4 ms·

How many millions of life-years have been lost due to the junk-food industry? To me they are murderers with expense accounts.

by adwhit 11y ago

sz4kerto 11y ago
It is not that simple thought. The simple $1 McDonalds burger has one of the best value/price ratio in the history of the human nutrition. "The double cheeseburger provides 390 calories, 23 grams of protein – half a daily serving – seven per cent of daily fibre, 19 grams of fat and 20 per cent of daily calcium, all for between $1 and $2, or 65p and £1.30, The Times reported." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/10210327/McDouble-is-cheapest-and-most-nutritious-food-in-human-history.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/10210327/McDouble-is... I think this topic is similar to 'how many life-years have been lost due the pollution caused by industrial revolution' -- many, of course. And many have been saved as well. Here we can surely say that many life years have been saved by the mass/junk food industry as it has provided the masses reliable, usually not infected/spoiled food.
- Happydayz 11y ago
  I usually bring up a similar point when people criticize modern agriculture and food production. Right now someone can buy a pound of ground beef for around $3-4. After tax that represents around 30 minutes of labor for a minimum waged employee. It is absolutely remarkable that our lowest skilled, lowest productivity workers, can afford a pound of beef for 1/2 an hour of work. Obviously there are clear environmental issues here, and we are not taking into account all the externalities associated with meat production. But that figure above, and what it represents in terms of human nutrition, should be breathtaking.
  - toothbrush 11y ago
    That's only because we're exploiting other living species, which are much less able to defend themselves than we are. A society should be judged by how it treats its weakest members, and if you ask me, that's the battery hens and mass-farmed pigs in their crowded "flats". The atrociously low price of meat is actually not at all a mark of civilisation, but rather of barbarism towards animals. Animals which, might i add, consistently turn out to be more intelligent that we originally thought. Everybody should read Eating Animals by J.S. Foer, it's surprisingly level-headed and non-ranty, but even so, it's hard to ignore what goes on in the food industry.
- adwhit 11y ago
  Healthy food is cheaper. If you accept that raw/unprocessed food is healthier than processed, and that vegetables are healthier than meat, then this must be true, because processing food requires energy and raising livestock requires feeding the livestock. If this is not true in practice, it will be due to perverse taxes and subsidies.
  - astrange 11y ago
    > Raw/unprocessed food is healthier than processed > Vegetables are healthier than meat But neither of those claims are true. Raw meat isn't healthier than cooked meat because you'll poison yourself, and if you go and try to live on a vegetarian diet without careful attention to modern scientific knowledge about nutrition, you'll end up with all kinds of things like vitamin B-12 deficiency. You need a mix of raw and cooked foods because some nutrients are not bioavailable with or without it, but not because raw foods are more "natural".
    - jmulho 11y ago
      > "if you go and try to live on a vegetarian diet without careful attention to modern scientific knowledge about nutrition, you'll end up with all kinds of things like vitamin B-12 deficiency." That is true. However, if you go and try to live on a meat-eating diet without careful attention to modern scientific knowledge about nutrition, you'll end up with all kinds of things like obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and stroke.
      - cheepin 11y ago
        Here's an interesting case study (tl;dr It's more complicated than that): http://inhumanexperiment.blogspot.com/2009/09/two-brave-men-who-ate-nothing-but-meat.html http://inhumanexperiment.blogspot.com/2009/09/two-brave-men-...

How many millions of life-years have been lost due to the junk-food industry? To me they are murderers with expense accounts.

by adwhit 11y ago

How many millions of life-years have been lost due to the junk-food industry? To me they are murderers with expense accounts.

sz4kerto 11y ago

It is not that simple thought. The simple $1 McDonalds burger has one of the best value/price ratio in the history of the human nutrition. "The double cheeseburger provides 390 calories, 23 grams of protein – half a daily serving – seven per cent of daily fibre, 19 grams of fat and 20 per cent of daily calcium, all for between $1 and $2, or 65p and £1.30, The Times reported." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/10210327/McDouble-is-cheapest-and-most-nutritious-food-in-human-history.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/10210327/McDouble-is... I think this topic is similar to 'how many life-years have been lost due the pollution caused by industrial revolution' -- many, of course. And many have been saved as well. Here we can surely say that many life years have been saved by the mass/junk food industry as it has provided the masses reliable, usually not infected/spoiled food.

Happydayz 11y ago
I usually bring up a similar point when people criticize modern agriculture and food production. Right now someone can buy a pound of ground beef for around $3-4. After tax that represents around 30 minutes of labor for a minimum waged employee. It is absolutely remarkable that our lowest skilled, lowest productivity workers, can afford a pound of beef for 1/2 an hour of work. Obviously there are clear environmental issues here, and we are not taking into account all the externalities associated with meat production. But that figure above, and what it represents in terms of human nutrition, should be breathtaking.
- toothbrush 11y ago
  That's only because we're exploiting other living species, which are much less able to defend themselves than we are. A society should be judged by how it treats its weakest members, and if you ask me, that's the battery hens and mass-farmed pigs in their crowded "flats". The atrociously low price of meat is actually not at all a mark of civilisation, but rather of barbarism towards animals. Animals which, might i add, consistently turn out to be more intelligent that we originally thought. Everybody should read Eating Animals by J.S. Foer, it's surprisingly level-headed and non-ranty, but even so, it's hard to ignore what goes on in the food industry.
adwhit 11y ago
Healthy food is cheaper. If you accept that raw/unprocessed food is healthier than processed, and that vegetables are healthier than meat, then this must be true, because processing food requires energy and raising livestock requires feeding the livestock. If this is not true in practice, it will be due to perverse taxes and subsidies.
- astrange 11y ago
  > Raw/unprocessed food is healthier than processed > Vegetables are healthier than meat But neither of those claims are true. Raw meat isn't healthier than cooked meat because you'll poison yourself, and if you go and try to live on a vegetarian diet without careful attention to modern scientific knowledge about nutrition, you'll end up with all kinds of things like vitamin B-12 deficiency. You need a mix of raw and cooked foods because some nutrients are not bioavailable with or without it, but not because raw foods are more "natural".
  - jmulho 11y ago
    > "if you go and try to live on a vegetarian diet without careful attention to modern scientific knowledge about nutrition, you'll end up with all kinds of things like vitamin B-12 deficiency." That is true. However, if you go and try to live on a meat-eating diet without careful attention to modern scientific knowledge about nutrition, you'll end up with all kinds of things like obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and stroke.
    - cheepin 11y ago
      Here's an interesting case study (tl;dr It's more complicated than that): http://inhumanexperiment.blogspot.com/2009/09/two-brave-men-who-ate-nothing-but-meat.html http://inhumanexperiment.blogspot.com/2009/09/two-brave-men-...