike the movie's opinion, I have no problem with safe genetically modified food.

Super Size Me is another bad movie. Morgan Spurlock is a liar. He can't produce his eating diary, and no combination of items on McDonalds' menu using his rules can equal the calories he claimed to have consumed.

racheal,

Fat Head was not about eating all the junk food you want. It was done more humorously and tastefully (punny!) than Super Size Me.

[CatherineM]

If you want to talk about the amount of weight someone can lose without having surgery, I win. It can be done, but it takes determination. We should bring back recess for kids, and kick KFC out of our school cafeterias.

[sixpence]

i hate using my brain... it hurts me a lot

[Mr.Cat]

[quote name='CatherineM' timestamp='1316656008' post='2308368']We should bring back recess for kids, and kick KFC out of our school cafeterias.[/quote]I do like the idea of more recess for children... but I like the idea of improving our physical education/athletics programs even more.

If this was 6th grade student council debates, I know I would of just lost the vote.

[iheartjp2]

What I personally find disturbing are the criteria based on height vs. weight used to determine whether someone is overweight/obese or not. Based on my height vs. weight proportion (5'9":225 lbs), I should be considered overweight, though no one in their right mind who ever looked at me would once think that I was overweight. I think there are more people who fit this description than many are comfortable saying. I've always been stocky and built and therefore, have always proportionally weighed more than my peers. I looked more or less like all the kids in my third grade class (in terms of body weight) but I weighed 113 lbs while most of the other guys weighed between 60-70. It's ever-so-easy for skinny people to blame their weight/shape on their biology ('I just can't gain muscle'), but it seems that everyone who's a bit bigger than average [i]chooses[/i] to be that way. Yeah, I'm mostly muscle, but I have some cushion as well. So what? I'm not at an unhealthy weight (for me). I will even go so far as to say that the way I am (give or take maybe 10-15 lbs) is because of [i]my[/i] biology and no one should pressure me to lose weight because I go into a check-up and they're telling me that my height vs. weight proportion is off-balance somehow. Just my $0.02

[Mr.Cat]

I don't know if the body mass index is being used to determine if someone is underweight, overweight, or obese... Because it's one of the few methods of doing so, I assume it is, but I doubt to cite obvious exceptions to the body mass index ([i]which even this method admits[/i]) as somehow invalidating the rates... or inadvertently invalidating this serious problem among Americans... is silly.

Edited September 25, 2011 by Mr.Cat

[Winchester]

You accidentally the grammars.

[Mr.Cat]

Winchester, have you ever sought help for this pedantic problem you face?

[Winchester]

I suppose it was a literary device?

[Mr.Cat]

I don't know, J_lol claimed to use one with me before, maybe you should ask him.

[Winchester]

You don't know if the train wreck in http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/topic/115713-americas-growing-problem/page__view__findpost__p__2309436 was a literary device, or not? Are you using a ghostwriter?

[Mr.Cat]

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought your clear and obvious trolling had no purpose... and that my subtle and mocking reference to a literary device was enough?

Edited September 25, 2011 by Mr.Cat

[Winchester]

Why are you asking me?