5 ms·

From my perspective over here in Malmö, Sweden it's sort of funny how americans have obsessed with Almond milk. The memes, the taunts and so on. Nobody I know

From my perspective over here in Malmö, Sweden it's sort of funny how americans have obsessed with Almond milk. The memes, the taunts and so on. Nobody I know drinks almond milk. We drink oat milk. The best manufacturer of oat replacement products for dairy is from this region of Sweden, Oatly. They make oat drinks, creams and ice cream. Personally at 35 I've stopped drinking milk altogether because it's a drink for juveniles. So I only use oat milk replacement in cooking.

arcticfox 7y ago
> milk is a drink for juveniles Lol from my perspective over here in America, I don't even know how to explain how silly that sounds.
- Lewton 7y ago
  Your reply sorta proves his point Americans are so obsessed with milk that the mere thought of not drinking it is seen as abnormal and weird That’s a pretty juvenile point of view, milk isn’t even particularly good for you
  - rocgf 7y ago
    > milk isn’t even particularly good for you Well, it's not like the healthiness of foods is what guides the average American. With that said, I think it's not particularly relevant if anything is good for your or not, since a lot of what and how we eat is driven by culture, and not rooted into any underlying science or reason - e.g. three meals a day, cereal in the morning, milk for strong bones and so on. So yeah, drinking milk in the US is just a part of culture now, and I am convinced that all countries have similar quirks.
    - serf 7y ago
      >Well, it's not like the healthiness of foods is what guides the average American. point me to the national culture that prioritizes food healthiness. Given that 'Americans' are so obviously not prioritizing that (apparently?), i'd like to see the opposite country, one where every individual prioritizes the health consequences of each and every meal. Extra credit for countries that eat healthy from imported food, and not just coincidentally healthy due to their local crops and harvests enforcing it as the cheaper and plentiful option. I won't hold my breath. Lots of anti-American sentiment around here. It's too bad that I seem to be the only one in this thread who thinks that these broad national generalizations of identity are actually hugely bigoted diatribe that has no real connection to the reality that we live in.. Guaranteed if I said something like "Germans all do.." i'd be flagged in minutes. I don't do that because 1) such statements are almost always false and 2) it's disrespectful and outside of what can happen in actual civil discourse. All I ask : Let's try to keep in mind that these big bad nations are actually full of individuals, all with different ideas and concepts of how to live our lives.
      - rocgf 7y ago
        I did say the 'average American', as opposed to 'all Americans, down to the last one'. You can choose to become defensive, but it is empirically true that the Americans are on the heavy side of things. I live in the UK and I could say the same thing about people here, though the US is much worse. Out of OECD/Western countries, the USA has the highest BMI and obesity rates. > point me to the national culture that prioritizes food healthiness You are strawmanning here. I never claimed that there is such a thing as a culture that prioritizes food health, nor did I claim that the US is the opposite of that. But if you want examples at the other end of the spectrum, there are plenty, most notably Japan. There are European countries that are tackling the obesity problem more successfully than others, such at the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, France. For example, the Netherlands has made it illegal for fast food chains to be with a certain distance of schools.
        perl4ever 7y ago
        "Out of OECD/Western countries, the USA has the highest BMI and obesity rates." I think this may be misleading. If you look at obesity rates, the US is an outlier, and around 38% compared to the UK at around 28% (from 2015, I think). But if you look at overweight rates, the US is pretty close to average.[1] Germany, Canada, the Netherlands all seem to have a slightly higher frequency of overweight people. I don't know why this is, but it seems like if the difference is in the number of more extreme individuals, then the cultural explanations don't make obvious sense. [1]Page 30 of http://www.oecd.org/sdd/37964873.pdf http://www.oecd.org/sdd/37964873.pdf
  - serf 7y ago
    >Americans are so obsessed with milk that the mere thought of not drinking it is seen as abnormal and weird Simply refuting that milk is (only) for children proves obsession. Great. I think the parent comment to yours was uncouth, boisterous, and silly. I don't think his point necessarily was. To roll that individual into 'American Obsession' is extraordinarily silly. All I can find to say : "European superiority complex". We individuals have different opinions from one another, over here in the colonies, to the surprise of many.
    - arcticfox 7y ago
      You made my point much better than I did. I don't even drink milk or know many people that do, I simply thought it bizarrely elitist to claim it's only for children.
  - arcticfox 7y ago
    > Americans are so obsessed with milk that the mere thought of not drinking it is seen as abnormal and weird I don't even drink it, but I'm not sure I can think of a single food that I would say is "for juveniles", especially one that I stopped consuming for that reason. Bizarrely elitist attitude.
- checkyoursudo 7y ago
  I grew up in America, and that view of milk as a children's drink was pretty common in my Scandinavian/Germanic heritage in the US. When we went to restaurants, children ordered milk to drink, but an adult never would. Milk was fine to put in your coffee or tea, but not to drink a cup of it. Milk was fine to use with cereal or to cook with, but not to drink plain. I do not doubt your perspective at all; however, there are definitely at least parts of America where milk is not for adults to drink. My recent ancestors were dairy farmers in the upper midwest. I cannot think of a single time my parents or grandparents drank milk straight up. I won't say it never happened. It could just be my faulty memory. But if beer or coffee or juice was available, pretty much every adult would drink those. Even juice was pretty iffy. Juice for breakfast maybe. Any other time, and it was a child's drink as well. Obviously, this is just one anecdote. Don't take it for data. Having also lived in Germany and now Sweden, I will say that I believe milk is not often drunk plain by adults in either of these places.
  - Merrill 7y ago
    My experience is the same. Children drank milk with meals, while adults drank coffee, tea, or water and juice at breakfast. I got my first taste of coffee at about 7 while eating lunch with my father in the fields. Perhaps someone in the restaurant business could say how often adults order milk compared with children.
  - dcassett 7y ago
    In the US the only milk my grandparents would drink was buttermilk (they called it "milk") that they made by culturing overnight on the kitchen counter. They called ordinary milk "sweet milk".
  - esotericn 7y ago
    That's why the post is strange. I don't drink milk of any kind straight from the bottle. It goes in cereal, mashed potatoes, cakes etc as an ingredient. Porridge is about the most adult breakfast I can think of.
FranzFerdiNaN 7y ago
Man, I don’t think I’m going to read something as hilarious as your post today, and I haven’t even read the Onion today. Do you also consider cheese a food for juveniles? Do you consider butter something that is only for children?
- claudeganon 7y ago
  This is honestly not really that silly of a perspective if you spend anytime outside of the US, especially non-Western countries. In Japan, for example, kids are forced to drink milk in school, many hate it, and it’s something almost no one drinks as an adult. Excluding butter’s use in foods (which is likewise an imported thing and has no corollary in traditional Japanese cuisine), dairy consumption is quite low. It even used to be a common insult, pre-WWII, to refer to someone who seemed overly Westernized as “stinking of butter.”
  - kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
    South Korea has a dairy program for children and now they are taller than their former imperial overlords.
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    "In Japan, for example, kids are forced to drink milk in school, many hate it, and it’s something almost no one drinks as an adult" I don't think it would be obviously wrong to characterize the US like that. Certainly I remember milk being a standard thing kind of pushed on you with school lunches, and I think I've heard that it has to do with the government wanting to support dairy farmers - but I think they say it's to ensure enough calcium or whatever. There are millions of people in the US who are lactose intolerant, I'm sure, as well. I would say it's rare enough to see an adult drinking milk that I can't recall the last time. Japanese references to "butter" aren't necessarily that negative - I remember reading somewhere that the first generation Acura TL was deliberately made to appeal more to the American market than previous models and someone referred to that with a metaphor of adding more butter or something along those lines.

arcticfox 7y ago

> milk is a drink for juveniles Lol from my perspective over here in America, I don't even know how to explain how silly that sounds.

Lewton 7y ago
Your reply sorta proves his point Americans are so obsessed with milk that the mere thought of not drinking it is seen as abnormal and weird That’s a pretty juvenile point of view, milk isn’t even particularly good for you
- rocgf 7y ago
  > milk isn’t even particularly good for you Well, it's not like the healthiness of foods is what guides the average American. With that said, I think it's not particularly relevant if anything is good for your or not, since a lot of what and how we eat is driven by culture, and not rooted into any underlying science or reason - e.g. three meals a day, cereal in the morning, milk for strong bones and so on. So yeah, drinking milk in the US is just a part of culture now, and I am convinced that all countries have similar quirks.
  - serf 7y ago
    >Well, it's not like the healthiness of foods is what guides the average American. point me to the national culture that prioritizes food healthiness. Given that 'Americans' are so obviously not prioritizing that (apparently?), i'd like to see the opposite country, one where every individual prioritizes the health consequences of each and every meal. Extra credit for countries that eat healthy from imported food, and not just coincidentally healthy due to their local crops and harvests enforcing it as the cheaper and plentiful option. I won't hold my breath. Lots of anti-American sentiment around here. It's too bad that I seem to be the only one in this thread who thinks that these broad national generalizations of identity are actually hugely bigoted diatribe that has no real connection to the reality that we live in.. Guaranteed if I said something like "Germans all do.." i'd be flagged in minutes. I don't do that because 1) such statements are almost always false and 2) it's disrespectful and outside of what can happen in actual civil discourse. All I ask : Let's try to keep in mind that these big bad nations are actually full of individuals, all with different ideas and concepts of how to live our lives.
    - rocgf 7y ago
      I did say the 'average American', as opposed to 'all Americans, down to the last one'. You can choose to become defensive, but it is empirically true that the Americans are on the heavy side of things. I live in the UK and I could say the same thing about people here, though the US is much worse. Out of OECD/Western countries, the USA has the highest BMI and obesity rates. > point me to the national culture that prioritizes food healthiness You are strawmanning here. I never claimed that there is such a thing as a culture that prioritizes food health, nor did I claim that the US is the opposite of that. But if you want examples at the other end of the spectrum, there are plenty, most notably Japan. There are European countries that are tackling the obesity problem more successfully than others, such at the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, France. For example, the Netherlands has made it illegal for fast food chains to be with a certain distance of schools.
      - perl4ever 7y ago
        "Out of OECD/Western countries, the USA has the highest BMI and obesity rates." I think this may be misleading. If you look at obesity rates, the US is an outlier, and around 38% compared to the UK at around 28% (from 2015, I think). But if you look at overweight rates, the US is pretty close to average.[1] Germany, Canada, the Netherlands all seem to have a slightly higher frequency of overweight people. I don't know why this is, but it seems like if the difference is in the number of more extreme individuals, then the cultural explanations don't make obvious sense. [1]Page 30 of http://www.oecd.org/sdd/37964873.pdf http://www.oecd.org/sdd/37964873.pdf
- serf 7y ago
  >Americans are so obsessed with milk that the mere thought of not drinking it is seen as abnormal and weird Simply refuting that milk is (only) for children proves obsession. Great. I think the parent comment to yours was uncouth, boisterous, and silly. I don't think his point necessarily was. To roll that individual into 'American Obsession' is extraordinarily silly. All I can find to say : "European superiority complex". We individuals have different opinions from one another, over here in the colonies, to the surprise of many.
  - arcticfox 7y ago
    You made my point much better than I did. I don't even drink milk or know many people that do, I simply thought it bizarrely elitist to claim it's only for children.
- arcticfox 7y ago
  > Americans are so obsessed with milk that the mere thought of not drinking it is seen as abnormal and weird I don't even drink it, but I'm not sure I can think of a single food that I would say is "for juveniles", especially one that I stopped consuming for that reason. Bizarrely elitist attitude.
checkyoursudo 7y ago
I grew up in America, and that view of milk as a children's drink was pretty common in my Scandinavian/Germanic heritage in the US. When we went to restaurants, children ordered milk to drink, but an adult never would. Milk was fine to put in your coffee or tea, but not to drink a cup of it. Milk was fine to use with cereal or to cook with, but not to drink plain. I do not doubt your perspective at all; however, there are definitely at least parts of America where milk is not for adults to drink. My recent ancestors were dairy farmers in the upper midwest. I cannot think of a single time my parents or grandparents drank milk straight up. I won't say it never happened. It could just be my faulty memory. But if beer or coffee or juice was available, pretty much every adult would drink those. Even juice was pretty iffy. Juice for breakfast maybe. Any other time, and it was a child's drink as well. Obviously, this is just one anecdote. Don't take it for data. Having also lived in Germany and now Sweden, I will say that I believe milk is not often drunk plain by adults in either of these places.
- Merrill 7y ago
  My experience is the same. Children drank milk with meals, while adults drank coffee, tea, or water and juice at breakfast. I got my first taste of coffee at about 7 while eating lunch with my father in the fields. Perhaps someone in the restaurant business could say how often adults order milk compared with children.
- dcassett 7y ago
  In the US the only milk my grandparents would drink was buttermilk (they called it "milk") that they made by culturing overnight on the kitchen counter. They called ordinary milk "sweet milk".
- esotericn 7y ago
  That's why the post is strange. I don't drink milk of any kind straight from the bottle. It goes in cereal, mashed potatoes, cakes etc as an ingredient. Porridge is about the most adult breakfast I can think of.

FranzFerdiNaN 7y ago

Man, I don’t think I’m going to read something as hilarious as your post today, and I haven’t even read the Onion today. Do you also consider cheese a food for juveniles? Do you consider butter something that is only for children?

claudeganon 7y ago
This is honestly not really that silly of a perspective if you spend anytime outside of the US, especially non-Western countries. In Japan, for example, kids are forced to drink milk in school, many hate it, and it’s something almost no one drinks as an adult. Excluding butter’s use in foods (which is likewise an imported thing and has no corollary in traditional Japanese cuisine), dairy consumption is quite low. It even used to be a common insult, pre-WWII, to refer to someone who seemed overly Westernized as “stinking of butter.”
- kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
  South Korea has a dairy program for children and now they are taller than their former imperial overlords.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  "In Japan, for example, kids are forced to drink milk in school, many hate it, and it’s something almost no one drinks as an adult" I don't think it would be obviously wrong to characterize the US like that. Certainly I remember milk being a standard thing kind of pushed on you with school lunches, and I think I've heard that it has to do with the government wanting to support dairy farmers - but I think they say it's to ensure enough calcium or whatever. There are millions of people in the US who are lactose intolerant, I'm sure, as well. I would say it's rare enough to see an adult drinking milk that I can't recall the last time. Japanese references to "butter" aren't necessarily that negative - I remember reading somewhere that the first generation Acura TL was deliberately made to appeal more to the American market than previous models and someone referred to that with a metaphor of adding more butter or something along those lines.