[Workaccount2]

I think a big part of the problem is that even prepared foods are packed with garbage. There are a lot of Americans who can't/don't cook mainly for time reasons, and instead eat lots of prepared foods, whether that be from restaurants, shops, or grocery stores.

If you are not cooking it from scratch yourself, it is almost guaranteed to be brimming with fat, salt, and sugar. This is true regardless of the source. Whether it be a frozen meal from the grocery store, a sandwich from the local deli, a dish from the bistro, or a quick bite from the coffee shop.

All of it is maximized fat, salt, sugar.

Seriously, I live in a major metro are and if you put a gun to my head and said "You have 20 minutes to pick-up an unmodified meal that is filling, mildly flavored, and healthy", I'd have to eat the bullet.

(And this doesn't even get into all the processed food ingredients)

[bluedino]

> There are a lot of Americans who can't/don't cook mainly for time reasons

In that sense, the 10% of people who aren't that busy, should be cooking.

Very few people are that busy. It's just not a priority.

Americans spend an astonishing 4 hours and 37 minutes looking at our phones every day.

[red-iron-pine]

> Americans spend an astonishing 4 hours and 37 minutes looking at our phones every day.

I can't cook meals while on the subway, or in between meetings at work, or waiting in a doctors office / car repair / bus stop / etc.

but I can sure as hell be on my phone.

[jeffbee]

People pressed for time just need to learn better recipes. If I make a pot of beans (almost effortless, really) I can eat it for days.

[nradov]

It's mostly the sugar that's the killer. Fat isn't necessarily a problem, depending on the specific type. Part of what made the "standard American diet" so deadly is when packaged food manufacturers replaced fat with extra sugar based on junk science that appeared to show a correlation between fat consumption and heart disease.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/price-we-pay-9781635574128/

And even extra salt isn't necessarily a problem for most people with typical genetics, either. The issue with hypertension is more to do with osmolality than absolute quantity. A lot of people have taken the "low sodium" fad a little too far.

https://peterattiamd.com/rickjohnson/

[moojacob]

Do you live near a Chipotle? Burrito bowl with brown rice, black beans, and chicken for $8.50.

I really don’t understand this “I don’t have a choice all fast food is bad” some are pretty healthy even if they are less tasty. I think the real discussion is how addictive the trash foods are.

[KPGv2]

> I really don’t understand this “I don’t have a choice all fast food is bad” some are pretty healthy

I agree with you, but when you factor in cost, availability, familiarity, and other psychological factors, you end up with people instinctively choosing really unhealthy options.

There's an acculturation issue IMO. I grew up white trash, while my wife grew up wealthy in an Asian household. I cook lots of healthy food, and even wrote a nutrition app before they really existed and hosted it locally, tracked my food, have spent months where I cooked everything I ate from scratch so I knew there was no added salt (I've had hypertension since I was 16yo, even though I was an elite high school athlete with a six pack and everything).

Despite all this, when under time pressure, I will instinctively prep unhealthy food because that's what I was raised with. It's completely mindless. One less thing to stress about, pure muscle memory taking over.

EDIT: My wife, OTOH, will throw stuff together that is so insanely health and based on random vegetables lying around, because that's what she grew up learning to cook.

It's not even conscious. I don't want to prep that food. It just happens because the stress of devoting even one brain cell to planning something that I didn't spend nearly two decades surrounded by just adds to the stress, even after all the deprogramming I've done the two decades since.

[moojacob]

So you’re saying eating low quality food is a deeply ingrained habit because you grew up with a family that ate those foods. They are comfort foods.

That’s a really good point.

[KPGv2]

Thank you. That is what I was saying. It's a habit that all the knowledge in the world I've amassed still doesn't help me completely overcome. It's something I have to be conscious of my entire life.

You should see the meals I cook: loads of healthy bean-based vegan dishes, salads, etc. But then it's 10pm, I'm thirsty, but my body struggles to tell the difference between thirst and hunger, and I drift over to eat some spicy chips instead of chugging water like I should be. And then I realize what I"m doing.

In grad school, it was really easy to avoid this: every meal, exactly the same thing. Nothing in the pantry except things necessary to make those meals.

[bumby]

Sometimes people treat the problem as just a simple “decide and act” type of discipline, but in reality it has psychological, environmental, and social components that often act under the surface to influence our behavior. Unconsciously gravitating towards unhealthy “comfort” foods is a good example.

[hypeatei]

This comment resonates a lot with me, so thanks for writing it. In order for me to lose weight, I had to completely upend my view of food instilled during childhood which meant no longer eating three meals a day "because that's how it is" and focusing on a few areas like drinks since those are easy to go overboard with.

[KPGv2]

Constant vigilance. IN grad school it was easy bc I only kept things in the pantry necessary to make the same meals every day: oatmeal with fruits, chicken breast and various vegetables, a variable bean and rice dish like Cuban black beans or rajma masala.

But now I'm married and have kids and it's a ridiculous way to expect to have a family, eat the same meals every day for years.

[greenavocado]

It is generally over $12 after tax

https://chipotlemenu.me/prices/

[moojacob]

You are right. I go to college in a low cost of living area so it is $9 with tax.

Is Chipotle the same price as a McDonald meal in other areas? Or just mine.

[greenavocado]

Not sure; I never go there. McD prices https://mcdonaldsprices.com/mcdonalds-prices/

[Workaccount2]

That's kinda why I added in "unmodified", because you can often put in enough subtractive mods to make something meet the requirements.

The issue here though is that no place ever subtracts cost as you cut ingredients. Add extra bacon? +$1.75. Subtract bacon? -$0.00. Chipotle prices in you getting a bunch of extras off the bat.

So you end up getting bent over for trying to be health conscious. All the junk is already priced into the cost, so you become the sucker for leaving it out.

I personally cannot eat dairy, so every sandwich I get I still pay for the cheese, and every coffee I get I still have to pay for the oat milk (despite not getting any sugar or pumps or whatever). I could rant a lot about this, as my girlfriend knows well, hah

[yamazakiwi]

Chipotle's Burrito Bowl has over 2000mg of sodium.

[piva00]

Every fast food place will suffer from having at least too much salt since it's a cheap taste enhancer.

As another comment mentioned, this particular dish has >2000mg of sodium, the recommended intake is to keep under 1500mg per day.

[cableshaft]

Brown rice isn't that good for you. Although if you remove that (or at least tell them to do 'light' rice) and add the lettuce, one of the salsas and the fajita veggies instead it starts getting pretty healthy (at least as far as I know).

[deeviant]

> Brown rice isn't that good for you

Based on what, exactly? Japan has one of the highest average lifespans, and the healthiest demographic in this already top-of-the-lifespan-pack nation consume significant amount of white rice, let alone brown.

[nradov]

Brown rice tends to contain more arsenic. A little bit is fine but if you eat large amounts frequently then that can be problematic.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2023.1209574

Many foods can become toxic in excessive quantities. That's why it's best to eat a wide variety of different foods and not get too many calories from any one food. Everything in moderation.

[aziaziazi]

For my friends reading this from Europe, you probably can keep on eating brown rice. In American it’s from pesticide and in Asia from mines erosion to water to rice. Americans might be good with organic one. IMHO the price difference worth the nutritious benefit.

You also can wash your rice to remove 90% of arsenic, basically putting it to wheat and other grains levels.

[tonymet]

When asked why restaurant food tasted so good, Anthony Bourdain chuckled and quipped that "everything you are served begins and finishes with a stick of butter".

People would gasp if they prepared that food for themselves.

When I finish a steak with 2 tbsp of butter it tastes luxurious, and any respectable steakhouse is finishing a steak with a stick of butter and garnishes it with an ice cream scoop of butter.

[cafard]

Years ago we were in Bologna. The ragu was splendid, but I would wake up in the middle of the night feeling absolutely parched. If it wasn't a lot of salt, I don't know what it would have been.

[orev]

He also said that restaurant vegetables taste good because they cook them with sugar.

[tonymet]

this is a good tip at home. At home you can have better results with less seasonings. Sugar, vinegar, salt, a glutamic should be considered the foundation for every dish

[9rx]

I am not all that bothered by the stick of butter as the meal is actually satiating and the calories consumed will remain within the calories I need to be consuming. Besides, most of it gets drained off anyway. The 1,000 calorie fast food meals that leave you still hungry afterward are troubling, though.

[tonymet]

In most dishes like a pasta or curry, it’s not drained off. We’re not talking about a stick of butter, it’s butter, sugar, fat, carbs all in quantities that would make someone shudder if they were preparing food at home.

[9rx]

> In most dishes like a pasta or curry

That seems like a waste of steak. Must be a lot cheaper where you are than where I am.

[bberenberg]

Cava is pretty good in NYC and I’ve largely replaced Chipotle with them if I’m craving “bowl of food not made at home”. Would encourage you to try it out.

[Grazester]

Excuse my ignorance,but what is wrong with Chipotle? Is it the high sodium. I eat the thing twice a week and do so because I get a high amount of fiber and calories needed for my diet...the only issue it the sodium content.

I tried Cava once and it was expensive for what it was and did not taste as good.

[Workaccount2]

Yes, I have had Cava (and similarly Eons), but unfortunately they are kind of playing the same game[1]. They are also pretty expensive, which as I ranted about in my other comment on Chipotle, they don't give you a discount for getting a lighter meal. You pay for all the sides then tell them to keep them.

That being said, I still would prefer Cava over other fast casual places for sure.

[1]https://assets.ctfassets.net/kugm9fp9ib18/20WmUiLdcxokvsfq8I...

[mlinhares]

Thankfully I have a Chipotle 15 minutes away, but most of the other stuff is shit.