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One of the pillars of weight loss is "eating right" as we all undoubtedly know. It's eating whole foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and lean meat, and all

One of the pillars of weight loss is "eating right" as we all undoubtedly know. It's eating whole foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and lean meat, and all that good stuff. If you ever go to a nutritionist they'll tell you that, and they may even give you recipes! But this is mostly an exercise in futility. Why? Because going to McDonalds tastes better. So people will revert and not solve their problem. Diets don't work, and new fad diets come out, and the industry cycle continues. The problem with diets and lifestyle changes that are proposed in common social discourse is that we are always missing the most important step which is teaching citizens how to cook. As a nation I wish we would spend more time focusing on good culinary skills, and that is an investment that would pay dividends not only in healthier waistlines, but also in an increased interest in the quality of our food and produce.

iamwpj 1y ago
I tend to agree. It's pretty easy to have cooking skills that out pace the trouble of driving, waiting, and ultimately only kind of enjoying fast food. The advice I give people when rarely solicited, is that you work all day to ensure you have food and shelter. 1/3 work, 1/3 food, 1/3 shelter. If you routinely don't have time to cook and enjoy your food -- frankly, what are you doing with you life? Planning a menu, shopping for groceries, cooking meals, these things should take up your time! It's what you need to be doing. That's the point of this all!
- ericmay 1y ago
  Completely agree - we focus on spending time rushing to get food and things so we can get back home and spend time scrolling, but we should actually be spending time, in my humble opinion, cooking and enjoying life. I think over the long-term people in America will recognize this more and more. Also, after a while you realize at least outside of some dishes like maybe ramen or something like that, you can cook day-to-day better than just about anywhere you can go out to eat. It also makes you appreciate really good restaurants a bit more too. At least that has been my experience.
ffsm8 1y ago
As a single almost 40yo overweight man I've gotta disagree. McDonald's doesn't taste better, it tastes worse, but what working adult has the time next to their day job to eat healthy? You have to be either 1. Rich enough to be able to spend a premium at restaurants for most of the week 2. Be rich enough to have a partner that doesn't have to work a 40-50h work week 3. Be rich enough to have a personal cook 4. Not work and get by via other avenues.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- j_w 1y ago
  People who say that they cannot cook on a 40h work week are just inefficient at cooking. It sucks to take a long time to prepare meals, but you will get faster. When you first start cooking for yourself you'll easily double the times online recipes say. As you get better at prep and more of an understanding you'll eventually reach their times. Dishes afterwards are included in this: most recipes have downtime that you can entirely clean up during.
  - ericmay 1y ago
    Yea I agree too. It really is a skill. The first few times you cook a dish you are reading a recipe maybe, oh whoops forgot to cut the celery, ugh this is stressful! but then by the end of a few attempts you start to get much better and much efficient at it. I get that not everyone wants to cook though, but for those who do or want to eat healthier food you can do it and you WILL suck the first few times you cook anything because you're a human being and you haven't done it before.
  - etblg 1y ago
    Buy a bag of rice, a bag of frozen veggies (corn, carrots, peas, already cut up), some chicken thighs, throw it in a rice cooker, that's a meal right there, almost no effort. Roger Ebert wrote a whole cookbook about using the rice cooker, guy loved the thing, makes for a very easy meal.
- ericmay 1y ago
insane_dreamer 1y ago
> Because going to McDonalds tastes better. this is a problem for a some people however for many more people, the issue is affordability unhealthy food is cheap and widely available healthy food is more expensive and in some neighborhoods unavailable -- so there's the cost and effort of going somewhere where you can actually get it; food deserts are a real thing, while soda and chips vending machines are ubiquitous this is why there are much higher rates of obesity among lower income populations it's a solvable problem (not entirely, but it's possible to greatly reduce levels of obesity), but there seems to be very little social willpower to fix it
- ericmay 1y ago
  Idk, McDonald's doesn't seem that cheap to me but I haven't been in quite some time. Food deserts are a real issue, but if you're driving to McDonald's you can just keep on driving to the grocery store IMO. There's an educational piece, a motivational piece, and a marketing piece (you'll be like Lebron James if you eat Burger King!!! or whatever) and lots of other general barriers. But it's a problem that we can make progress toward. Though with all this being said I had hoped to really convey the problem of nutrition advice which misses the component that matters the most which is cooking proficiency. You eat out because it tastes better, but it tastes better even if you could make the same thing at home, because you don't know how to cook or cook well enough. (not you specifically of course :) )
  - insane_dreamer 1y ago
    > McDonald's doesn't seem that cheap to me but I haven't been in quite some time I don't go either, but I do know that it's cheap compared to healthy alternatives (especially organic); the immediate availability is a huge factor as well > t's a problem that we can make progress toward agreed; what really bothers/saddens me is that there seems to be so little social desire to do so -- probably because there's no money to be made from solving the problem, and lots of money to be made from letting it be and "solving" the symptom (but not the root problems) post-hoc with big money-makers like ozempic. it's disgusting.

iamwpj 1y ago

I tend to agree. It's pretty easy to have cooking skills that out pace the trouble of driving, waiting, and ultimately only kind of enjoying fast food. The advice I give people when rarely solicited, is that you work all day to ensure you have food and shelter. 1/3 work, 1/3 food, 1/3 shelter. If you routinely don't have time to cook and enjoy your food -- frankly, what are you doing with you life? Planning a menu, shopping for groceries, cooking meals, these things should take up your time! It's what you need to be doing. That's the point of this all!

ericmay 1y ago
Completely agree - we focus on spending time rushing to get food and things so we can get back home and spend time scrolling, but we should actually be spending time, in my humble opinion, cooking and enjoying life. I think over the long-term people in America will recognize this more and more. Also, after a while you realize at least outside of some dishes like maybe ramen or something like that, you can cook day-to-day better than just about anywhere you can go out to eat. It also makes you appreciate really good restaurants a bit more too. At least that has been my experience.

ffsm8 1y ago

As a single almost 40yo overweight man I've gotta disagree. McDonald's doesn't taste better, it tastes worse, but what working adult has the time next to their day job to eat healthy? You have to be either 1. Rich enough to be able to spend a premium at restaurants for most of the week 2. Be rich enough to have a partner that doesn't have to work a 40-50h work week 3. Be rich enough to have a personal cook 4. Not work and get by via other avenues.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
j_w 1y ago
People who say that they cannot cook on a 40h work week are just inefficient at cooking. It sucks to take a long time to prepare meals, but you will get faster. When you first start cooking for yourself you'll easily double the times online recipes say. As you get better at prep and more of an understanding you'll eventually reach their times. Dishes afterwards are included in this: most recipes have downtime that you can entirely clean up during.
- ericmay 1y ago
  Yea I agree too. It really is a skill. The first few times you cook a dish you are reading a recipe maybe, oh whoops forgot to cut the celery, ugh this is stressful! but then by the end of a few attempts you start to get much better and much efficient at it. I get that not everyone wants to cook though, but for those who do or want to eat healthier food you can do it and you WILL suck the first few times you cook anything because you're a human being and you haven't done it before.
- etblg 1y ago
  Buy a bag of rice, a bag of frozen veggies (corn, carrots, peas, already cut up), some chicken thighs, throw it in a rice cooker, that's a meal right there, almost no effort. Roger Ebert wrote a whole cookbook about using the rice cooker, guy loved the thing, makes for a very easy meal.
ericmay 1y ago

insane_dreamer 1y ago

> Because going to McDonalds tastes better. this is a problem for a some people however for many more people, the issue is affordability unhealthy food is cheap and widely available healthy food is more expensive and in some neighborhoods unavailable -- so there's the cost and effort of going somewhere where you can actually get it; food deserts are a real thing, while soda and chips vending machines are ubiquitous this is why there are much higher rates of obesity among lower income populations it's a solvable problem (not entirely, but it's possible to greatly reduce levels of obesity), but there seems to be very little social willpower to fix it

ericmay 1y ago
Idk, McDonald's doesn't seem that cheap to me but I haven't been in quite some time. Food deserts are a real issue, but if you're driving to McDonald's you can just keep on driving to the grocery store IMO. There's an educational piece, a motivational piece, and a marketing piece (you'll be like Lebron James if you eat Burger King!!! or whatever) and lots of other general barriers. But it's a problem that we can make progress toward. Though with all this being said I had hoped to really convey the problem of nutrition advice which misses the component that matters the most which is cooking proficiency. You eat out because it tastes better, but it tastes better even if you could make the same thing at home, because you don't know how to cook or cook well enough. (not you specifically of course :) )
- insane_dreamer 1y ago
  > McDonald's doesn't seem that cheap to me but I haven't been in quite some time I don't go either, but I do know that it's cheap compared to healthy alternatives (especially organic); the immediate availability is a huge factor as well > t's a problem that we can make progress toward agreed; what really bothers/saddens me is that there seems to be so little social desire to do so -- probably because there's no money to be made from solving the problem, and lots of money to be made from letting it be and "solving" the symptom (but not the root problems) post-hoc with big money-makers like ozempic. it's disgusting.