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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: neolib who wrote (227273)	4/16/2007 11:44:40 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

It's not just that they like them better- it's thousands of years of evolution that program us to gorge on fats and sweets, to fortify ourselves for the famines that were such a part of man's existence for most of his evolutionary history. It's hard to hold every individual responsible for fighting that. And when you couple that with wickedly effective advertising, i'd say your average man doesn't have a chance- which is why the average man is getting fatter and fatter and fatter.

To: neolib who wrote (227273)	4/17/2007 1:17:04 AM
From: geode00	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I do not think that people naturally like doughnuts over cabbage. Advertising works. Marketing works. Distribution works. Mass production works. If they don't then lots of big corporations are getting hosed by their ad agencies. People were easily persuaded into believing that white bread was of higher quality than coarse brown bread. That is, until they were persuaded that whole grain brown bread was of a higher quality than that icky white junk. It's a 180 degree change in a few decades. The reality was always the same, the difference was advertising and marketing. I believe that in a year Americans could be persuaded to eat...OMG...broccoli and love it. I think Americans could be persuaded to believe that sugar and white flour are poisons. I think we can be persuaded to believe just about anything if we hear it often enough from people we think are experts. IMO I think the problem with the USA is one of goal achievement without considering the consequences and then failing to make course corrections along the way. It's like draining the Everglades to make room for 'development' and then figuring out that the grasses clean the water before dumping it into the ocean. Hunger was usually a problem for past generations....too few calories at too high a cost. Now we have a gazillion calories for a few bucks available on every corner. The consequences include diabetes and rampant obesity and general unhappiness. We solved the calorie dilemma and then kept solving it until we became harmed by it. I do believe that sugar, in the form of sucrose, fructose, white flour, french fries, etc. is addictive. We don't necessarily like Krispy Kreme more than we like cabbage rolls but we have become addicted to the sugar high from the fried pieces of sugar....covered in sugar glaze. I think it's true that this is a metabolic problem and not one of actual taste buds and preference. I do think we like fat but I don't think that most natural fats are bad for you regardless of what the AMA is saying...this year. I think we could eat whale blubber and spinach and survive pretty well. Right now the only 'god' in the healthcare system is profit. The lobbyists for said profit descend on the politicos in Washington and the beleaguered American family's future continues to dim. I would be happy to replace that kind of malicious and evil greed with government aka US. We trust US with defense, highways, education, airwaves, food safety, water safety, product safety, patents, courts, safety, etc. Why would we not trust US with paying for healthcare? Right now, that welfare slob costs you much less than the pickpockets in the Bush administration spending $100b/year just for Iraq and who knows how much more for Medicare Part D. As I said, tax the sugary highly-processed food industry, subsidize leafy green vegetables locally grown and see what happens to the welfare slob. We are not stuck in this reality. We can change it just as soon as we decide to.