This is what you are eating...

[DigitalBuddha]

Otto Von Bismarck, the politician who allegedly coined the phrase, If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made, knew this all too well.

But what about the everyday eats we assumed were safe, like bread, soda and cereal? Even if some of these foods seem innocuous, the fact that we need to pump up our snacks with additives speaks volumes about how far from 'natural' our food has become. Read below to find out what ingredients are really lurking behind those labels.

WTF!! - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/07/gross-ingredients_n_4063894.html

[Yeti]

The fact that we need to pump up our snacks with additives speaks volumes about how far from 'natural' our food has become. Read below to find out what ingredients are really lurking behind those labels.

It's mostly due to the fact that, as little first-world urban achievers, we've been conditioned over the course of our lifetimes to expect a cornucopia of food options to always be readily available, be extremely cheap, and store for long periods of time in our refrigerators. There's also the fact that the corporatists in our government place corporate profits well above the health and well-being of the people. A lot of the crap we eat wouldn't even legally be considered food in other countries.

From what I understand, most people in other developed countries (mainly Europe) that eat healthier, natural foods have small neighborhood shops where they buy fresh food daily. They don't haul their overweight asses to Sams' Club on weekends and buy boxes of 25-count frozen cheeseburgers like we do.

(For you Brits out there, we know you eat the same (or worse) crap that we eat here and you're ballooning up like we are. Jamie Oliver crossed the pond and spilled your secrets.)

[jgiffin]

From what I understand, most people in other developed countries (mainly Europe) that eat healthier, natural foods have small neighborhood shops where they buy fresh food daily. They don't haul their overweight asses to Sams' Club on weekends and buy boxes of 25-count frozen cheeseburgers like we do.

Anecdotally true. I studied in Europe for six weeks and lost about 20 pounds doing the whole "daily marketing" thing. Still ate better, too.

[LotsaBadKarma]

It's mostly due to the fact that, as little first-world urban achievers, we've been conditioned over the course of our lifetimes to expect a cornucopia of food options to always be readily available, be extremely cheap, and store for long periods of time in our refrigerators.

This is why dry beans are still so affordable to buy in either small amounts or in bulk. Because we, in America, have come to regard mealtime more as an occasion to be celebrated with lavish selections rather than comparing it to a trip to the gas station so that the car will continue to move. Plus I believe that more and more we are beginning to favor "presentation" than the actual nutritional value of what we shove into our faces. The food has to first look appetizing and then have a unique and delightful flavor and aroma in order for us to be motivated to "gas up" the machine which is the body. Whereas a simple bowl of lentil stew with some chopped spinach, potatoes, celery, and chopped fresh spices is far more beneficial to a properly functioning body than a lot of the shit we choke down nowadays but it lacks the attractiveness of modern fare. And most people would not tolerate it as daily fare.

One of the fittest people I ever knew was a guy about 60 years old at the time. He kept a crock pot of legumes and veggies constantly cooking and would grab an occasional bowl. This dude used to roller skate from a town called Waukegan, IL about 40 miles (each way) to Chicago and back and do repetitive sets of pull-ups and crunches and had the physique and endurance of a much younger man. I haven't seen him in years but it would not surprise me to find out that he's still healthy as a horse. And I think he'd rather die than eat at McDonald's. 

[jdurand]

Working with all the food bank pickups we see lots of food from "quality" stores.  Almost every week there's a new surprise that is worth an OMG, do people actually eat that?

We've gotten to making our own bread from scratch, pies with fresh fruit from the food bank and dried from our garden, and meat that looks edible from the food bank (no sauces, preparation, etc.) as well as any furry beasts that happen to have an unfortunate accident in front of me.  The furry beasts are actually some of the best.

[Primo]

damn right Dudes.

I am from Portugal (Europe's african country) and we do go to small shops and markets to buy fresh produce.
Even burgers and shit are ordered in a butcher's shop where you pick the animal part and the meat is minced in front of you.

No nuclear food up in here!

[cckeiser]

Food!!! !

Going through chemo as changed my taste buds something wild. I am getting cravings for all kinds of foods I would turned up my nose on not that long ago.....like Fish!
I am actually eating fish from a chinese buffet....everything they have and i never really even liked fish. I'm addicted to the pick and peal shrimp. Every couple of days I get a  craving, but the really good buffet is a drive into a busy mall...not something we like doing....driving at rush  hour down a busy highway into a busy Mall just so I can sate my craving for shrimp.
My special lady did pick up a bag frozen uncooked from the local supermarket and we can pick it up loose precooked shrimp so I think  the next craving attack I'll try the cooked and give my cook a break.
nd then I swing to the other side and really crave a medium rare roast beef....a few months ago that would have been a medium rare eye-round, but right now I got this really huge craving for very pink almost bloody roast beef....I do not know if it's a top round or a bottom round but they carve it off a piece of beef the size of a basket ball and serve it with the ague.
Damn damn dang it all...I got shoestrings just writing about it!
Just may have to go out to eat tonight!!