We're all big and fat

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-27 01:07am

Country-fried steak? What the hell is that?

Heaven on a plate. It's horrible for you but it's sooooooooooo good.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-07-27 01:09am

Joe wrote:
Country-fried steak? What the hell is that?
Heaven on a plate. It's horrible for you but it's sooooooooooo good.

This sounds eerily like the conversation we had earlier about Krispy Kreme donuts.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2004-07-27 01:15am

Joe wrote:
Country-fried steak? What the hell is that?
Heaven on a plate. It's horrible for you but it's sooooooooooo good.

Bad food tastes insanely good. This is one of the big problems. People often badmouth places like Burger King or McDonald's, and pretend that their food tastes bad. No, their food tastes fucking delicious, it just happens to also be a heart attack in a bag.
For intelligent people, it might not be too much of a dilemma. You know that country-fried steak tastes good, but you also know that it's better to eat something else, so you limit your country-fried steak intake.

But most people aren't that intelligent. They know that country-fried steak tastes good, so fuck it, they're going to eat country-fried steak, and they're going to smoke a cigarette when they're done. Who wants to live to be old anyways?

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-07-27 01:20am

I wouldn't give two shits if they weren't dooming their kids to a similar lifestyle and outlook, and sucking cash from my economy and health care infrastructure because Porky couldn't be bothered to not eat KFC for dinner every day.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-07-27 01:21am

Robert Treder wrote:Bad food tastes insanely good. This is one of the big problems. People often badmouth places like Burger King or McDonald's, and pretend that their food tastes bad.

I don't think their food tastes particularly good, compared to (say) restaurant burgers or anything, but I also don't think it tastes horrible.

No, their food tastes fucking delicious, it just happens to also be a heart attack in a bag.
For intelligent people, it might not be too much of a dilemma. You know that country-fried steak tastes good, but you also know that it's better to eat something else, so you limit your country-fried steak intake.

Precisely. I'm sure that you can eat pretty much anything you want every once in a while, provided that you're getting reasonable levels of exercise. However, a lot of southerners I've spent time with seem to make it their goal in life to eat such "delicacies" virtually every day!

But most people aren't that intelligent. They know that country-fried steak tastes good, so fuck it, they're going to eat country-fried steak, and they're going to smoke a cigarette when they're done. Who wants to live to be old anyways?

I'm not even sure if it's a matter of intelligence. I think it's just a matter of will-power. Yeah, ice cream p0wns almost every food out there, but I don't need to eat it every day. I, quite frankly, do not see much appeal to having health-problems caused by poor and imminently preventable dietary habits. It's one thing for someone with a serious mental or physiological disorder to put on large amounts of weight, but let's face it: 19% of men do not have such a problem, and those that DO have legitimate problems almost ALWAYS admit it and state it up-front (if only to help them deflect criticisms).

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-27 01:25am

Fast food like BK and McDonald's may taste good when you're eating it, but it sits in your stomach like a stone for hours afterwards. So I don't think it's a satisfying culinary experience.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2004-07-27 01:33am

Stop eating at places like BK or McDonalds for a few month then go back and you will notice how bad it really is.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-07-27 01:37am

McDonald's food is disgusting. I almost never eat their burgers, so when I do get one (most commonly on the road trip west from my place toward southwestern Ontario, where the only road stop on the freeway on the first leg of the trip is a McDonald's), it feels really gross going down.

And here's something to think about: my dog Fuzzy flat-out refuses to eat McDonald's burgers. You can offer him one, he will turn up his nose. You can leave one in his bowl, you will find it uneaten tomorrow. I shit you not. There must be something about the smell which he just can't stomach.

But for some reason, he likes Wendy's burgers. Go figure.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-27 01:40am

Hehe, I've seen my dog (golden retriever) eat McDonald's hamburgers in one bite.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-07-27 01:44am

Joe wrote:Hehe, I've seen my dog (golden retriever) eat McDonald's hamburgers in one bite.

Obviously, my dog has aristocratic tastes. Must be the barbecued prime rib that I used to feed him from the table when he was a puppy.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-27 01:46am

Darth Wong wrote:
Joe wrote:Hehe, I've seen my dog (golden retriever) eat McDonald's hamburgers in one bite.
Obviously, my dog has aristocratic tastes. Must be the barbecued prime rib that I used to feed him from the table when he was a puppy.

Little dogs are like that. Give them too much people food and they get picky; my grandparents Shih Tzu has been spoiled with chicken and rice to the point where she'll simply turn her nose up to normal dog food.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-07-27 01:55am

Joe wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:
Joe wrote:Hehe, I've seen my dog (golden retriever) eat McDonald's hamburgers in one bite.
Obviously, my dog has aristocratic tastes. Must be the barbecued prime rib that I used to feed him from the table when he was a puppy.
Little dogs are like that. Give them too much people food and they get picky; my grandparents Shih Tzu has been spoiled with chicken and rice to the point where she'll simply turn her nose up to normal dog food.

Fuzzy likes chicken and rice but it has to be freshly cooked chicken, preferably dark meat. However, he prefers duck meat.

Yes, he's spoiled. I can't help it. He looks up at me with those big round eyes as if to say "It smells so good, can I have some? Please? Pretty please?"

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2004-07-27 02:00am

It seems the best way to stop eating something is to have some bad experience from eating it. At least that's the case for me. I used to regularly eat the hamburgers at McDonalds and Burger King, as well as foods such as shrimp and pizza with burnt cheese, but haven't touched them in years because at one point along the road, I suddenly hated the taste and never gave it a second chance.

Sir Sirius · Post by **Sir Sirius** » 2004-07-27 02:12am

It has been my observation that fat people often have truly bizarre eating habbits. I have a morbidly obese cousin that eats nothing but pizza and spagetthi (not counting desserts like chocolate mousse, one of his favourites, or candy Etc.). My fat aunt likes to eat (cold) sausages with Roquefort cheese and chocolate, she also eats whole packages of Roquefort cheese alone. A fat highschool friend of mine ate nothing but salami for breakfast, he also ate salami with almost every other meal he had, he even brough salami to school so that he could eat it with whatever was being served at the school cafeteria.

Those were the most bizarre ones I know of, but almost every truly fat person I know well enough seems to have a bizarre eating habit or two. Has anyone else noticed this?

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2004-07-27 02:16am

Darth Wong wrote:McDonald's food is disgusting. I almost never eat their burgers, so when I do get one (most commonly on the road trip west from my place toward southwestern Ontario, where the only road stop on the freeway on the first leg of the trip is a McDonald's), it feels really gross going down.

And here's something to think about: my dog Fuzzy flat-out refuses to eat McDonald's burgers. You can offer him one, he will turn up his nose. You can leave one in his bowl, you will find it uneaten tomorrow. I shit you not. There must be something about the smell which he just can't stomach.

But for some reason, he likes Wendy's burgers. Go figure.

Wendys makes a good burger, so I can understand how you dog feels

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-27 02:16am

Yes. While my dad is not obese at all, he's jsut overweight, he has the odd habit of frying eggs in bacon grease. You can feel yourself dying a little bit inside when you take a bite.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2004-07-27 02:19am

Darth Wong wrote:McDonald's food is disgusting. I almost never eat their burgers, so when I do get one (most commonly on the road trip west from my place toward southwestern Ontario, where the only road stop on the freeway on the first leg of the trip is a McDonald's), it feels really gross going down.

And here's something to think about: my dog Fuzzy flat-out refuses to eat McDonald's burgers. You can offer him one, he will turn up his nose. You can leave one in his bowl, you will find it uneaten tomorrow. I shit you not. There must be something about the smell which he just can't stomach.

But for some reason, he likes Wendy's burgers. Go figure.

That does not surprise me. We had a cat that would pass on McDonalds burgers every time.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2004-07-27 02:36am

Master of Ossus wrote:Also, for whatever reason, the southern states seem to have developed a palate based almost solely around fats and oils. Country-fried steak? What the hell is that? Especially since it's usually served with gravy. Many of their other regional dishes also involve lard and a deep-fryer.

And it FUCKING SUCKXS!!!!111

Where's the fresh veggies? Where's the sushi? Where's the RICE!!? Fat tastes absolutely disgusting to me too, and I swear to Goddess it clogs up my digestive system. Then I start feeling nasty and greasy (like I need to be any greasiER at all!!) BLEGH!

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-27 02:38am

A Louisiana native who doesn't like fatty foods? You truly are an anomaly, Ein.

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-07-27 03:15am

You want to know about obese, for the first time I went to Krispy Creme doughnuts on Thursday night with a friend- we bought a box of a doze (so six each), I had three and couldn't bring myself to have another. What do we see as we're walking out?

Five guys. SEVEN boxes of a dozen. 84 doughnuts for five guys. How is that helping you? PUT THE DOUGHNUT DOWN!

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-27 03:25am

You have Krispy Kreme in Australia? Cool.

That kind of thing is par for the course in America; we have this chain of pizza places called CiCi's that offers pretty much as much pizza, garlic bread, dessert pizza, and salad as you can eat, buffet style for around 5 bucks. Some people think of it as a great place to eat; others think of it as a filthy, unsanitary hellhole, especially my clean-freak best friend who considers the mere existence of the restaurant a constant oppressive force bearing down on his psyche. Anyway, you go into the restaurant and sometimes there's going to be a table with one or two land monsters sitting down, and it's common behavior for them to go up the the buffet, grab an entire pizza and then waddle back to their seats and wolf it down. And they repeat this 2-3 times. You just sit there and watch in awe.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2004-07-27 03:40am

Darth Wong wrote: I for one find it fascinating that obesity is being socially "normalized", in the sense that powerful social forces are at work to make fatter people feel good about themselves and skinnier people feel bad about themselves.

I have noted before that you can say any insulting thing you want about a skinny woman and no one will question it; indeed, many will pat you on the back for being such a liberated person with a healthy attitude. But do the same thing to a fat woman, and POW! You're a worthless scumbag who doesn't deserve oxygen. Look at the dress-size issue; women can proudly say they're down to a size 8 dress by simply modifying what "size 8" means. And look at the survey where 19% of men are so fat that they can't see their own waists over their bellies, but only 10% will admit that they have a weight problem. Not to mention the contrast between this survey and previous surveys in which people filled in their own data rather than being measured with a 3D scanner.

Fat people THINK they're thinner than they are. Fat people THINK that fat isn't really that bad. It's easier to be socially cruel to a thin person than a fat person in many circles. Bathroom scales are designed to read low. Dresses are designed to be bigger than their size would indicate. It's not just that we're losing the Battle of the Bulge; we're losing horribly while pretending that things aren't going that badly.

Mike, can't you add this to the "Things That Piss Me Off" page on your homepage's Rants section? It seems like you are very pissed off by this.

On the subject of this, I would like to add that I have known three or four girls which were diagnosed with anorexia - but only one of them actually suffered from that particular disease!

Oh - and the bit about thin people being more ridiculed than fat people. I think it has two more reasons which you forget:

1) Thin people often give the impression of being physically weak and frail, thus providing an illusion of them being easier to bully. (never, EVER underestimate the instinctive human need to dominate others)

2) There's also the fact that obesity is far less convenient than being underweight. (unless you're so grotesquely emaciated that you can't even walk without putting your entire metabolism out of balance - I saw one of those folks on Oprah once) In short - most exceptionally thin people aren't at a disadvantage because of their physique.

3) No overweight person (obscure or famous, living or dead, fictitious or real) has EVER been rumoured to be a Grey Alien.

4) If you're really thin, you can make yourselves look heavier by putting on lots of layers of clothes. It's far easier for lightweight people to look heavier than it is for heavy people to look lighter.

BTW - the bit about bathroom scales being designed to read low explains why bathroom scales everywhere say I only weight 68kgs or so, even though I appear to be 72-75 kgs.

BTW#2 - do you think that BMI charts have something to do with this?

Sir Sirius wrote:It has been my observation that fat people often have truly bizarre eating habbits. I have a morbidly obese cousin that eats nothing but pizza and spagetthi (not counting desserts like chocolate mousse, one of his favourites, or candy Etc.). My fat aunt likes to eat (cold) sausages with Roquefort cheese and chocolate, she also eats whole packages of Roquefort cheese alone. A fat highschool friend of mine ate nothing but salami for breakfast, he also ate salami with almost every other meal he had, he even brough salami to school so that he could eat it with whatever was being served at the school cafeteria.

Heh, H.P. Lovecraft had some truly bizarre eating habits too yet he was quite lanky. For example, he only ate two meals a day, finished each off with two or three ice cream cones, was a frequent guest at "All You Can Eat"-style restaurants and put ten spoonfuls of sugar in each cup of tea. (No wonder he died before he was 50 years of age) And no, he didn't have a fast metabolism - in fact, he was forced to eat only two meals a day because of digestion problems.

Sorry for going off-topic, I just have a strange obsession with Lovecraft's dietary preferences.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2004-07-27 03:44am

Joe wrote: That kind of thing is par for the course in America; we have this chain of pizza places called CiCi's that offers pretty much as much pizza, garlic bread, dessert pizza, and salad as you can eat, buffet style for around 5 bucks. Some people think of it as a great place to eat; others think of it as a filthy, unsanitary hellhole, especially my clean-freak best friend who considers the mere existence of the restaurant a constant oppressive force bearing down on his psyche. Anyway, you go into the restaurant and sometimes there's going to be a table with one or two land monsters sitting down, and it's common behavior for them to go up the the buffet, grab an entire pizza and then waddle back to their seats and wolf it down. And they repeat this 2-3 times. You just sit there and watch in awe.

Lovecraft would have loved it. (no pun intended)

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-07-27 04:39am

Darth Wong wrote:
Solauren wrote:Those averages are kinda scary. Especially the denial part
Indeed. Think of the kind of self-delusional willpower it takes to be unable to see your waist over your drooping belly and still convince yourself that you don't have a weight problem.

Hell, just watch the "big but beautiful" crowd and feel your brain die a little bit more. No, a normal women is not and never shall be a size 2 or 4. However, that does not mean that a 20 is beautiful. Ever. In any respect.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2004-07-27 05:42am

Peregrin Toker wrote:1) Thin people often give the impression of being physically weak and frail, thus providing an illusion of them being easier to bully. (never, EVER underestimate the instinctive human need to dominate others)

True.

2) There's also the fact that obesity is far less convenient than being underweight. (unless you're so grotesquely emaciated that you can't even walk without putting your entire metabolism out of balance - I saw one of those folks on Oprah once) In short - most exceptionally thin people aren't at a disadvantage because of their physique.

It sucks at playing any sort of contact sport though. I ran full force at a friend of mine who weighs ~90Kgs. (I'm 183 cms/60kgs. Or 6'3" and 130lbs.) He didn't even budge.

4) If you're really thin, you can make yourselves look heavier by putting on lots of layers of clothes. It's far easier for lightweight people to look heavier than it is for heavy people to look lighter.

Also true. With 2 shirts (at least one long sleeve) I look 20 kilos heavier.

BTW#2 - do you think that BMI charts have something to do with this?

Possibly. I have a BMI that puts me at "very underweight". I function well despite this.