Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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haha commercials are funny. Last time I checked i needed 2,800 calories per day to maintain my current weight. Why would I waste my time and money buying something that's 90 calories of pure shit? Since when is low calorie healthy?

This was mostly a rant...but do these BS commercials & "health foods" piss anybody else off?

flag	asked Jun 20 2012 at 4:10 Andrew 3,095●1●6●24

	It's apparently hella good marketing and healthy for corporate bank accounts. Healthy for humans? Pfffft – Karen 0 secs ago – Karen Jun 20 2012 at 12:04
	Then if you're obese, you could eat 10 of them a day, lose a lot of weight, and improve your health. – foreveryoung Jun 20 2012 at 15:20

gydle · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-20 07:00:43Z UTC

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Obviously these commercials are a tactical strategy devised by the food manufacturing empire to get us addicted to sugar and refined grains so they can establish a steady revenue flow from our pocketbooks into their coffers. They don't give a shit about our health. Only thing is if we eat their crap we'll get sick and die earlier, so my theory is that's why they concentrate most of their efforts on children. More bang for the buck.

the thing that makes me sad is that despite (or perhaps because of?) our outsized brains, so many of us fall for it.

answered Jun 20 2012 at 7:00

gydle
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Why corporations should never be considered to legally be persons. Real people have a variety of motivations for their actions and most people have personal ethical guidelines. The only motivation and guiding value for a corporation is profit. – Karen Jun 20 2012 at 12:30

I remember when the holy grail was when the food manufacturers would be able to make food you could snack on all day that had no calories at all. – Diane Jun 20 2012 at 17:20

Karen, corporations are considered fictional persons under corporate law, and they liable for crimes committed against other corporate bodies or other natural persons. This is in order to protect, not to commandeer your liberties. Charities can also be corporations, where profit serves the functions as a means to an end (ie. breast cancer research funding) as opposed to an end in itself – foreveryoung Jun 20 2012 at 18:56

Crowbar · Answer 2 · 2012-06-20 04:48:35Z UTC

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I openly sneer at cereal commercials when I'm at my mother's (I don't have cable).

"Studies show that people that eat whole grains weigh less than those who don't."

Rrrrriight.

answered Jun 20 2012 at 4:48

Crowbar
7,451●1●3●17

studies are like fingernail polish! Mix and match to suit your mood! – gydle Jun 20 2012 at 6:53

Yeah, what they don't tell you is that skeletons weigh far less than people who are alive too. Another fallacy, that weight is an indicator of health, or that calories are an indication of unhealthy. – raydawg Jun 20 2012 at 9:40

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It's all in the fine print. "Studies show that people that eat whole grains weigh less than those who don't.*" *When compared to people who eat the same amount of completely refined grain products, by an average of 0.2 pounds. The study completely ignored that the whole grain eaters ate more fish and vegetables, exercised more and ate less trans-fats. – Karen Jun 20 2012 at 12:27

and on top of that..if your eating whole grains you actually care about your health & your not sitting on the couch all day. – Andrew Jun 20 2012 at 13:22

Chinaeskimo · Answer 3 · 2012-06-20 04:22:38Z UTC

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I kinda look at them in wonder and think about how I used to think those things were healthy and I used to eat them.

answered Jun 20 2012 at 4:22

Chinaeskimo
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The media and health industries have had a large hand in this. "News" is usually canned advertisement copy handed to reporters as studies and read on TV or radio, or published in magazines and newspapers. Repeat a lie enough times and it becomes what everyone internalizes and believes is reality. It takes huge efforts, as you have realized, to refute such lies. This is why it's so difficult to convince someone who hasn't heard that fat is good for us and that grains are a problem. – raydawg Jun 20 2012 at 9:43

raydawg, I could not believe it myself when I first heard of Gary Taubes stand on grains and fat. I was almost incredulous. "The very idea. . . " Well, I put fat is good and grains are bad to the test of my own personal way of eating and Boom! I'm many pounds lighter in body and spirit. I laugh at the commercials now but it is a lugubrious laugh. – Doris Jun 20 2012 at 12:10

raydawg - “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it”. The author of that quote and the average corporation have about the same ethical character. – Karen Jun 20 2012 at 12:36

Curse you, Ancel Keys! – MiMintzer Jun 20 2012 at 20:38

raydawg · Answer 4 · 2012-06-20 09:49:00Z UTC

Lead has zero calories, does that mean we should be eating it by the pound? How about mercury?

But seriously, this is just another example of the manufacturer playing with the serving size. Like fake potato chips, they know you "can't just eat one" and will wind up finishing off the whole box, so it's pure profit for them to sell you something that cost them a few cents, but was sold to you for a few dollars a box.

Remember kids, there's a huge industry out there, a trillion dollar one, whose only reason for existence is to spin reality to whatever their clients want it to be. There are many good resources out there that tell you how this works. One is called "Positioning, the Battle for Your Mind" I was lucky enough to have had a professor in college point us to this book - it was a class I initially expected to be useless fluff, but it really opened my eyes.

foreveryoung · Answer 5 · 2012-06-20 11:58:33Z UTC

"Since when is low calorie healthy"

In the short run, eating a low calorie diet is healthy for people trying to lose body fat or reverse their type 2 diabetes. In the short run. It may also be beneficial for cancer patients

And personally, no, the commercials about food I don't eat do not make me angry. maybe they should but, but for some reason they just don't really bother me.

Cereal Bars only 90 calories! Must be healthy right?!

5 Answers