Fast Food - Should It Be Banned?

[SOLDIER #819]

If a lung cancer patient would light up a cigarette, everyone would be in total awe. Whereas when a fat person would eat a dozen of fatty hamburgers, people around the table wouldn't dare to comment on it cause you "can't blame them, they have a disease"...

Come again?

But yeah, fast food is something I can really enjoy and I'm glad I have the opportunity to. But the same liberty that brings so many good things in our everyday life brings as much bad things to people who have more trouble controlling themselves.

I guess discipline is the key. But our fast money driven world I so despise doesn't make it easier.

Haha, hmm... I don't think I've ever gotten sympathy for being fat. I've always been told it's a matter of choice, and at some points teased in that light. I don't think most people have gotten it either, even if they truly have a condition that would cause them to be overweight. Culture has managed to assimilate both being overweight AND its reasons/excuses for being as such, so people will think what they want regardless of the situation.

It's the same with quitting smoking now that you mention it... so I also can understand it being difficult despite never having done it. People who have never experienced it can make it seem so easy... and I really wish it was, but that isn't how it is (for me).

But you're right, for most people it really is a matter of discipline. But I think that condensing the process into one word trivializes it and the numerous variables involved with it. I remember explaining calorie counting to a friend who simply went and said, "You don't have to count! Just get some exercise every once in a while and eat less!"

But then you have to wonder what once in a while is and what "less" really means, especially bringing fast food into the equation. Common sense can easily betray you, and when you get serious about being healthy you inevitably branch out into the sciences. And everyone's bodies, habits, and dispositions are different. It's just very hard to strike that balance... which is probably why so many people crash with their diets or why diets fail to yield ideal results much of the time.

Soooo, health-wise the world would be much better off without fast food. But since food can actually be awesome on many different levels (which any of us know if we go out to eat, or drink), there's yet another balance that needs to be considered.

[Govinda]

It's the same with quitting smoking now that you mention it... so I also can understand it being difficult despite never having done it. People who have never experienced it can make it seem so easy... and I really wish it was, but that isn't how it is (for me).

But you're right, for most people it really is a matter of discipline. But I think that condensing the process into one word trivializes it and the numerous variables involved with it. I remember explaining calorie counting to a friend who simply went and said, "You don't have to count! Just get some exercise every once in a while and eat less!"

Losing weight is nothing like trying to give up smoking. At all. When you don't have cigarettes it takes over your mind; nicotine's as addictive as heroin.

I'm on a diet and exercise regime just now, and I know it's not easy. I dream of toast, but I eat my bran crackers. I want to sit around and relax, but I make myself go to the gym or do my stupid exercise DVD. The going is really, really slow; but it makes you feel better as you go. I get the impression that my thighs just really like being huge. But when my jeans start hanging off, I feel I've done a good thing and it encourages me to do more. I am fully aware of the science, and I like to know how my body works and why it is responding to changes I'm making.

In a way, it is like giving up smoking, kind of; healthy eating and working out are a lifestyle. It pisses me off that some people can eat whatever they like and stay slim, but I'm not one of those people. Sucks, but what am I meant to do about it? Complain? Get fatter?

The thing with eating healthy is that you should never deprive yourself. I've taken to making my own recipes that are low on size, but big on flavour. Salad for me is like tapas. It's not a pile of leaves with some balsamic. It's leaves, yeah, but with tuna and egg, or pesto chicken, or...

It's about self-respect. If a friend says they want to get lunch at Burger King, that's fine. I'll get something else on the way and munch it there, or maybe even have a burger as a treat; I get one every two weeks. It's annoying that my friends can eat whatever they like, whenever they like; but that's not me. Oh well.

[SOLDIER #819]

In a way, it is like giving up smoking, kind of; healthy eating and working out are a lifestyle.

That's more or less what I meant. For a lot of people it's a complete shift in lifestyle. It's not just giving up a plate of food; you have to commit to a number of things you wouldn't otherwise. It may not manifest physical symptoms, but it's taxing and something you can easily screw up if you let up on it. The reward for either is good health... but as you said, the going's slow.

Not to make light of quitting smoking, however. It probably just matches up better in words than in experience.

Sucks, but what am I meant to do about it? Complain? Get fatter?

That's more or less how I feel right now. Regardless of what others may think, people need to make their own decisions to get where they want to go.