patrick.net

From the comments:

And to think that the taxpayers also have the privilege of subsidizing the lion's share of these products in farm payouts to Big Agra. The basic ingredients cost next to nothing thanks to largesse from our paid off Congress.

When is our government (funded by us) going to stop helping these industry barracudas profit from intentionally addicting children and adults to toxic, imitation food products? When 75% are overweight and 60% obese?

And where is the health tax that these companies should be paying to subsidize Medicaid and other services provided to their addicts?

What a dystopian disaster runaway venality, greed and crony capitalism have made of this nation.............

I will add: No type of insurance and no doctor with drug therapies alone is going to appreciably improve life for this lot of individuals. If someone says otherwise in an unqualified manner, then they almost certainly either misguided or lying.

The article also tosses in - on the final pages - that some fast food exec felt bad about his contributions to society, so he is now working for a company that is packaging baby carrots for sale to be pushed as a snack food.

It also discusses that the daughter of one of the kings of processed food companies refuses to feed her children the shit her daddy pushes (although she posed with a lunchable on her wedding day, probably because it funded an oppulent lifestyle for her family).

Awwww, how sweet.

Fast food is easy, and readily available. That doesn't make it the best option.

How are the carrots grown/processed, that would be my question. And yes, fast food is easy, but the question is, is it actually food?

elliemae says

so he is now working for a company that is packaging baby carrots for sale to be pushed as a snack food.

MMR says

How are the carrots grown/processed, that would be my question.

That's a good question, there is a trend now towards "baby cut carrots" which I've read can be full-sized carrots milled into small pieces to resemble baby carrots. Personally, I buy them because they're still carrots and they're cheap and I like them, and it's much more convenient than peeling and cutting carrots by hand. Probably the organic baby carrots are more likely to be individual carrots, while the cheap ones are good enough for my purposes - reasonably healthy, and easy as candy. Since they're milled, they may also have a lower risk of soil-borne contamination (e.g. worms), although I haven't personally inspected the mills so I can't be sure.

Dudes and Duedettes,

I bought some Reddenbacher Popcorn, and once popped it tasked like plastic mixed with Poly Vinyl.

Do the growers spray a lot of Chlorinated or other pesticide upon the corn?

Also the Kernals were supersized. The size of popped corn was bigger than than our last batch of corn by 20/30%?

Why I am asking about bad popcorn on Patrick.com, I dont know..........

Actually it is a compound known as diacetyl. It can lead to lung damage (bronchiolitis obliterans).

This is an academic article about airway obstruction due to diacetyl exposure at a popcorn production facility

http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/19567602

I think they eliminated this in 2005. But I still am skeptical about the plastic lining on the inside of the bag. I haven't found any information about it yet, just erring on the side of caution.

Entitlemented says

o the growers spray a lot of Chlorinated or other pesticide upon the corn?

Eating at McDonald's is actually an event in other countries.
In Malaysia MD's have a VIP drive troughs for Hotel concierges.

taxee says

Number of McDonalds per capita would be more meaningful. Plus I want to know what a Big Mac cost in places like Mexico, Brazil, Taiwan, etc.

Why is "satisfying crunch" inversely related to the result in that formula? Is the author that devoid of basic 4th grade math skills? Who are his/her usual audience?

The business of adding salt and spice to make "the crap" taste better probably started before even the original Genoese sausage (flipping $10 a pound now!). I wonder what the people's response would be if the Hotdog were invented today. It was probably made in a process similar to today's Pink Slime in the early days. I almost always eat meat that come in the original form as when it was taken from the animal, and grow almost half of my own vegetables . . . however, I'm also aware of other people's need to get food as inexpensively as possible or as conveniently as possible.

Speaking of food producers getting people addicted, in many parts of the world, the chefs do put things like coca leaves, opium plant parts, and even alcohol (LOL) in their dishes.

Reality says

I wonder what the people's response would be if the Hotdog were invented today. It was probably made in a process similar to today's Pink Slime in the early days

I agree.

zzyzzx says

It was probably made in a process similar to today's Pink Slime in the early days

Hot dogs/Franks/Weiners
Are actually supposed to be all Beef.
Actually the meat that goes into to an all beef hotdog would do well grilled on a Sunday BBQ.

It's the InstaCure a curing salt that goes into the ground meat that gives it the red/pink color.

http://www.sausagemaker.com/tutorials/hotdogs/hotdogs.html

It's the processed crap you buy in the store, where you start getting Hoofs, snouts, entrails and pieces are parts.

I had a friend who worked in small meat processing facility and he told me that at the end of the day they sweep to floor and scrape scrap off the tables and that's what went into their hot dogs, so yeah 100% beef. Its not as gross as it sounds as the floors were all steamed cleaned enough to eat off of everyday and the meat cutters wear cover over their shoes.

Food in this country is dead now unless you grow it yourself in soil you prepared or picked it off a tree growing in healthy soil. There are fewer vitamins in food now and even fewer essential enzymes. Stomach and digestion problems are rampant. I can't hardly eat anything at a restaurant with out taking digestive enzymes (these work great: http://www.scitrition.com/no_bloat_.html ). My whole family needs help digesting what passes for food these days.

I always get a real good laugh out of people that insist on drinking "organic milk". Like it's supposedly somehow digested better by the human body because it's "organic". There's 4X more calcium in leafy green vegetables than there is in whole milk, and the human body can digest that too.

upisdown says

more calcium in [dark] leafy green vegetables than there is in whole milk, and the human body can digest [vegetables].

Meanwhile, most people get little if any benefit from the calcium in milk, and many people are lactose intolerant. That's why dairy is subsidized, so the industry can afford all those ads on TV: no rational person would buy milk at market prices, so it must be subsidized and advertised on TV to fool you into buying it.

You're absolutely right, and that's how and why that worthless crap has ended up on practically every lunch tray in all the public schools.And after the age of 3-4 years old, humans don't need that much protein, or the negatives outweigh the positives. I always ask people if they knew that calves don't drink or consume milk after being weaned(around 7 months) because they can get enough nutrients from greens/roughage.

Not too long ago a huge milk conglomerate(30,000 cows) tried to come nearby from California but was run off by the locals' resistance. CA would be wise to do the same just to preserve the water tables alone.

Dairy farmers' concept of econmics 101 somehow always works the federal government into the equation, while constantly bitching about the government being involved.

upisdown says

Not too long ago a huge milk conglomerate(30,000 cows) tried to come nearby from California but was run off by the locals' resistance. CA would be wise to do the same just to preserve the water tables alone.

LOL - thank your locals for that, but the opposite is happening in California, where the subsidized ad campaign has "Happy Cows" on everything from highway billboards and television to the World Wide Web. The absurd reference to happy cows is presumably a response to animal rights activists and public health concerns about how the cows are mistreated including injecting them with hormones and antibiotics.

I don't think that people realize that there's more antibiotics/meds given to livestock than humans, and it makes it's way into our bodies by consuming that meat. I tease a friend of mine that he has man-boobs either from all the estrogen in the milk he drinks, or from the fat because he only drinks "real" milk/whole milk. He's quite a germ-o-phobe also, and I tell him about the low allowable amounts of pus and blood that is mandated by the USDA, which is about half of the international standards and the lowest in the world.
Corporate mentality farming is the problem, and the total disregard for quality over money.
I went to a celebration dinner those locals had after they defeated the mega-dairy and gave them a couple of c-notes for their efforts, because what they did probably saved us that in taxes alone in the long run.

Apparently lot of patnetters like cow pus in the morning on their gmo-rich, gluten-laden cereals in the morning.

upisdown says

I don't think that people realize that there's more antibiotics/meds given to livestock than humans, and it makes it's way into our bodies by consuming that meat. I tease a friend of mine that he has man-boobs either from all the estrogen in the milk he drinks, or from the fat because he only drinks "real" milk/whole milk. He's quite a germ-o-phobe also, and I tell him about the low allowable amounts of pus and blood that is mandated by the USDA, which is about half of the international standards and the lowest in the world.

Corporate mentality farming is the problem, and the total disregard for quality over money.

You mean the gubmint has been lying to us all this time about nutrition and food safety? Sound like some of those bastards could use a good furlough. Or maybe a permanent vacation?

Vaticanus says

Sound like some of those bastards could use a good furlough. Or maybe a
permanent vacation

They barely work as it is, they don't need any more time off.

MMR says

cow pus in the morning on their gmo-rich, gluten-laden cereals in the morning.

I'll have to throw out that quote at him, as he says that he eats cereal for dinner 3 times a week to help keep his weight down. I keep teasing him that it's not working.

Glad this thread exists, but it also desperately reinforces my need to get a yard where I can grow our own fruits/veggies. I'm a part-time vegan (she started me on it) but now I get a really weird look on my face when people break out processed / frozen / non-organic foods at dinner. The last time I had steak was in October, at Ruth's Chris, and I could barely finish half of it.

Simply put, our food supply has drastically changed over the last 30 years, but kept the same appearance (and marketing). I honestly thought that 'they can't sell it if it's bad for you' when I was in my 20's, but if you are overweight (and suffering) you may want to educate yourself on what is actually going on out there. It's pretty fucking far from good.

Anyone have an opinion on mineral water? Other than it possibly causing kidney stones?

I enjoy a glass of this with a squeeze of lime a few times a week. It tastes better than soda, and must be better for you that sodas.

Us 13381
Jap 3598

Population

315M vs 126M

Area

3.8M sq miles vs 145k sq miles

Do they serve the same shlop there as they do in the states?

errc says

Do [McDonald's] serve the same shlop [in Japan] as they do in the states?

Dunno about Japan, but McD's vary slightly from one country to another. For example, after their American "French fries" were found to have been deliberately adulterated with beef tallow, McD's disclosed on their website that any of their products may contain what they call animal products, including apparently products specifically marketed to vegetarians (e.g the veggie burger), salad dressing, and who knows what they put in the "McFlurry" (green for St. Patrick's day - Soylent Green is employees they want to get rid of?). The only exception was India: if you travel to India, you might possibly find something on the menu that might not contain BSE prions and e. coli bacteria from the CAFO processed "beef" industry. BTW while cows may be sacred to Hindus, horses aren't, so conceivably the horse parts that weren't good enough even for an Ikea frozen "meatball" might end up in a "Happy Meal". Also, "animal products" is a broad category including pus and blood (both of which can be found in retail milk, especially in rBST cows because they get more infections and bleed more), feces (allowed by USDA as long as it isn't "fibrous" - read Molly Ivins' Bushwhacked for more on this), mucous, urine, testicles and semen, etc. They're lovin' it.

They like it this way. 500 thousand gallbladders removed every year in the U.S., sickness equals profit, laparoscopic surgery, outpatient procedure, easy money, come one, come many.

everything says

500 thousand gallbladders removed every year in the U.S., sickness equals profit, laparoscopic surgery, outpatient procedure, easy money....

Easy money for the revenue recipients, not so easy for the patients, including the late Rep. John Murtha who, after voting for Obamacare, died from "a surgical error" during gallbladder surgery. He became just one of thousands who die from surgical errors each year, a drop in the tsunami of a medical industrial complex where hospitals injure 20% of patients every year including 100,000 who die from hospital-acquired infections. So what does "our" government do to protect us from this predation? Mandatory insurance legislation written by and for the same medical-industrial complex, to increase their revenue and power, actually increasing the tax on vaccines and continuing to subsidize corn, corn-fed beef and dairy, HFCS, etc. Soylent green: making people into money at a hospital near you.