6 ms·

Breakfast: Cereal and milk. My favorite cereal is Trix. Lunch: Sandwich made of bread, bologna, cheese, mustard. Coca-cola or chocolate milk to drink. Dinner:

Breakfast: Cereal and milk. My favorite cereal is Trix. Lunch: Sandwich made of bread, bologna, cheese, mustard. Coca-cola or chocolate milk to drink. Dinner: TV dinner, perhaps a Lean Cuisine or Pizza rolls. Mountain Dew or Kool Aid to drink. This was a typical day of food for me as a child and through being a teenager.

silicon2401 6y ago
Is this really what you ate like on a day to day basis? Not snarky or anything, just genuinely shocked and curious
- mike00632 6y ago
  Yes. It was actually even worse than that on most days. The portions were bigger and I didn't include snacks and desserts. My whole family was overweight and most of us were obese (myself included). This is the majority of Americans. I'm sure that this style of eating is extremely common.
  - sjg007 6y ago
    Portion creep is a thing.
    - mike00632 6y ago
      "I might as well finish the whole sleeve of Oreos" - A child after school watching Batman: The Animated Series somewhere in the Mid-West.
  - silicon2401 6y ago
    Sorry to hear. Sadly, like a typical American I also had my days of weight gain, junk food, mcdonald's, etc in my childhood, but I also grew up having mostly home-cooked food, so that's where my curiosity comes from.
  - hnick 6y ago
    While that food doesn't look healthy I don't think it would be enough to become obese alone from a calorie perspective, unless portion sizes are massive (you said one sandwich but maybe it was multiple?). Especially with a teenage metabolism. Snacks, desserts, and sugar drinks in between meals are a huge contributor for a lot of people.
    - mike00632 6y ago
      Have you ever microwaved a half gallon of ice cream and drank it?
- tolbish 6y ago
  They also probably had several processed snacks throughout the day like chips and oreos.
  - mike00632 6y ago
    Yup.
program_whiz 6y ago
I feel this 100%. This type of thing is totally pushed by the food industry, marketed directly to kids and tired / busy parents. Lets not pretend that people who aren't obese are somehow more enlightened or virtuous, this is clearly a matter of food production, marketing, and environment (otherwise there wouldn't have been a sharp rise in obesity right around the time all this came online). I feel your story because I had a similar upbringing and even though I eat relatively healthy now, losing weight is INCREDIBLY difficult due to what I assume is a host of metabolic issues from all those years of poor eating as a kid. Threads like this kill me because its a lot of lecturing about "simple calories in calories out", and "just don't eat so much junk food" like some kid who is 8 and getting served corn dogs and fruit rollups has any idea. Everyone at school is eating that stuff, the cafeteria is serving hamburgers, chips, choc milk and chicken nuggets. There are soda and candy machines in the hallways for snacks, and everything you watch on TV is blanketed with advertising for junk food.
- mike00632 6y ago
  I almost wrote about how I think eating like that during my childhood broke something with my metabolism. Like, I can't process sugars like most people do and I'm more prone to gaining weight. That said, my view of food is 100% different now. I do feel enlightened. I don't blame my parents. I think the state needs to get more involved with regulation. I have a ton of respect for Michelle Obama's push to make school lunches healthy.
mike00632 6y ago
On a lighter note: can we talk about how 6 Pizza Rolls is not a serving!? Nobody eats ONLY 6 Pizza rolls.

silicon2401 6y ago

Is this really what you ate like on a day to day basis? Not snarky or anything, just genuinely shocked and curious

mike00632 6y ago
Yes. It was actually even worse than that on most days. The portions were bigger and I didn't include snacks and desserts. My whole family was overweight and most of us were obese (myself included). This is the majority of Americans. I'm sure that this style of eating is extremely common.
- sjg007 6y ago
  Portion creep is a thing.
  - mike00632 6y ago
    "I might as well finish the whole sleeve of Oreos" - A child after school watching Batman: The Animated Series somewhere in the Mid-West.
- silicon2401 6y ago
  Sorry to hear. Sadly, like a typical American I also had my days of weight gain, junk food, mcdonald's, etc in my childhood, but I also grew up having mostly home-cooked food, so that's where my curiosity comes from.
- hnick 6y ago
  While that food doesn't look healthy I don't think it would be enough to become obese alone from a calorie perspective, unless portion sizes are massive (you said one sandwich but maybe it was multiple?). Especially with a teenage metabolism. Snacks, desserts, and sugar drinks in between meals are a huge contributor for a lot of people.
  - mike00632 6y ago
    Have you ever microwaved a half gallon of ice cream and drank it?
tolbish 6y ago
They also probably had several processed snacks throughout the day like chips and oreos.
- mike00632 6y ago
  Yup.

program_whiz 6y ago

I feel this 100%. This type of thing is totally pushed by the food industry, marketed directly to kids and tired / busy parents. Lets not pretend that people who aren't obese are somehow more enlightened or virtuous, this is clearly a matter of food production, marketing, and environment (otherwise there wouldn't have been a sharp rise in obesity right around the time all this came online). I feel your story because I had a similar upbringing and even though I eat relatively healthy now, losing weight is INCREDIBLY difficult due to what I assume is a host of metabolic issues from all those years of poor eating as a kid. Threads like this kill me because its a lot of lecturing about "simple calories in calories out", and "just don't eat so much junk food" like some kid who is 8 and getting served corn dogs and fruit rollups has any idea. Everyone at school is eating that stuff, the cafeteria is serving hamburgers, chips, choc milk and chicken nuggets. There are soda and candy machines in the hallways for snacks, and everything you watch on TV is blanketed with advertising for junk food.

mike00632 6y ago
I almost wrote about how I think eating like that during my childhood broke something with my metabolism. Like, I can't process sugars like most people do and I'm more prone to gaining weight. That said, my view of food is 100% different now. I do feel enlightened. I don't blame my parents. I think the state needs to get more involved with regulation. I have a ton of respect for Michelle Obama's push to make school lunches healthy.

mike00632 6y ago

On a lighter note: can we talk about how 6 Pizza Rolls is not a serving!? Nobody eats ONLY 6 Pizza rolls.