The most sickening article I've read recently!

[peaceandlove]

Americans Toss Out 40 Percent of All Food

Tuesday, Nov. 24, …
Editorial Director
LiveScience.com – Thu Nov 26, 9:46 am ET

U.S. residents are wasting food like never before.

While many Americans feast on turkey and all the fixings today, a new study finds food waste per person has shot up 50 percent since 1974. Some 1,400 calories worth of food is discarded per person each day, which adds up to 150 trillion calories a year.

The study finds that about 40 percent of all the food produced in the United States is tossed out.

Meanwhile, while some have plenty of food to spare, a recent report by the Department of Agriculture finds the number of U.S. homes lacking "food security," meaning their eating habits were disrupted for lack of money, rose from 4.7 million in 2007 to 6.7 million last year.

About 1 billion people worldwide don't have enough to eat, according to the World Food Program.

Growing problem...

Continues: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...rcentofallfood

[TheObserver]

I wonder how much of this 40% is divided between table scraps (cooking too much) and cleaning out past due stuff in the pantry (buying too much).

[Jack]

This brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "useless eaters"

[artvision]

Originally Posted by peaceandlove

Americans Toss Out 40 Percent of All Food

Tuesday, Nov. 24, …
Editorial Director
LiveScience.com – Thu Nov 26, 9:46 am ET

U.S. residents are wasting food like never before.

While many Americans feast on turkey and all the fixings today, a new study finds food waste per person has shot up 50 percent since 1974. Some 1,400 calories worth of food is discarded per person each day, which adds up to 150 trillion calories a year.

The study finds that about 40 percent of all the food produced in the United States is tossed out.

Meanwhile, while some have plenty of food to spare, a recent report by the Department of Agriculture finds the number of U.S. homes lacking "food security," meaning their eating habits were disrupted for lack of money, rose from 4.7 million in 2007 to 6.7 million last year.

About 1 billion people worldwide don't have enough to eat, according to the World Food Program.

Growing problem...

Continues: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...rcentofallfood

Yes, you have perfectly right. When I was living in Canada, going to friends, they were in preparation of going shopping, so they were throwing away more than half of their fridge content.

I think this is a lack of planning, a lack of spending discipline and an impulsive buying habit. Also I observe people are buying issues with different validity periods, but eating them in a random way, regardless the order it became expired. So, many issues will be thrown away.

This crisis and recession will make people more responsible, will make them think about what they are doing and will wake up their survival skills which were asleep.

Also, do not forget that the Elites will make the price of food to rise, 5 to 10 folds in the next year. Imagine then, what will happen!

A more wise attitude about the food storage, food consumption and long term storage, must be the most serious preoccupation for any family, even living in US, Afghanistan, Argentina or Romania, in the next period!

Take example from Amish and from LDS (Last Day Saints). Their house will never consider safe if they would not offer the food and other basics for at least a year for all the house members. This is planning and survival ideology. Be sure, that these people learned how to use efficiently the food and even the scraps that are fed to animals, so is a whole of efficiency.

In truth, the waste what is going now, will be like a punishment for us, for the future times of scarcity that will come!

[peaceandlove]

Originally Posted by artvision

In truth, the waste what is going now, will be like a punishment for us, for the future times of scarcity that will come!

Myself, and I'm sure many others on this forum were brought up by parents who lived their early years or were born during The Depression.

For that reason, food was purchased for nourishment, not entertainment. Meal planning was essential to avoid 'useless' (Thanks Jack: "This brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "useless eaters") spending and grocery shopping was an art.

Every week there were at least one or two reheated or hodgepodge meals. It was well known how long foods could be stored in the refrigerator safely. These were the years of big families and waste could not be tolerated.

The subsequent generations have not practiced the same 'foodology'. They lived the "I want it now." and "Just throw it out." era.

Thanks artvision for your commentary and future view!

PaL

[artvision]

Originally Posted by peaceandlove

Myself, and I'm sure many others on this forum were brought up by parents who lived their early years or were born during The Depression.

For that reason, food was purchased for nourishment, not entertainment. Meal planning was essential to avoid 'useless' (Thanks Jack: "This brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "useless eaters") spending and grocery shopping was an art.

Every week there was at least one or two reheated or hodgepodge meals. It was well known how long foods could be stored in the refrigerator safely. These were the years of big families and waste could not be tolerated.

The subsequent generations have not practiced the same 'foodology'. They lived the "I want it now." and "Just throw it out." era.

Thanks artvision for your commentary and future view!

PaL

Thank you PEACEANDLOVE, my experience is coming from my years of childhood and teenage lived under scarcity brought by communism, when I was trained to stay at queues for buying everything, from milk, sugar and kitchen oil to canned coffee, which has been a luxury.

So, I know a things or two, about how to make many appealing main courses, just with margarine, mustard, etc

Really, the waste what's happening now is abhorrent if compared with the living scarcity of people in North Korea, West Africa, etc and I'm afraid that God will teach us a lesson. This is I'm afraid of.

PS: I read somewhere ( I don't recall where) about the fact that before each major crisis, people were very fat, they waste lots of foods and that the human body "knows" unconsciously to prepare for future scarcity times. This has been happened before the second world war, when all the people were massive and well fed, while after war they were like mere shadows because of penurious living caused by war.

So, maybe this is a sign for us, who knows!

[Ross H]

Originally Posted by peaceandlove

Myself, and I'm sure many others on this forum were brought up by parents who lived their early years or were born during The Depression.

For that reason, food was purchased for nourishment, not entertainment. Meal planning was essential to avoid 'useless' (Thanks Jack: "This brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "useless eaters") spending and grocery shopping was an art.

Every week there were at least one or two reheated or hodgepodge meals. It was well known how long foods could be stored in the refrigerator safely. These were the years of big families and waste could not be tolerated.

The subsequent generations have not practiced the same 'foodology'. They lived the "I want it now." and "Just throw it out." era.

Thanks artvision for your commentary and future view!

PaL

Yes indeed,

I call it 'the disposable society' which include all foods, appliances, motor cars, infact just about everything...its 2 years old...we better buy a new one...this also extends to relationships, disposable! if it gets a bit tough, throw in the towel and move onto the next one...I'm generalising a wee bit.

Sad state of affairs!

Peace

[Unified Serenity]

While I do believe many waste food, I also must point out that much of this sort of data is questionable. They ask questions like, "In the past month have you had any problems feeding your family". Well, I can tell you that I can have plenty of food and have problems feeding my family. It all depends on how one views the question.

They may send out questions to children in school asking, "In the past month have you not had the food you wanted?" My kids may want pizza and hotdogs every night, but they are not going to get it! So, of course if I fixed meals they might not have liked they would answer "yes" to that.

Let's see the data they drew this report from and then see how it was analyzed. Did they design questions around getting a result they wanted? Would scientists ever manipulate data to get a result they want? I think the recent "Global climate warming" scam proves they will lie, scheme, and manipulate data to prove their hypothesis and gain monetarily to continue fraudulent work.

So, yes much is wasted. Where I work, we throw away tons of food! The reason so many businesses do throw food away instead of donating it to the poor is because the minute one of those people get a tummy ache they will sue you. Just like the health care debacle you have to look deeper for the real truth and ways to fix the real problems from those real facts.

Many of these "poor" countries can also look to their own leadership for using food as a weapon against the people. They take our aid, cut their food programs and increase their military or force people into military service to get the food. I am thankful to live where I do, and be a member of a country that along with all it's wrong doings, has a good record of helping out around the world as well. The American people are a very giving bunch, and it amazes me how fast so many are to disparage all things American.

What are you or your country doing to help the down trodden and poor?

[TheObserver]

The NEW estimate of food waste, published in the journal PLoS ONE, is a relatively straightforward calculation: It's the difference between the U.S. food supply and what's actually eaten, which was estimated by using a model of human metabolism and known body weights.

Previous calculations were typically based on interviews with people and inspections of garbage, which Hall's team figures underestimates the waste.

From the article.

[THE eXchanger]

if we wasted/or threw out food
my mum threatened to shot us !!!
we lived, cause,
we did NOT take ANY chances
that there might be 'real' actions,
behind her words !!!

i am careful, what i buy,
and, i use, what i buy,
and, if, there is anything left over,
i feed it to the animals
(fortunately, most of my eat at home diet is mostly
fresh, and, raw)

[Humble Janitor]

Geez, I've never seen such pompousness and arrogance in any other thread on this site.

It's not a surprise, especially with the "useless eaters" comment.

So people buy too much or cook too much? IT HAPPENS. I'm thankful just to have anything to eat at all.

Should we ration food out of FEAR or should we work on our meal planning?

[Swanny]

Big problem with the western world is that people eat too much for each meal and also eat between meals????? No one needs a snack just eat 3 meals a day. Oh yea they have pudding as well as their main meal and then they wonder why they are fat They also have become very lazy. There is a supermarket near me with a escalator that takes you up stairs, the moving pavement type. If you watch people going up it you will notice that the people that could use the most exercise are the ones that just stand on it and wait till they get to the top.

If people were to cut back on size of meals didn't eat snacks and got some exercise instead of sitting on their bums watch **** on tele they wouldn't need to consume so many resources which would make the world a much better place. Maybe then they could share food with others across the world.


I've also noticed that mums now cook separate meals for each of their kids. When I was a kid I my mum cooked one meal for all the family and we had to eat it all before we could leave the table

[artvision]

The most disturbing for me, is when I read these articles:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_hungry_seniors

If we are not respecting our seniors after a life of hardworking we are heading to disaster, no question about!

This is very disturbing for me, that people in their 70. 80's they should go to work, again, or lining for getting charity, because of need!

[morguana]

Originally Posted by Humble Janitor

Geez, I've never seen such pompousness and arrogance in any other thread on this site.

It's not a surprise, especially with the "useless eaters" comment.

So people buy too much or cook too much? IT HAPPENS. I'm thankful just to have anything to eat at all.

Should we ration food out of FEAR or should we work on our meal planning?

I think that the gluttony of our western is put into perspective when one conciders that 1 in 6 people are starving to death! That's right for evey 6 people in the world one is.....not just slighty peckish, or even underfed...but is dying from starvation
Grrrrrrrrrrr
Bou x

[Jack]

Originally Posted by Humble Janitor

Geez, I've never seen such pompousness and arrogance in any other thread on this site.

It's not a surprise, especially with the "useless eaters" comment.

Its called having a sense of humour my friend, you should try it sometime

[Humble Janitor]

Originally Posted by Jack

Its called having a sense of humour my friend, you should try it sometime

What's next? A thread complaining about fat people?

How is this place any different than other internet forums/

[Swanny]

People eating more than they need to is wrong especially while others are starving.
Eating too much is as wasteful as throwing it in the bin.

[morguana]

World hunger is projected to reach a historic high in 2009 with 1,020 million people going hungry every day, according to new estimates published by FAO on 19 June 2009.

http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news-...est+Stories%29

waste not want not......thats what making soup is about!
bou x

[Jack]

Originally Posted by Humble Janitor

What's next? A thread complaining about fat people?

Why not, there the ones eating all the food.

[Dantheman62]

Originally Posted by Jack

Why not, there the ones eating all the food.

Doh! or should I say Dough! LOL

[burgundia]

Originally Posted by Humble Janitor

What's next? A thread complaining about fat people?

How is this place any different than other internet forums/

Actually being fat is not healthy.

[artvision]

Originally Posted by Humble Janitor

How is this place any different than other internet forums/

Other internet forums are not so lucky to have a Humble Janitor tell them how trivial they are, like we have! This is only thing saving our butts, here on Avalon!

[Karen]

There is enough food to go around if it were properly distributed! But TPTW will NOT have that!!! I'm surprised no one has mentioned this before on this thread. American farmers have even been paid to NOT grow crops. Control of food distribution is a great way for TPTW to control 3rd world countries. People who care send food to the hungry - but many times it does not even make it to the hungry - local corruption sees that it goes to other places or that it is even dumped.

What goes to waste in personal homes is nothing compared to waste in restaurants! I worked at delivering pizzas for a few months - at the end of the night - piles of pizza dough went into the garbage as well as other "expired" food. I was a sickening sight every shift I worked until close.

[peaceandlove]

U.S. Obesity Trends

Trends by State 1985–2008

Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. BMI is calculated from a person's weight and height and provides a reasonable indicator of body fatness and weight categories that may lead to health problems. Obesity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, and type 2 diabetes.

Download the State Maps
The prevalence of obesity is depicted in a PowerPoint slide presentation format. (25 slides total, PPT-1.42Mb)
This is also available as a text-only Acrobat file.(PDF-1.75Mb)

During the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. In 2008, only one state (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty-two states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; six of these states (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia ) had a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 30%.

The animated map below shows the United States obesity prevalence from 1985 through 2008.

SEE HERE and MORE Statistics including Ethnic Obesity and Diabetes maps: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html



Fat but not so happy: Southern counties lead U.S. obesity rates

11:09 am November 23, 2009, by Maureen Downey

I wish we could put health-oriented programs like Girls on the Run at every school.

Interesting story in the AJC today on the counties in the U.S. with the greatest obesity problems. It will be no surprise to anyone who has ever attended a county fair in rural areas to learn that the South tops the list.

The story states:

ATLANTA — The first county-by-county survey of obesity reflects past studies that show the rate of obesity is highest in the Southeast and Appalachia. High rates of obesity and diabetes were reported in more than 80 percent of counties in the Appalachian region that includes Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, according to the new research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The same problem was seen in about 75 percent of counties in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina.

I know that schools are called upon to solve all of society’s problems, but I think obesity is becoming such a large problem – excuse the unintended pun – that it can’t be ignored.

I think schools ought to partner with recreation and active living programs to launch elementary school running programs and fitness camps. My 10-year-old daughter attends a terrific track program after school called Girls on the Run, which takes place at a local public school but charges a fee. I would love to see programs like that for all kids based at every school.

Again, I don’t think we should ask school staffs to embrace this challenge but we certainly ought to use school facilities. I know there are costs, but it will be considerably less expensive to prevent childhood obesity than to pay the associated health bills later.

There is a link between obesity and lack of education, which is likely why the South and Appalachia always lead the lists. Educated people stay in better shape.

Perhaps, as we improve our schools we’ll see healthier lifestyles.

SOURCE: http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-bl..._schooled_blog



The cost of obesity in the United States
By Jodie Humphries | 11/23/09 - 10:21

The Cost of Obesity in the US

Obesity is described as the fastest growing public health challenge the nation has ever faced. In fact, if obesity rates continuing growing at the rate they currently are, by 2018 103 million American adults will be classed as obese.

With that figure in mind, the US is expected to spend $344 billion on healthcare costs attributed to obesity in 2018.

By 2018, obesity will account for more than 21 percent of healthcare spending, with a cost of $1,425 per person, which is a rise from $361 per adult in 2009.

Today, it is estimated that $79,438 million dollars is spent due to obesity in the United States.

CONTINUES with CHARTS and GRAPHS: http://www.executivehm.com/news/cost...united-states/

[Humble Janitor]

Originally Posted by burgundia

Actually being fat is not healthy.

Neither is being rail-thin.

Of course, as someone that has struggled with weight for most of my life, I let myself take things a little too personally. Even with thyroid medication, it's going to take another surge of willpower to get back to a healthy weight.