Americans Life Expectancy

[Steve9347]

In ground beef especially, in my experience, the leaner you go, the more expensive you go. 85% lean is cheap, 92% is more, 96% is even more, and buffalo is like $7-8 a pound.

 

At McDonalds, on the other hand, you can feed a family of 4 off the dollar menu for $8-$12.

Someone who's happy eating the beef McDonald's cooks should not worry about only shopping for lean beef. BTW, you can cook off the fat of ground beef by straining and rinsing in hot water.

[CrimsonWeltall]

I actually do view my entire day that way. My day is apportioned by what I have to do. X hours sleeping, Y hours working, Z hours traveling to work, Q hours having fun.

 

So if a friend invites you to go see a movie, you make a calculation in your head whether or not that particular movie will give you around $200 worth of enjoyment?

 

I work so that I can watch as many hours of tv, post on the internet or do whatever I want to with my time. I dont work so I can go home, pretend im on top chef, then pretend on im on kitchen nightmares, so I can save $5 a day. It just makes no economic sense

 

It makes no economic sense for you.

[Steve9347]

I dont work so I can go home, pretend im on top chef, then pretend on im on kitchen nightmares, so I can save $5 a day.

Like I said, some of us find that enjoyable. Plus, there's a tv in my kitchen.

[southsider2k5]

Someone who's happy eating the beef McDonald's cooks should not worry about only shopping for lean beef. BTW, you can cook off the fat of ground beef by straining and rinsing in hot water.

 

This is how I cook with any ground beef.

[StrangeSox]

The better option requires more effort? That's true for almost everything in life.

 

The opportunity costs and the extra effort required aren't the same for every person. It's easy for me to choose to go to the grocery store and prepare healthy meals because I have both the time and money to do so. When I'm working 60 hours a week, all of a sudden the home-cooked meals turn to simple processed pasta or get replaced all together with fast food or eating out.

[Steve9347]

This is how I cook with any ground beef.

So there's no reason to get 96/4 over 80/20 was my point.

 

I don't worry about that s*** with Boca crumbles, of course.

[CrimsonWeltall]

I've never said that it is impossible to find time or eat healthier, probably for the majority of people and across the class spectrum. I said that what choices you can make and ultimately choose are influenced, pressured and constrained by outside forces to various extents. I can't buy what isn't offered for sale, I can't buy what I can't afford, and whatever I do choose to buy is going to be influenced by a whole host of external factors.

 

No, you didn't say it was impossible, but you're acting like the choices are extremely limited. If you choose to get a 32oz coke instead of water, you can't blame the 32oz coke option.

 

Eating healthy and inexpensively is a viable option for the vast majority of people. That's all I'm really saying.

[StrangeSox]

This is how I cook with any ground beef.

you can also stretch it out by adding bread crumbs. but if you're on a tight budget and barely able to put food on the table, cooking off that fat and rinsing it down the drain is throwing nutrition away.

[iamshack]

The majority of you guys are being absolutely f***tarded right now.

 

Badger, we don't care how many drugs you've taken or currently subject your ($100/hr) mind to. Enough of this Bill Maher I want to brag about how much weed I smoke. And seriously, if you view every hour of your day as a potential billable hour lost, come talk to me when you're 70 and you can't hardly walk and you have 6 months to live and won't see your granddaughter get married and see how much those hours are worth then because you didn't want to lose a billable hour making a reasonable dinner.

 

SS, you are starting to sound like Balta and his cell phone argument with this "food desert" of yours. Maybe if you don't know where to find produce, or are too lazy to go get it, you should have thought about that before you decided to go knock up 3 different women with 2 kids each. At some point people have to take some damn responsibility for their actions.

 

Finding food used to take hours or even days for our ancestors. Good thing they didn't just decide it was too much hassle for them to bother eating in their "food desert." Food was much, much more expensive for our more recent ancestors, such as our grandparents and great grandparents. Good thing they worked hard and saved enough room in their budget to eat.

 

Food is cheaper and more abundant now than at any time in human history. The reason the vast, vast majority of people in this country eat like s*** is because they are ignorant, lazy, undisciplined and irresponsible.

 

For the entire summer for dinner, almost every night, I ate 1 bell pepper, 1 tomato, 1/2 cucumber, and a few ounces of mozzarella cheese. Seasoned with salt and pepper. That cost me maybe $3? For a healthy meal. Took me 2 minutes to prepare. Almost anyone could do this...basic produce is available. A knife is not expensive. It takes almost no time.

 

BMags, I don't know what you have against cheese.

[illinilaw08]

Someone who's happy eating the beef McDonald's cooks should not worry about only shopping for lean beef. BTW, you can cook off the fat of ground beef by straining and rinsing in hot water.

 

If you have a very limited budget to stretch for food, you can feed a family of 4 for very cheap at McDonalds off the dollar menu. A salad at McDonalds, or a grilled chicken sandwich are much more expensive. You can get a large pizza for $10 from Papa Johns or Dominos (and they frequently have buy one get one deals). I'm not saying that you can't eat healthy for cheap, but it's much easier to eat unhealthy for cheap.

 

As to my own situation, didn't know about cooking off the fat. Without being armed with that knowledge, if I want to eat leaner and healthier beef (something I strive to do - whether in tacos, chili, or burgers), I end up paying a premium to buy the leaner meat. Same thing goes for ground chicken or ground turkey. It is much more expensive to buy healthy protiens.

[Soxbadger]

So if a friend invites you to go see a movie, you make a calculation in your head whether or not that particular movie will give you around $200 worth of enjoyment?

 

 

 

It makes no economic sense for you.

 

I barely ever go to movies (I have netflix etc, makes no sense to spend $20 to see 1 movie when I can spend $20 for unlimited monthly movies).

 

But once again you are not understanding how the apportionment of time works.

 

Free time is more valuable than work time. Therefore in every instance doing something that I enjoy is more valuable than work. I only work so that I can have free time. Thus if there is ever something I want to do, it always trumps work.

 

Making food, cleaning, etc falls into "work time". It is not "free time" because I am doing something I dont want to do. Therefore if I am going to do something I dont want to do ie "work time" I have multiple work options. One of those options includes me gaining more money. If cooking and working are equal, then it makes more sense to work 30 minutes (+$50) as opposed to cooking 30 minutes (+$20). Thus every time I cook for 30 minutes where I could have been working 30 minutes I lose $30.

 

 

 

 

So there's no reason to get 96/4 over 80/20 was my point.

 

I don't worry about that s*** with Boca crumbles, of course.

 

Except for the added extra step. Id rather just pay the $1 per lb extra or whatever the cost is.

 

[StrangeSox]

No, you didn't say it was impossible, but you're acting like the choices are extremely limited. If you choose to get a 32oz coke instead of water, you can't blame the 32oz coke option.

 

No, I'm not. I completely reject that I'm acting like they're "extremely" limited. That's editorializing that you've thrown in. I used the soft drink chart to illustrate the very simple concept that what choices you make are limited by external factors, some of which are beyond your control. You can't choose to buy something if its not for sale, and that goes for a lot more than soft drinks at restaurants. I could probably eat healthier than I do if I shopped at Whole Foods regularly, but there isn't one near me. Instead, I can choose from what's offered at the stores around me.

 

Eating healthy and inexpensively is a viable option for the vast majority of people. That's all I'm really saying.

 

That's probably true, though I might change it to healthier before agreeing to it. But if we have a culture (social, advertising, marketing, etc.) that encourages you to eat garbage or not be active, that's going to influence you. That can be counteracted by things like the Lets Move or Play 60 or other positive campaigns. It's naive to ignore the role society plays in our own daily choices. Make those healthy, active choices easier to make for more people, shift the culture to stop buying garbage foods and to be more active, etc. It all plays a part.

[Jenksismyhero]

The majority of you guys are being absolutely f***tarded right now.

 

Badger, we don't care how many drugs you've taken or currently subject your ($100/hr) mind to. Enough of this Bill Maher I want to brag about how much weed I smoke. And seriously, if you view every hour of your day as a potential billable hour lost, come talk to me when you're 70 and you can't hardly walk and you have 6 months to live and won't see your granddaughter get married and see how much those hours are worth then because you didn't want to lose a billable hour making a reasonable dinner.

 

SS, you are starting to sound like Balta and his cell phone argument with this "food desert" of yours. Maybe if you don't know where to find produce, or are too lazy to go get it, you should have thought about that before you decided to go knock up 3 different women with 2 kids each. At some point people have to take some damn responsibility for their actions.

 

Finding food used to take hours or even days for our ancestors. Good thing they didn't just decide it was too much hassle for them to bother eating in their "food desert." Food was much, much more expensive for our more recent ancestors, such as our grandparents and great grandparents. Good thing they worked hard and saved enough room in their budget to eat.

 

Food is cheaper and more abundant now than at any time in human history. The reason the vast, vast majority of people in this country eat like s*** is because they are ignorant, lazy, undisciplined and irresponsible.

 

For the entire summer for dinner, almost every night, I ate 1 bell pepper, 1 tomato, 1/2 cucumber, and a few ounces of mozzarella cheese. Seasoned with salt and pepper. That cost me maybe $3? For a healthy meal. Took me 2 minutes to prepare. Almost anyone could do this...basic produce is available. A knife is not expensive. It takes almost no time.

 

BMags, I don't know what you have against cheese.

 

A+ for the post

 

F- for your dinners in the summer

[StrangeSox]

Food is cheaper and more abundant now than at any time in human history. The reason the vast, vast majority of people in this country eat like s*** is because they are ignorant, lazy, undisciplined and irresponsible.

 

Or (or maybe additionally) because s*** food is widely and easily available pretty much everywhere you go, is relatively cheap, tastes good (lots of sugars and salts) and is constantly advertised and reinforced.

 

Moralizing the choices like that generally really does not help if you're looking for cultural changes. People tend to resent being told they're dumb, lazy assholes.

[Jenksismyhero]

No, I'm not. I completely reject that I'm acting like they're "extremely" limited. That's editorializing that you've thrown in. I used the soft drink chart to illustrate the very simple concept that what choices you make are limited by external factors, some of which are beyond your control. You can't choose to buy something if its not for sale, and that goes for a lot more than soft drinks at restaurants. I could probably eat healthier than I do if I shopped at Whole Foods regularly, but there isn't one near me. Instead, I can choose from what's offered at the stores around me.

 

 

 

That's probably true, though I might change it to healthier before agreeing to it. But if we have a culture (social, advertising, marketing, etc.) that encourages you to eat garbage or not be active, that's going to influence you. That can be counteracted by things like the Lets Move or Play 60 or other positive campaigns. It's naive to ignore the role society plays in our own daily choices. Make those healthy, active choices easier to make for more people, shift the culture to stop buying garbage foods and to be more active, etc. It all plays a part.

 

I literally cringed reading this. This is that bulls*** liberal "everyone is a stupid moron that can't think for themselves so we need to protect them" mentality.

[StrangeSox]

Also f*** this bulls*** of assuming anyone in poverty is "knocking up 3 different women with 2 kids each" and they're all lazy, irresponsible people.

[Soxbadger]

The majority of you guys are being absolutely f***tarded right now.

 

Badger, we don't care how many drugs you've taken or currently subject your ($100/hr) mind to. Enough of this Bill Maher I want to brag about how much weed I smoke. And seriously, if you view every hour of your day as a potential billable hour lost, come talk to me when you're 70 and you can't hardly walk and you have 6 months to live and won't see your granddaughter get married and see how much those hours are worth then because you didn't want to lose a billable hour making a reasonable dinner.

 

Funny that you throw insults but you failed to even understand the basic concept of my argument.

 

To make it simpler.

 

Free time > work time

 

And maybe Ill die at 70, maybe Ill die at 100, maybe Ill die tomorrow. I dont have enough time in the day to pass judgment about how other people want to live there life.

 

If you can live off $3 bell pepper slices, good for you. Thats not how I live, that is not how I want to live, and quite frankly it doesnt matter whether my life expectancy is 20, 27 or 50000, Id rather live my life they way I wanted.

 

Which goes back to the stupidity of this entire thread/article. As Americans we have the freedom to eat healthy or not eat healthy. We make our choices, we live with them. The point you seemingly are missing is that people keep arguing about money, as if having money will automatically cause you to make good decisions. Having money, not having money, its still about the person and their level of responsibility.

 

No idea where you are even going with this.

[StrangeSox]

I literally cringed reading this. This is that bulls*** liberal "everyone is a stupid moron that can't think for themselves so we need to protect them" mentality.

No, it's not. It's recognizing that there's this thing called "culture" and that it influences people.

 

edit:

 

Make those healthy, active choices easier to make for more people, shift the culture to stop buying garbage foods and to be more active, etc. It all plays a part.

 

Ok I can see how that can sound paternalistic. I did not mean that "make [...]" or "shift the culture" should come from some top-down government organization or something.

Edited January 10, 2013 by StrangeSox

[iamshack]

Or (or maybe additionally) because s*** food is widely and easily available pretty much everywhere you go, is relatively cheap, tastes good (lots of sugars and salts) and is constantly advertised and reinforced.

 

Moralizing the choices like that generally really does not help if you're looking for cultural changes. People tend to resent being told they're dumb, lazy assholes.

I'm not running for President...and that doesn't make it any less true.

[bmags]

I don't understand why you all are so stupid and fat.

[bmags]

Sorry I meant to say that cheese is high in calories and unless you are eating a cheese platter it's a relatively easy thing to minimize. Remove it from your burgers and burritos and that adds up over the years.

[southsider2k5]

If you have a very limited budget to stretch for food, you can feed a family of 4 for very cheap at McDonalds off the dollar menu. A salad at McDonalds, or a grilled chicken sandwich are much more expensive. You can get a large pizza for $10 from Papa Johns or Dominos (and they frequently have buy one get one deals). I'm not saying that you can't eat healthy for cheap, but it's much easier to eat unhealthy for cheap.

 

As to my own situation, didn't know about cooking off the fat. Without being armed with that knowledge, if I want to eat leaner and healthier beef (something I strive to do - whether in tacos, chili, or burgers), I end up paying a premium to buy the leaner meat. Same thing goes for ground chicken or ground turkey. It is much more expensive to buy healthy protiens.

 

Cook the beef until fully browned. Once that happens, get a strainer and put the beef in there with a bowl underneath. The fat drips through the strainer into the bowl. You can even take a spatchela and smash the beef down to squeeze out more fat. It ends up way less greasy.

[BigSqwert]

Leave it to a group of affluent white people in here to tell people how easy it is to eat healthy and cook at home. "If I could do it I don't see why everyone else can't.“

[iamshack]

Also f*** this bulls*** of assuming anyone in poverty is "knocking up 3 different women with 2 kids each" and they're all lazy, irresponsible people.

And that is really what I posted.

[southsider2k5]

Leave it to a group of affluent white people in here to tell people how easy it is to eat healthy and cook at home. "If I could do it I don't see why everyone else can't.“

 

Non-white people can't be healthy and cook at home?