US food standards vs the rest of the world

[SomeRandom]

This thread seems to me to be confusing government food standards with cultural dietary habits.

And comparing the United States with the "rest of the world" doesn't make much sense, since "the rest of the world" is a big place and includes many different kinds of traditional diets along with many versions of food processing and storage standards (ranging from strict to none at all).

I live near San Jose California and I'm not really aware of any sort of distinctly Californian diet. Our local food is kind of international. We eat Mexican one day, Italian the next. Or it might be Chinese one day and Thai or Indian the next. Lots of Asian food around here. There's less and less of the older style 'meat and potatoes' cuisine imported from Europe that was consumed by previous generations. If visitors find portions are too large, remember that nobody is forcing you to eat all of it.

As far as FDA standards are concerned, I expect that they are equivalent to first world standards around the world, perhaps with some minor differences here and there that places like the EU might choose to exploit to protect their own farmers. American food standards are better than health standards in many poorer parts of the world. You aren't going to get Monteczuma's Revenge from eating American food.

Alright. Fair enough I’ll narrow the comparison.
First world countries in comparison to the US. You guys did seem a little more permissive in government food safety standards than my own country (Australia.) I did meet some very health conscious citizens but everything I ate did taste sugary. Someone mentioned everything was corn syrup flavoured and I have to agree, based on my limited interaction with US food. Some of the things I ate over in the US would easily be categorised as simply lollies (candy) in other countries. You guys did seem to have healthier milk, for what that’s worth. But your drugs for example. Like half the stuff I saw advertised aren’t approved in my country and all came with like a million disclaimers on possible side effects lol

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Too true. I tend to cook from scratch because it is cheaper, better tasting, and healthier than processed foods. Mostly because it is better tasting. And with experience it takes less and less time to prepare your own. Learning how to do so is what takes time. If you make one dish at a time it can take forever, but if you organize you can cook and prepare several dishes at once.

True, but finding healthy options in general can be difficult. Like at convenience stores. Unless it's water you probably won't find anything to drink that isn't loaded with sugar or zero-calorie stuff that's really not good for you ("artificial sweetener" is such bull**** since many industrial sweeteners/sugars are indeed artificial). Even tea. Natural or fake sugar, it's way more sweet than I'd make myself.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Odd....I live in Ameristan, & my bread has no preservatives.

For the record guys, when I visited Cali, I literally gained like 5 or so kilos in like a week. Which I think is a pound or more (not up on my US measurements.)
Just throwing that out there

This can help:
Random, did you know where to find good foods and what were you eating?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

If and when they can ever make health food taste like Twinkies or Big Macs, then they might be on to something.

I think those taste like garbage. Snack cakes in general have so very little taste and flavor and anything that leaves me wow or actually even feeling better indulging in junk food I don't eat them. I save those calories and fats for something I'll really enjoy, like the occasional piece chocolate Miracle Whip cake (don't judge, this cake (and it must be Miracle Whip) puts even many bakeries to shame).
McDonald's, I do sometimes like an egg McMuffin, but in general I only taste grease, and complete, total bland. For burgers, on the occasion I eat one there aren't many burgers I like that are made in a restaurant. And, really, I'd rather buy something like Rally fries at the store and air-fry them at home. And they're actually better that way because they aren't twice-fried and drowning in grease.

 

[Stevicus]

Haha. Well I suppose that’s one PR strategy lol

Another trick they use is to tout their cereal as "part of this complete breakfast," which is another way of saying the cereal is not sufficient for one's nutritional needs.

And here's another one I found:

 

[Vinayaka]

Okay. So I grew up watching a lot of US media and have even visited California once. Look at me go. But I wanted to get a perspective from real Americans
Your standards of food compared to the rest of the world
The bread I had in Cali, I could practically taste the preservatives. Lasted weeks without mould. Here maybe 3-4 days and you’d get mould just by default
Tylenol has only now been approved (with changes I assume) to be released here.
Our potion sizes are even a lot smaller. A medium here is a small in the US and I can absolutely vouch for that.
So what do you think? Do American eat exceptionally unhealthy?
Are potion sizes too big for your own good?
Does the FDA have lower standards than the rest of the developed world?
Because it sort of seems like it, ngl

I certainly don't really like travelling in the US by car, as it is difficult to find what I consider healthy food, on the road. Large cities are okay. That said, it's better than it used to be. We often use grocery stores, but even then a larger supermarket is needed.

I have different definitions of food than many Americans.

 

[JustGeorge]

Well fair enough. I did eat a balance. Mostly because I was curious to try your eateries. You guys have like 30 or so chains that I wanted to try. Holy damn. I can eat fast food here all the time. But eating out in Cali quickly made me sick. Still good though lol

A good way to kill cravings for restaurant food is to work in one, or be married to someone who does, so you can hear what really is in(and isn't in) that garbage.

Good for the tongue, bad for the gut(and just about everything else).

Though if you want restaurant food, but don't want the price, you can always go to the distributer. Most restaurants don't cook their stuff from scratch, they have it brought in frozen from distribution companies(around here, its Sysco and Martin Brothers). They usually have outlets where consumers can just buy the same product outright.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Another major factor is how much money a person has. (Probably like that everywhere.) Our poor do tend to eat higher processed, quicker to prepare 'foods', simply because they're immediately cheaper and easier to prepare. Cooking from scratch can be immensely cheaper down the road, but few have time to cook like this(America is also known for spending too much time at work, where people then pick up fast food on the lunch hour). Higher income people generally eat healthier, as they have the cash to prepare things that would be labeled "10 Healthy Dishes in 15 Minutes"(and always has at least 1 or 2 ingredients that financially equate to a poor person's meal).

"Immediately cheaper" is a great point, because it doesn't matter how much something cost in the long run when you can't afford it today. And when "cheaper today" is all you can afford, you end up buying more and paying more in the long run. And this nasty cycle applies in many areas. Clothing, maintenance parts, and many household items are just a few examples of where being poor does cost more.

 

[Stevicus]

I think those taste like garbage. Snack cakes in general have so very little taste and flavor and anything that leaves me wow or actually even feeling better indulging in junk food I don't eat them. I save those calories and fats for something I'll really enjoy, like the occasional piece chocolate Miracle Whip cake (don't judge, this cake (and it must be Miracle Whip) puts even many bakeries to shame).
McDonald's, I do sometimes like an egg McMuffin, but in general I only taste grease, and complete, total bland. For burgers, on the occasion I eat one there aren't many burgers I like that are made in a restaurant. And, really, I'd rather buy something like Rally fries at the store and air-fry them at home. And they're actually better that way because they aren't twice-fried and drowning in grease.

I realize I need to be more careful now, mainly because I'm not as physically active as I was when I was younger. I could tolerate that stuff much more easily because I was usually active and working off the calories. My big downfall was soda. There was a time when I'd come home with 2 two-liter bottles of Coke, and I'd finish them before the night was over. I don't do that anymore. Now I drink black coffee, no sugar or cream or anything else.

I remember someone offered me this super-healthy shake that they liked, and it tasted like drinking freshly-mowed grass. If someone can make something like that, with the same health benefits, yet taste like a super-rich double chocolate malted (or even something with the taste and consistency of Coke), then I'd imagine it'd be quite popular.

The health food industry has tried to make their products a bit more appetizing than a bowl of grass or wild hickory nuts. But I imagine that's also where some of the expense comes in.

 

[JustGeorge]

"Immediately cheaper" is a great point, because it doesn't matter how much something cost in the long run when you can't afford it today. And when "cheaper today" is all you can afford, you end up buying more and paying more in the long run. And this nasty cycle applies in many areas. Clothing, maintenance parts, and many household items are just a few examples of where being poor does cost more.

And then there's the time and know how involved...

Its fun to experiment in the kitchen, but when you're poor, you can't always risk a screw up.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I certainly don't really like travelling in the US by car, as it is difficult to find what I consider healthy food, on the road. Large cities are okay. That said, it's better than it used to be. We often use grocery stores, but even then a larger supermarket is needed.

I have different definitions of food than many Americans.

The differences between California and Indiana are astounding when it comes to food. Indiana does not have many actual grocery stores; California has a variety of them. Indiana eats lots of pork and healthy food options can be an inconvenience to obtain. California does not eat nearly as much meat, and healthy foods and farmer's markets are all around and easy to find.

 

[Stevicus]

The differences between California and Indiana are astounding when it comes to food. Indiana does not have many actual grocery stores; California has a variety of them. Indiana eats lots of pork and healthy food options can be an inconvenience to obtain. California does not eat nearly as much meat, and healthy foods and farmer's markets are all around and easy to find.

I would think that there'd be a lot of farmer's markets in Indiana and other major farm states. In my travels I've seen plenty of makeshift produce stands along the side of the road.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Too true. I tend to cook from scratch because it is cheaper, better tasting, and healthier than processed foods. Mostly because it is better tasting. And with experience it takes less and less time to prepare your own. Learning how to do so is what takes time. If you make one dish at a time it can take forever, but if you organize you can cook and prepare several dishes at once.

If you don't have a family, it's pretty fun, actually. Just don't mix the wrong ingredients. I tried fixing cornbread from scratch and I put too much vinegar. That didn't work out well.

 

[JustGeorge]

If you don't have a family, it's pretty fun, actually. Just don't mix the wrong ingredients. I tried fixing cornbread from scratch and I put too much vinegar. That didn't work out well.

I wonder if baking powder in Latin America is different than the US... I've noticed with recipes I get from cookbooks that are written by folks in Latin America calls for waaaay too much baking powder, when using the stuff I have here. I remember going with it the first time, though it seemed really off to add 3 TBS baking powder to a batch of cookies. My cookies tasted like aluminum. I would have assumed typo, but I've seen this occur in different books... I've learned just to knock the amount down. But I wonder if the ingredient is just simply different elsewhere.

 

[Subduction Zone]

If you don't have a family, it's pretty fun, actually. Just don't mix the wrong ingredients. I tried fixing cornbread from scratch and I put too much vinegar. That didn't work out well.

Vinegar? There is this modern product called baking powder. It is only about 175 years old

 

[Subduction Zone]

I wonder if baking powder in Latin America is different than the US... I've noticed with recipes I get from cookbooks that are written by folks in Latin America calls for waaaay too much baking powder, when using the stuff I have here. I remember going with it the first time, though it seemed really off to add 3 TBS baking powder to a batch of cookies. My cookies tasted like aluminum. I would have assumed typo, but I've seen this occur in different books... I've learned just to knock the amount down. But I wonder if the ingredient is just simply different elsewhere.

They might be conflating baking powder and baking soda. Baking powder does not need an acid added. Baking soda does. Baking soda is Sodium bicarbonate. That is it. Baking powder has at least two ingredients and sometimes more.

 

[SigurdReginson]

It really depends. Where I live, people tend to eat healthier things. We have major grocery chains (with all those preservatives and stuff), but we also have food coops and farmers markets where people can buy locally grown and produced things. Since I live in a veritable gateway to the east, Asian food is pretty common here as well. I have things such as sambal paste, mirin, oyster sauce, locally made kimchi, milk fish, and other ingredients at my disposal - but I would say this is much more rare outside of coastal areas.

Even then, portion sizes seems to be a regional thing. When I went down to Arizona, I went and got a croissan'wich from burger king years back. The actual sandwich was 1/3rd larger than what we have up here. Instead of a small hash brown patty, I got a bag of tater tots, and their small orange juice was the size of our larges. I also noticed a bit of an obesity problem down there, and I observed the same thing when I went over to Ohio.

As for the FDA, yah, they suck. The majority of us in the USA don't eat healthy at all.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Vinegar? There is this modern product called baking powder. It is only about 175 years old

Haha. Maybe too much baking powder. I could have sworn that was in it. One of the two made the cornbread hard as wood.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I remember someone offered me this super-healthy shake that they liked, and it tasted like drinking freshly-mowed grass. If someone can make something like that, with the same health benefits, yet taste like a super-rich double chocolate malted (or even something with the taste and consistency of Coke), then I'd imagine it'd be quite popular.

That's the big area I call bull on STTNG. The food replicator can make anything but only from healthy ingredients, and they aren't chowing down on stuff that would otherwise clog arteries and induce a diabetic coma? Troi didn't even settle for this alternative when she wanted a chocolate shake? Are these humans or robots?

The health food industry has tried to make their products a bit more appetizing than a bowl of grass or wild hickory nuts. But I imagine that's also where some of the expense comes in.

For the most part, it does tend to be "more tolerable" and "less tolerable." But there are some that are better, and a few I would say are actually good

 

[SomeRandom]

Another trick they use is to tout their cereal as "part of this complete breakfast," which is another way of saying the cereal is not sufficient for one's nutritional needs.

And here's another one I found:

Omg damn lol