So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Fading Fast]

...I love Creme Eggs. S'why I'm fat.

Two thoughts:

One, there is something very visually / emotionally appealing about the "white and yoke" inside the Cadbury Creme Egg. I don't know if it is the cute factor, the "how'd they do that" factor or what, but when you break into that egg, it brings a smile to your face.

And two, I was surprised to read this yesterday:

"Underweight Americans actually consumed more soda and sweet snacks than average-weight individuals, while overweight, obese, severely obese and morbidly obese individuals consumed less soda, sweet snacks and salty snacks than average-weight individuals."

From this article:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/soda-and-junk-foods-are-not-making-you-fat-2015-11-06

Counterintuitive

 

[LizzieMaine]

I know when I had a fast metabolism, as a teenager, I lived on sugary crap. I'd come home from school with a quart of Coke and a tray of Nissen's Creme Horns, and I'd swallow every speck of it before supper. And probably knock off a whole jar of powdered ice-tea mix between supper and bedtime. I was underweight all thru my childhood, and only weighed 120 pounds when I was 19, which is on the low end for my height. I held that weight until I hit 34.

My metabolism completely shifted when I went into middle age, and I'm forty to fifty pounds heavier than I was as a feckless youth. And I hate sugary crap -- other than a Coke once in a while, and a handful of Milk Duds, I eat very little sugary stuff. I never eat desserts -- in fact, I actively dislike desserts -- and never put sugar in my tea. I eat a ton less sugar than I did thirty or forty years ago, but I can't lose weight to save my life.

Conjecture: it's more about how old you are when you eat the sugary crap than how much sugary crap you eat. I'd be interested to see an age breakdown for exactly who is eating all this sugar -- my intuition tells me that it's not people over the age of 35.

 

[Fading Fast]

I know when I had a fast metabolism, as a teenager, I lived on sugary crap. I'd come home from school with a quart of Coke and a tray of Nissen's Creme Horns, and I'd swallow every speck of it before supper. And probably knock off a whole jar of powdered ice-tea mix between supper and bedtime. I was underweight all thru my childhood, and only weighed 120 pounds when I was 19, which is on the low end for my height. I held that weight until I hit 34.

My metabolism completely shifted when I went into middle age, and I'm forty to fifty pounds heavier than I was as a feckless youth. And I hate sugary crap -- other than a Coke once in a while, and a handful of Milk Duds, I eat very little sugary stuff. I never eat desserts -- in fact, I actively dislike desserts -- and never put sugar in my tea. I eat a ton less sugar than I did thirty or forty years ago, but I can't lose weight to save my life.

Conjecture: it's more about how old you are when you eat the sugary crap than how much sugary crap you eat. I'd be interested to see an age breakdown for exactly who is eating all this sugar -- my intuition tells me that it's not people over the age of 35.

That's a smart thought - overall and anecdotally from what I see, kids and teens eat more sugary stuff than adults. Although, some of the millennials are very thoughtful about not eating processed snacks etc., but away from what is only a subset of the millennials, kids, teenagers and young adults do seem to consume more of the "packaged" sweet and salty snacks.

That said, and I know I'm an anomaly, when I hit middle age, my appetite plunged (I went from consuming food in mass quantities like most men in their 20s and even 30s, to eating like a bird at meals as I fill up quickly). I now actively snack to keep weight on and eat sweet and salty snacks everyday or, as my girlfriend says, I'll just disappear.

But again, I'm a one-off, your thought is probably, at least, part of the answer to the seemingly odd result.

 

[GHT]

I'd be interested to see an age breakdown for exactly who is eating all this sugar -- my intuition tells me that it's not people over the age of 35.

Problem is Lizzie, the food industry adds sugar to so many things, from ketchup to beer, whether it's refined cane sugar, sugar beet or molasses, it all finds it's way into the food chain. Can I give up my guilty pleasure of a glass or three of Merlot and just drink water? Probably not, but then the problem is that the alcohol anaesthetises all of one's good intentions.

 

[LizzieMaine]

On the other hand, no matter what you eat, and in what quantities, you're still going to die. All any of us are doing is bargaining for time.

 

[Fading Fast]

And despite all our carping (and I carp loudly with the rest of us), life expectancies in developed (and developing, with a few exceptions) countries have increased meaningfully over the last 100 years, so something is going right.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The jury's still out, however, on whether that's entirely a good thing. Nothing fills me with greater dread than the possibility of living past the point where I can no longer work.

 

[tonyb]

The jury's still out, however, on whether that's entirely a good thing. Nothing fills me with greater dread than the possibility of living past the point where I can no longer work.

It's not a happy prospect for those who fear they won't find meaning in something else.

I'm already much less able to do the sorts of work I could have done as recently as, say, nine or 10 years ago. It's sobering, for sure, this knowing that I will never again be noticed by anyone in search of a strapping young man, whatever the aim of that person's search.

What's more troubling is being overlooked on account of one's seniority in contexts under which age oughtn't matter. I attribute that mostly to insecurity on the part of the youngsters. The fear is that the old guy will let them know just how much they don't know. Anyone fearful of being shown up has no business being in the game. Hell, I've been shown up more times than I can recall. Made me better, was all. Talents rub off on people, if those people will let them.

 

[swanson_eyes]

I think too much junk does make you fat, but for different people different foods are junk. For instance, a lot of dietary fat will make some people gain weight, but I eat an unholy amount of cheese and cream I don't gain back anything I lost. I mean, at times I've eaten over 2,000 calories in fat in a day (from nuts) and had a weight drop after. Maybe the obese people in the study were eating "healthy" foods like non-fried potatoes and pasta with low-fat sauce and bread with jam, no butter. All of that is junk to me because of the way my metabolism functions. I'd like to take a closer look at that study to find out if the conclusions drawn are based on true causation or just correllation.

 

[GHT]

And despite all our carping (and I carp loudly with the rest of us), life expectancies in developed (and developing, with a few exceptions) countries have increased meaningfully over the last 100 years, so something is going right.

Much of that is due to better housing, sanitation and hygiene. Thomas Crapper might be ridiculed for his name and although he didn't invent the flushing toilet, he did invent the ballcock, which not only improved everything, it reduced the cost significantly.
About the poor fellow's name: It has often been claimed in popular culture that the slang term for human bodily waste, crap, originated with Thomas Crapper because of his association with lavatories. A common version of this story is that American servicemen stationed in England during World War I saw his name on cisterns and used it as army slang, i.e. "I'm going to the crapper".
Even to this day the comic aspect of his name bemuses people. Sewer inspection covers with Crapper's company's name on them in Westminster Abbey are now one of London's minor tourist attractions and are photographed, often on cell phones, to be texted back home, with some lavatorial ditty.

 

[Fading Fast]

Much of that is due to better housing, sanitation and hygiene. Thomas Crapper might be ridiculed for his name and although he didn't invent the flushing toilet, he did invent the ballcock, which not only improved everything, it reduced the cost significantly.
About the poor fellow's name: It has often been claimed in popular culture that the slang term for human bodily waste, crap, originated with Thomas Crapper because of his association with lavatories. A common version of this story is that American servicemen stationed in England during World War I saw his name on cisterns and used it as army slang, i.e. "I'm going to the crapper".
Even to this day the comic aspect of his name bemuses people. Sewer inspection covers with Crapper's company's name on them in Westminster Abbey are now one of London's minor tourist attractions and are photographed, often on cell phones, to be texted back home, with some lavatorial ditty.

Agreed that is meaningful part of the story, but better treatments for the two biggest killers - heart disease and cancer - and (looking back over the last century) the invention of antibiotics and vaccines for Polio, etc., are also a meaningful part of the story.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

We have fallen into a schizoid mindset when it comes to health and long life. On one hand, we try to keep as many people as possible alive for as long as possible. On the other, we're in despair over how we can care for a huge, aging population.

 

[Edward]

Much of that is due to better housing, sanitation and hygiene. Thomas Crapper might be ridiculed for his name and although he didn't invent the flushing toilet, he did invent the ballcock, which not only improved everything, it reduced the cost significantly.
About the poor fellow's name: It has often been claimed in popular culture that the slang term for human bodily waste, crap, originated with Thomas Crapper because of his association with lavatories. A common version of this story is that American servicemen stationed in England during World War I saw his name on cisterns and used it as army slang, i.e. "I'm going to the crapper".
Even to this day the comic aspect of his name bemuses people. Sewer inspection covers with Crapper's company's name on them in Westminster Abbey are now one of London's minor tourist attractions and are photographed, often on cell phones, to be texted back home, with some lavatorial ditty.

'Crap' long predates Thomas Crapper; it's an Anglo-Saxon word. Crapper is often erroneously credited with inventing the flush toilet, though he did make very aignificant improvements to it, like the ballcock.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Besides, everybody knows the flush toilet was invented by Zerubbabel Cann.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Problem is Lizzie, the food industry adds sugar to so many things, from ketchup to beer, whether it's refined cane sugar, sugar beet or molasses, it all finds it's way into the food chain. Can I give up my guilty pleasure of a glass or three of Merlot and just drink water? Probably not, but then the problem is that the alcohol anaesthetises all of one's good intentions.

I've often wondered about that. Why would canned chili need sugar????

 

[swanson_eyes]

I've often wondered about that. Why would canned chili need sugar????

Because sweet intensifies savory/salty and vice versa.

 

[GHT]

I've often wondered about that. Why would canned chili need sugar????

Beware the 'ose.' Food manufacturers use glucose, sucrose and fructose as definitions of sugar. They also use the term sodium for salt. And just for good measure the water content is often defined as aqua.
When you remove all of those, how much chilli is there in the can? And on that point V.C., my wife and I like plum tomatoes, but when they are out of season we buy the canned variety. I tell you, when you eat your vegetables (I know tomatoes are a fruit,) fresh, on a regular basis, that's when you can distinctly taste the added sugar and salt.

 

[2jakes]

I've often wondered about that. Why would canned chili need sugar????

Ingredients used by Food Manufacturers .

 

[sheeplady]

There's a few ways to make food taste good that isn't really "good" on its own: sugar, salt, and fat.

Anything packaged as "low fat" is likely high in sugar and/or sodium, etc. Sugar, fat, and sodium are all incredibly cheap.

 

[swanson_eyes]

OK, I have one: life insurance commercials that play on people's fears. I understand that beneficiaries have to deal with burial and such, but no company can legally force them to pay the deceased's credit debts. Some company comes after me for my mom's remaining bills? My answer will be "no".