As always, there is not one US.
Well, yes but. We lived in the SF Bay Area for 20 years. We ate at home as we would have in France. But we were in the fortunate position of being able to pay outrageous prices for decent quality ingredients. (My favourite example was $17 for 3 leeks – yes, the well known Welsh-emblematic vegetable). In Wholefoods just one onion costs more than a Big Mac. For people living on a limited income (i.e. most) the option to buy fresh fruit and veg, and fish and lean meat, doesn’t exist.
Baguette from a fancy boutique bakery in Mountain View: $6. Baguette from our local bakery here: $1.50. Etc.
Granary baguette at Aldi €0.69.:))
Its funny Brits coming to France think food here is expensive compared to UK. Last year I was in the UK and thought that food in the supermarkets was expensive there, compared to France and many other French people think the same. So one can only assume what we eat is very different. And I’m not talking about a bottle of wine :))
johnh wrote:
Baguette from a fancy boutique bakery in Mountain View: $6. Baguette from our local bakery here: $1.50. Etc.
Try to buy good corn tortillas locally 
I imagine many here will understand the economic situation in Mountain View is driven by an average household income of $144K annually.
My German wife is quite the bread aficionado but has found inexpensive bread locally that suits her tastes. One source is (believe it or not) Costco, among the less enticing choices are 8 good rolls available for $5.50 
She wouldn’t set foot in Whole Foods, Panera Bread or the like, they offend her frugal sensibilities, and her total cost for everything routine in our life including all household items plus her car fuel is $1200 monthly. As is well known, Germans are careful shoppers and we have two Aldis within 3 miles of our house… which natürlich pleases her a lot in relation to saving money on good food. She also buys bread there, unbaked, I’m informed two loaves cost $2.55. We also have other supermarkets locally with 99.999% hispanic customer base and guess what, she doesn’t mind being the only güera in the store and they carry German brands distributed widely in Mexico but not elsewhere in the US. All this then contributes to me being able to put away $6300 a month in my companies savings plan.
I find her whole food shopping procedure pleasantly amusing to watch.
Great article on how food choices impact you directly.
A professor in Australia or New Zealand has been researching the effect of non-fresh food on telomere length. They shorten over life, and eventually you die.
I’m dubious about the minutes of life lost by eating one burger.
It’s like a 20 year old lost 60 years of life by jumping off a 20m cliff.
So you lose 1 year of life every time you jump off a 0.34m object.
(I’ve never enjoyed fast food, only eating burgers for social acceptability.)
Yes; I am sure nobody has managed to work out that eating a burger takes 34.5 mins off your life. But one can do broad-brush studies which correlate lifestyle (and especially food) with life expectancy. Then divide up the extra years by the number of burgers eaten, etc
One problem is that somebody always points out that obesity doesn’t kill you all that fast. That’s because modern health care is very good at keeping people alive. But what it does do is it reduces the quality of the last few decades of one’s life.
That was before coronavirus arrived and the hospital wards filled up with obese people. But the PC media cannot (mostly) report it. So you get e.g. this – “had no underlying health conditions”.
Aren’t there supposedly 3 factors related to hamburger eating? One being the fat content which can lead to obesity which can eventually put a strain on the heart leading to an infarction or stroke. The second are the plaques of bad cholesterol which clogs up the arteries and the third being that they are red meat which leads to some bad heart condition I don’t remember which. It might be hardening of the arteries and some valve issues.
At least it’s what my cardiologist told me.
Yes x 3 – nothing good about them really
I know of sooo many pilots who gave up due to loss of medical, and cardiac issues are the #1 reason. Actually they should have sorted their cardiac issues regardless of whether they want to fly but that’s another debate… Almost everything to do with the heart can be fixed.
Peter wrote:
That was before coronavirus arrived and the hospital wards filled up with obese people. But the PC media cannot (mostly) report it. So you get e.g. this – “had no underlying health conditions”.
Myabe (probably) I am missing the point, but is obesity not included as an underlying health condition in the UK as far as this is concerned?
Not in the “public” media, AFAICS. They can’t do it; there would be mass complaints.
