Reduction in takeaway calories!

[hellymedic]

However, if you allow me a disgusting interlude, I still wonder how can faeces end up on public loos walls, often at a more elevated point than the one they most likely came from.
Does it happen only in male toilets?

(click to show/hide)

No it doesn't, though the ladies' has a more varied colour palette.  It can't all be from pingfuckiting mooncups, either.   

Indeed. The Ladies' facilities at The Raven on my first 600 (old WCW) deterred me from hot food there; definitely a Peover Inferior. I was in a delicate state and didn't want to have my very recent D&V back. (Of course, nobody should attempt Audax in less than perfect health but doctors know better...)

[Bianchi Boy]

I must admit that this thread has gone in directions I had not thought of. My thought with making the post was I have been in McD in the middle of the night on a ride and looked down for the most calories. The point of eating is what do you want? I eat limited food with fruit at work and the most calories on Audax.

There was a DIY 600 where my overnight stop was at a 24h McD and I was the only person who was not comically obese (by this I mean that all the people were so fat you had to make sure you did not stare) I was having a large portion of everything and I really needed it. I was having one of the smallest servings of the people in there. FFS I was there because I was ridding through the night, what were they doing there having double portions?

There really is a serious issue if people cannot control what they eat what can we do. If the portions are made smaller all we will do is make people poorer by making them order 2?

BB

[whosatthewheel]

There really is a serious issue if people cannot control what they eat what can we do. If the portions are made smaller all we will do is make people poorer by making them order 2?

BB

No, it actually works... people will eat fewer calories... sadly it's nowhere near enough.
Personally I think there should be a serious tax on junk food (the criteria of what is junk food can be debated, but definitively a processed burger or doner kebab or Krispy kreme donut are junk)... in the same way as there is a hefty levy on tobacco... they are both class 1 carcinogenic, so I don't see why they are treated so differently.

Equally, there is delicious and reasonably healthy fast food which could be eaten in quantity, but nothing like that in the UK... when I lived in Amsterdam I used to go Maoz for my Falafel wrap fix in the middle of the night... not much wrong with that.

[Cudzoziemiec]

You can get a falafel with or without wrap and/or hummus and/or salads at various takeaway places in the UK – but probably not at midnight.

[Greenbank]

There really is a serious issue if people cannot control what they eat what can we do. If the portions are made smaller all we will do is make people poorer by making them order 2?

No, it actually works... people will eat fewer calories... sadly it's nowhere near enough.

For some, yes, they'll eat less[1] calories.

For some though something that used to be 500kcal and is now 350kcal isn't enough to satisfy them, so they order two of them, or they order the large version. Now they're eating 700kcal or 600kcal instead of 500kcal they were happy with before.

The psychology of not leaving any food also comes in to play. People will often eat too much because they think it's rude of wasteful not to eat everything they've ordered.

1. You can have half a calorie so I'll rule out the use of 'fewer'.

[whosatthewheel]

Personally I think that focussing on calories is the wrong way to look at the all obesity epidemic.

What should be tergeted is junk food, food that is harmful and addictive and leads to diseases, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Healthy food is unlikely to make you obese... if you eat the right amount of fibre, so unprocessed food, you will feel full before you eat too many calories. The problem with junk food is that it is calories dense and fibre poor, so in order to feel full, you end up eating too much. of it

We didn't evolve to eat calories dense food. This is the real issue... any other attempt only targets the symptoms, but not the root of the problem.
More fruit, more vegetables, more whole grains... fewer sugar/protein/fat packed processed crap

[Kim]

What should be targeted is poverty.  And maybe car use.

[whosatthewheel]

What should be targeted is poverty.  And maybe car use.

As well.

BUT, it's not only the poor who eats garbage...

What should also be targeted is education

[Cudzoziemiec]

Poverty in a Western context, perhaps. It's only in the last hundred years or so that we've been rich enough for poor people to eat as much and take as little exercise as rich people.

[Greenbank]

Personally I think that focussing on calories is the wrong way to look at the all obesity epidemic.

What should be tergeted is junk food, food that is harmful and addictive and leads to diseases, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Healthy food is unlikely to make you obese... if you eat the right amount of fibre, so unprocessed food, you will feel full before you eat too many calories. The problem with junk food is that it is calories dense and fibre poor, so in order to feel full, you end up eating too much. of it

We didn't evolve to eat calories dense food. This is the real issue... any other attempt only targets the symptoms, but not the root of the problem.
More fruit, more vegetables, more whole grains... fewer sugar/protein/fat packed processed crap

People often eat junk food because they're time poor. (There are more places that offer fast junk food than fast healthy food and, as someone has say upthread, fast healthy food is less available at unsociable hours.)

<cynic> And making the nation much healthier and live much longer isn't going to ease the pensions problem.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Fast healthy food is usually much, much dearer than fast junk food.

[hellymedic]

Fast healthy food is usually much, much dearer than fast junk food.

And more perishable.

[whosatthewheel]

Fast healthy food is usually much, much dearer than fast junk food.

But it doesn't need to be. A patty made of chickpeas shouldn't be more expensive than a patty made of beef, no matter how poor quality is the beef, it should always be more expensive than chickpeas. If that's not the case, then something is screwed in the supply chain.
It's about building the supply chain... healthy street food in the middle east costs pennies.

[whosatthewheel]

And more perishable.

again, it shouldn't be... vegetables and pulses should last longer than meat... fresh or frozen

[hellymedic]

And more perishable.

again, it shouldn't be... vegetables and pulses should last longer than meat... fresh or frozen

Dried pulses maybe, root vegetables possibly but salad veg and soft fruit?

Processed meat is not healthy but has a long shelf life.

[whosatthewheel]

And more perishable.

again, it shouldn't be... vegetables and pulses should last longer than meat... fresh or frozen

Dried pulses maybe, root vegetables possibly but salad veg and soft fruit?

Processed meat is not healthy but has a long shelf life.

Meat can be frozen, tinned or cured/dried, in the latter case nasty preservatives the likes of nitrites are required to kill c.botulinum.

Fruit can be frozen, tinned or dried without any need for preservatives. It can also be preserved with sugar, which is calorific but not carcinogenic, doesn't cause heart disease or diabetes (unless one already has it).

Admittedly lettuce needs to be eaten fresh, but other leafy vegetables can be frozen...

[hellymedic]

Frozen is hardly ambient.
Poor folk may not have a fridge or freezer the the cash for electricity to run them.

[Si S]

And more perishable.

again, it shouldn't be... vegetables and pulses should last longer than meat... fresh or frozen

Dried pulses maybe, root vegetables possibly but salad veg and soft fruit?

Processed meat is not healthy but has a long shelf life.

Meat can be frozen, tinned or cured/dried, in the latter case nasty preservatives the likes of nitrites are required to kill c.botulinum.

Fruit can be frozen, tinned or dried without any need for preservatives. It can also be preserved with sugar, which is calorific but not carcinogenic, doesn't cause heart disease or diabetes (unless one already has it).

Admittedly lettuce needs to be eaten fresh, but other leafy vegetables can be frozen...

My bold

That's a bit of a red herring put about by the meat industry.

It's possible to produce perfectly safe cured meat by traditional methods, it just affects the colour and takes a whole lot longer, hence raises the price.

[Delph Cyclist]

That's a bit of a red herring put about by the meat industry.

It's possible to produce perfectly safe cured meat by traditional methods, it just affects the colour and takes a whole lot longer, hence raises the price.

Are herrings ever red naturally or only when they have been cured.  Does that affect the colour.

I am a great advocate of McDs, but only because the can serve me a coffee and a doughnut at an early hour in the morning while Audaxing.  If the fatties keep them in business on my behalf, is that such a bad thing?  (I'm aware that there may be some ethical dimensions to this that I am glossing over).  Calories is fuel, but only if you need the fuel.

[EllysH]

I guess we've moved away from the benefits of fast food when audaxing.

Because while pretty much anything can be frozen and thus stored for a long, long time. I can't exactly chow down on frozen greens while I'm cycling.

That said, my wife snacks on frozen peas so I guess it could be possible...

[hellymedic]

Fast food and its outlets can be a haven for the roving AUK.
Fast calories might be just the ticket but most MaccyD clients are not cycling zillions of km through the night.

I also snack on frozen peas when making dinner.

[Sergeant Pluck]

they are both class 1 carcinogenic, so I don’t see why they are treated so differently

Because the classification is on the basis of quality of evidence, not the probability that any item in that class will cause cancer. Class 1 includes alcoholic beverages, exposure to sunlight, lots of medications, all the isotopes routinely used in nuclear medicine, working as a painter, and outdoor air.

[whosatthewheel]

they are both class 1 carcinogenic, so I don’t see why they are treated so differently

Because the classification is on the basis of quality of evidence, not the probability that any item in that class will cause cancer. Class 1 includes alcoholic beverages, exposure to sunlight, lots of medications, all the isotopes routinely used in nuclear medicine, working as a painter, and outdoor air.

Processed meat is class 1, like asbestos or tobacco

[Sergeant Pluck]

they are both class 1 carcinogenic, so I don’t see why they are treated so differently

Because the classification is on the basis of quality of evidence, not the probability that any item in that class will cause cancer. Class 1 includes alcoholic beverages, exposure to sunlight, lots of medications, all the isotopes routinely used in nuclear medicine, working as a painter, and outdoor air.

Processed meat is class 1, like asbestos or tobacco

That is so. But as my post mentions the classification is on the basis of quality of evidence rather than level of risk, hence some items on the list are much more dangerous than others, which is why different items in that class are treated differently.

Anyway, back to McDonalds, as the OP points out I suspect the end result of any calorie reduction will be an increase in “going large”.

[hellymedic]

McD's already offer a small hamburger.
I don't think they should shrink their standard products but do think they could market their less unhealthy products more attractively.