My kids gravitate towards that as well. Although I will say that on our summer road trip when we stopped at a Bucees style mega gas station, they circled the refrigerator sections of real food like fruit cups and yogurt parfaits and picked out some of the items there. It was annoying since I spent like $50 on lunch at a gas station for the family, but I am a believer that people will make better choices if the options are available and not so expensive.
I don’t think sandwiches are junk food and a pizza is just a modified grilled cheese sandwich.
I don’t think it is ever “very healthy” although with the right ratio of chicken and vegetable toppings to cheese and white bread crust, it can become an acceptable meal nutritionally.
Now what % of pizza might fit that description? Is that what you think the dollar general shopper relying on frozen pizza for their meals is buying?
I think you just solved your own “how to make junk food more expensive” puzzle.
I think that this trend is the bigger problem.
Try comparing the amount of calories in the average McDonalds meal from 1984 to the average meal in 2024.
You could probably approximate it by looking at a by comparing a meal with a cheeseburger, small fries and a small pop to a quarter pounder with cheese, medium fries, medium drink.
Let me say this in another more political way. The MAGA situation demonstrates that at least 1 in 5 people can have a spark of desire fanned into a self destructive bonfire of obsession simply by manipulating the media they consume, and their social environment.
This is what product marketing does. When hostess advertises “wholesome Hostess” Little Debbie benefits. The spark of desire is there we all just need an excuse/reminder/incentive to not make the most reasonable choice. Most decisions we make are not reasoned at the moment, marketing provides the excuse.
This is what I found quickly, but lets assume the US version probably looks like this but is only more extreme:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/509294/frozen-foods-per-capita-consumption-germany/
Calling frozen pizza an acceptable meal is what gets us obesity rates at 40%.
There are a lot of problems. We waste time trying to decide which one is the biggest when we have no idea what nutrition should look like.
I remember being in an argument with STBX and he was like “you eat just as much pizza as me!!!”
Uh… ok. I eat thin crust pizza with pineapple or broccoli or if I’m feeling indulgent maybe sausage & onions.
He would get the pan pizza (which literally soaks in margarine overnight in all of its trans-fat deliciousness) with 6 different kinds of meat on it and no vegetables at all.
Not the same thing. It … had not occurred to him that there was a nutritional difference in the two because both are “pizza”.
Yes, that is the solution, but it can’t be step 1 in today’s outrage society.
Yeah, cutting corn subsidies is going to be difficult to get through Congress.
Have stayed out of this discussion as it is a personal one for me. Obesity has been an issue in my mother’s family for a long time: someone in her family has died of it (including my younger brother at age 38) in at least each of the last four generations.
That family history has persuaded me to eat thoughtfully and exercise daily throughout my adult life. Knowing someone who has died from obesity is a great incentive to keep the weight down!
There is a huge responsibility in any family for the main buyer of food and preparer of meals to be knowledgeable in food quality. My wife has been the expert in our family and she has made sure all family members have eaten properly over the decades. She is my conscience when I stray on my food buying habits. Our kids have passed on their healthy eating habits to their kids. I am not sure how that discipline gets dispersed to the general population but certainly schools have a role.
Being 74 years old, I have seen a revolution in the rise of ultra-processed foods in that period. The food I ate growing up was healthier than it is now. Fast food was not as prevalent as now. We did not drink soft drinks as kids but if we did Coke came in 7 ounce bottles. Everything is supersized now. So much more temptation to make bad food choices now. I have no problem with sin taxes on junk foods to decrease consumption.
I suggest reading anything by Michael Pollan for great insights on the food industry.
3 Likes
Somewhat disagree here also. Trump, MAGA, Fox, MTG, Limbaugh, Twitter is not something that succeeds because it was strategically advertised. It succeeds because it is, itself, junk food. People eat that shit up because they can’t get enough. Those products all sell themselves.
You might add that Conservatives slip their preferred tax policy into their garbage junk food media products. But the media obsession itself is self-selling imo.
Disagree. I make a whole wheat crust pizza and homemade sauce and top it with veggies and part skim cheese and leftover chicken or turkey. That’s basically a turkey sandwich minus cranberry jelly plus tomato sauce.
Basic frozen cheese pizza isn’t terrible, although probably not “very healthy”.
For sure. If you had to pick one book, I’d start with The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Sorry, I have better stores available to me. Because I chose to live somewhere that does.
1 Like
So it’s a lot of work at home to make the version that is considered healthy, and a small number of frozen options "aren’t terrible. "
We are basically agreeing while arguing at the same time.
Buy some deli turkey and make a sandwich… seems like the intersection of healthy and convenient.
I find it hard to believe that a basic grocery store even in a well off area does not have those items. Not Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, but Kroger / Albertsons / Safeway / Piggly Wiggly / etc.
I live in a fairly well off part of town and BF is probably in an even wealthier part of town and our grocery stores certainly have those items. I don’t think there is a grocery store in the wealthiest part of town… they’re too snobby for that… they send their servants to the second wealthiest part of town (where BF lives) to shop there.
This is good news. Especially in food deserts.
Frozen produce is nutritionally similar to fresh produce. When nutrient decreases are reported in frozen produce, they’re generally small.
1 Like