this thread is interesting but I would add, as a European who's spent time in the US, that it's also pretty easy to tell people that food in the US is mostly horrid and unhealthy because....it is got the worst acne of my life (!) living there, only reason I could come up with was the food I ate - ThreadSky

youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com • 93 days ago

this thread is interesting but I would add, as a European who's spent time in the US, that it's also pretty easy to tell people that food in the US is mostly horrid and unhealthy because....it is

got the worst acne of my life (!) living there, only reason I could come up with was the food I ate

Reposted from Nicole Hemmer

I have heard so much about seed oils through right-wing media in recent years. Just hours and hours of content. Which is one of the big differences between right-wing talk radio from the 1990s to mid-2010s and the right-wing lifestyle podcasts that have taken over since.

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thewilderobin.bsky.social•92 days ago

Yeah I made a concerted effort to lose weight before moving there and dropped 20 kilos, about 15 of which I've now regained. For me though, it was that the higher grocery prices meant the relative saving vs. eating out was much lower, so I did the latter much more.

thewilderobin.bsky.social•92 days ago

It probably *doesn't help* that moving coincided with me discovering I liked beer, when previously I'd mostly drunk spirits which, while not good for you, are much lower calorie

nordiko.bsky.social•92 days ago

They really aren't. The number of calories in most spirits is slightly higher than that in double cream.

thewilderobin.bsky.social•92 days ago

Okay, but they're not something you drink casually in front of the TV, so my overall intake has still gone up!

nordiko.bsky.social•92 days ago

Ah, slightly different issue then.

rattytherat.bsky.social•92 days ago

It's worse here, we've got spotted dick.

pastpunditry.bsky.social•93 days ago

totally. most of the criticism of corporate and industrial food, unnecessary additives, etc, is right. it’s just that on these shows, it comes packaged with some pretty dangerous beliefs about vaccines, raw milk, and the like, and is also used as an on-ramp to radical right-wing politics

youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com•92 days ago

Oh yeah 100%! To be clear I wasn't disagreeing, just frustrated that they've found a legitimately good angle to bring people into further bullshit

alunephraim.bsky.social•92 days ago

An insane and dangerous position that has about 5% of truth to it is generally more dangerous than one with 0% for that reason.

owenwmichael.bsky.social•92 days ago

"And then she understood the devilish cunning of the enemies’ plan. By mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger"

youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com•93 days ago

nearly friends who've moved there permanently have reported putting on a noticeable amount of weight after moving, everything's so full of sugar I felt lightly ill most days - always in favour of dunking on mad conservatives but they're broadly right about this, that's probably why it's working

nordiko.bsky.social•92 days ago

It's not just that it's sugar-packed, it's that it is packed with High Fructose Corn Syrup. This is a sugar that your body can't burn as fuel but has the sweet taste that stimulates insulin production leading to low blood sugar, leading to hunger, leading to eating more and round and round we go.

nordiko.bsky.social•92 days ago

But it isn't really the sugar that is the problem, it is the fact that real food - fresh vegetables, fruit, meat and so on - is so expensive and ultra-processed food (the stuff with the sugar) is much cheaper.

nordiko.bsky.social•92 days ago

pechorin.bsky.social•92 days ago

Even the US bottle looks overweight.

londonlee.bsky.social•92 days ago

Yeah. Good luck to RFK removing additives from food when it makes everything more expensive. Also when Big Food corporations complain

youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com•93 days ago

and like sure it may not be just about "seed oils" or whatever but I think it's totally understandable that people have gone a bit mad about this! though obviously infuriating because if the left tried to do it they'd be treated as terrible snobs, but here we are

redneeraj.bsky.social•92 days ago

It will be difficult to enforce at the same time as they are dismantling the regulatory state.

mckelvie.bsky.social•92 days ago

I always guessed it was the corn syrup. It's in fucking everything.

badsciencemonk.bsky.social•92 days ago

As an aside @sciencevs.bsky.social did a great episode on seed oils which is worth a listen. Maybe they should do one on high fructose corn syrup. https://gimletmedia.com/shows/science-vs/mehwdgww

cardine.bsky.social•92 days ago

I'm Australian, lived in USA for three years. Started having bad gastrointestinal issues just before we came home and have never fully recovered. I do think it could be from the food there, but I will never know for sure.

jamesrball.com•92 days ago

The sheer amount of sugar in savoury in America is something I never got used to. Just absolutely everything is sweetened and enriched. European food must be so weird to that palate (contrary to their expectations we don’t spice less, but we certainly don’t do sweet/savoury NEARLY so much)

thebomberman.com•92 days ago

Bread, particularly burger buns. To an English palate, it was practically cake.

boredofwheelchair.bsky.social•92 days ago

One thing I noticed from the two trips I've made to America is their butter seemed sweet and wrong

reevealison.bsky.social•92 days ago

100% on feeling slightly sick all the time because of the sugar. And don't get me started on "non-dairy-creamer" - if I wanted vegetable oil in my coffee I'd put it in myself, thanks.

Last time I got off a plane from the US I hoovered up a green salad and a flat white before leaving the airport.

glitterninja.bsky.social•92 days ago

The diet and supplement industry in the States engages in a time-honored grift that correctly identifies a problem then sells products that absolutely will not solve it. Now they add rightwing political conspiracy to marketing, but the actual politicians won't fix anything either

zico1.bsky.social•92 days ago

In a restaurant there, I tried repeatedly to explain that I didn't want dressing on a salad. There was a choice of 3 dressings, but 'no dressing' wasn't an option. Eventually we compromised, and I got thousand-island dressing on a side-dish.

earthakitsch.bsky.social•92 days ago

I noticed this too - it confused me as my skincare regime was at its peak, I was walking and cycling outdoors loads, and breaking out constantly.

And the annoying thing was as unhealthy as the food was, it tasted SO GOOD. Chicken wings in a bar at 11.30? Heaven.

stephenkb.bsky.social•92 days ago

Sugar, it turns out, is a killer app for a lot of food.

pipeski.bsky.social•92 days ago

Sugar and fat, apparently. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32520303/

botzarelli.bsky.social•92 days ago

It’s true about the US. But what’s the problem with seed oils?

claire-james.bsky.social•92 days ago

+1 I’d like to know this too. I mean obviously they shouldn’t be the majority of your diet…

botzarelli.bsky.social•92 days ago

I think it’d be fairly hard unless deep frying everything to have eg sunflower oil be a major part of your diet!

claire-james.bsky.social•92 days ago

Indeed. It would need some dedication!

katcary.bsky.social•92 days ago

there’s so much salt and sugar in everything - it’s awful. saying this as an american who lived in Europe until very recently

spagbella.bsky.social•92 days ago

I wouldn’t care, but UK high streets are increasingly populated by US fast food giants. This problem is coming our way fast.

mconcagh.bsky.social•92 days ago

One thing that is always missed in conversations about British v Americans food is that the quality of raw ingredients you by in a supermarket is way way better in the Britain than in the States (and much of Europe, arguably), especially for what you pay

mconcagh.bsky.social•92 days ago

It is revealing in these conversations how little this comes up in the routine chauvinism about Anglo-v-American food when the quality of raw ingredients is at least as important as how they’re seasoned

centristmum.bsky.social•92 days ago

Isn't that WHY they're so obsessed with seasoning? Just buy good ingredients and let them taste like themselves is just harder

claire-james.bsky.social•92 days ago

There was a massive conversation once on Twitter where Americans were being didactic about salads. One of their rules was that you always had to put salt and pepper on tomatoes. I did wonder if they had ever tasted really nice tomatoes.

alunephraim.bsky.social•92 days ago

I've noticed from various things (inc. conversations) online that it's much harder for Americans to get hold of good quality bread flour than here, which is completely mad given that the place is a major hard wheat producer.

tpgroberts.bsky.social•92 days ago

Its whenever a US chef in a video shows off their high quality canned tomatoes, that they have to order online, and they're just Mutti

alexcork.bsky.social•92 days ago

Went there in the summer and got chatting to a nice lad working in a shop. He asked what american foods/brands we loved and couldn't get at home. I said something about something but wanted to say ....dude, sorry, on the whole your food sucks (and we nicked anything half decent decades ago)

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