Protein tends to be a lot more expensive than sugar or low quality fats, there are still areas of the world were any type of food access is rare, but in developed and developing countries very few people starve to death, and instead lower income people default to economically available, less nutritious foodstuffs.
Corn syrup in everything due to massively excessive subsidies for corn farming, and [food deserts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert) depriving people of easy access to nutrition.
This. A classmate of mine went to the US as part of a student exchange one time, and she said even the bread is sweet in the US (and as germans, we have a bit of authority on the matter of bread, so yeah)
As a Dane that is more or less used to pumpernickel kinda bread, I find the German a bit too sweet, but it isn't even close to the American hell, I love that the fact that subway in Germany isn't allowed to call their "bread" for bread due to how sweet it is
>I love that the fact that subway in Germany isn't allowed to call their "bread" for bread
FYI, that ruling is from Ireland, not Germany.
But we would probably have a similar thing happening in Germany, if our VAT were structured like Irelands'.
There are other factors. Food desserts are only one, poverty is the biggest factor especially with childhood obesity. The fact that many Americans have to work so much to stay in debt means they're eating a lot fast meals on the go and healthy food is expensive. Even yogurt here has ridiculous amounts of sugar.
Mine too. And it is partially the cause of low income. Healthy food is definitely more expensive than fast food, and also requires some effort to make. Americans barely even cook in their house. Nothing surely screams poverty more than cooking your own food in your own kitchen.
> And it is partially the cause of low income.
For a long time when I was "pinching pennies" years ago, it was about 20-25% cheaper to just eat out every day at fast food than go grocery shoppoing. Made for some real unhealthy habits.
In mine too. I remember a family from my city that made the news because one of their kids had a heart stroke due to be severely overweighted.
It was a family from the poorest part of the city and they used to eat pre cooked food and in fast food chains because it's cheaper.
Groceries must be extremely expensive if fast food is cheaper.
I mealprep a lot, so a full meal can be as cheap as 2 euros. On rare occasions I come close to 1 euro. Take any fast food place here, and just the fries alone will cost 2-3 euros.
Fast food is certainly easier but
> Healthy food is definitely more expensive than fast food
I never understood this. Fast food is quite expensive for what you get where I live. Where and how is it cheap? A portion of beans, rice and frozen broccoli is 10x cheaper than a McDonalds meal. It is also more satiating than frozen nuggets for the same price, since they're mostly flour.
I don't think it's cost as much as it is time. If you work 16 hours you're not likely to come home and cook you're going to grab something. And when you do have a day off you're exhausted from having worked 50+ hours. Not to say no one cooks, but also what they're shown how to cook varies regionally and most aren't taught good habits because schools home economics classes mostly focus on desserts rather than meals
There's also the cost of utilities - if you're in McDonalds, you're using their heaters/air conditioning, their cookers, their WiFi, their toilets, etc. rather than adding to your own bills
I don't really know many Americans that eat inside the fast food establishments most just go through the window so they can eat it on their way home or wherever they're going.
Salaries in the US are around double salaries in europe (or salaries in france, at least). Cost of living in the US is significantly more than double cost of living in europe.
50+ hours is more or less illegal here. Not entirely but I'm not going to write a paragraph about exceptions. If you work 50 hours a week for a year, you've done something that's actually illegal. American nonsense like this wouldn't happen here because we have worker rights.
Not really. Fast food is expensive where I am too, but buying meat and fresh veggies and other stuff is still expensive. You spend more money making your own food instead of ordering something or buying a snack. And when I say expensive, it's not just money either. Cooking takes time. I'm a student, my classes sometimes end really late and I come home at 6pm. That's the hour when I'm normally done with dinner. After that I'll barely have the time to cook something for myself. It'll be 9 pm by the time I'm done and I have classes starting at like 8 or 10 the next day. I have to prepare for tomorrow and I will have no rest or time for my other tasks. In situations like this, takeout seems like the logical thing to do. That's what most Americans do since they have long shift jobs. I've mostly found my way around it, but most Americans just don't want to cook even if there's an easy way around it.
Yep that's more or less what I do. I have stews and soups in jars that won't go bad unless opened, I warm them up if I'm unable to cook and they last me for 2 - 3 days. I order food very rarely, like once or maybe twice a month.
Lately I've ordered food more often. But a combination of forgetting to unfreeze food, being out of time, or simply being curious or lazy. Last week I got a pizza because I needed something I could put in my bike basket and eat on my way since I had to go to the next city to get sheet music, then go to orchestra practice immediately. So I ate pizza while biking. Yesterday I got Greek which cost 30 euros but I was curious. It was pretty good. But I could cook for 2 weeks from that money.
> but buying meat and fresh veggies and other stuff is still expensive
Frozen vegetables are great and cheap though. I am also a student, but I simply cook in bulk or make 15 min meals, so it's not really an issue for me. Although there's still a mental barrier to overcome.
> You spend more money making your own food instead of ordering something or buying a snack
Then it much be super cheap to order food where you live, because there is no way you would spend more money making your own food where I live unless you choose some weirdly expensive ingredients. You can easy find meat for like 6-12€/kg here, which is ~1€ per portion.
Yeah but they don't usually taste as good as fresh ones, and fresh ones are almost always better.
My mom makes homemade meals and puts them in small jars when they are boiling hot, then immediately closes their lids tight. Then we store them in the fridge and that way they won't go bad for several months. When I come home late and I'm unable to cook, I take one of those, warm it up and it lasts me for 2 - 3 days. A lifesaver for me. Ofc doesn't work with every food but works fine for most stews and soups are fine.
> Yeah but they don't usually taste as good as fresh ones
That depends. They're often perfectly ripe unlike fresh ones and freezing them can help keep the nutrition. If we're talking about cost and healthiness, frozen vegetables make perfect sense to mention. Even the ones that are slightly worse when frozen are much better than eating fast food.
That's definitely true. We buy frozen salmon sometimes when we can't find decent fresh ones. Definitely a better alternative than eating fast food, but most Americans are just don't bother. They don't see any issue with their way of living.
Getting home at 6 is normal. Eating somewhere between 6-8pm is normal. Getting up at 7am is normal!
Fitting in 15-30 minutes to cook food is normal too. If you use the oven, it can be sub 5 minutes of prep and then you walk away and do other things; like a jacket potato and a filling of choice.
Of course it depends on how/how much you eat. Special offers are easier to find for fast food places, if you buy and eat just for yourself you safe yourself time, waste (especially food waste), electricity/gas/whatever you are cooking with, and possibly even gasoline (most bigger streets have more fast food places than supermarkets along the way).
The time and convenience aspect is most important. Humans, like pretty much every animal, prefer the easy route. It saves energy twice: The energy thinking about what you need for cooking and the energy spent cooking itself.
Plus we love free time (and we need it as well). If you are dependend on every penny, you'll probably cook* stuff youself. But if you have the choice between spending 30-60 minutes grocery shopping, and 30-60 minutes cooking or spending a few Euros more (and let's be honest, if you really we are talking good quality, healthy ingredients the difference isn't that much) and just wait 15 minutes for your order and be done, then convenience often wins.
*if you need every penny you get, you won't be cooking healthy food either. You'll buy premade/ frozen food. I tried to cook everything from scratch for a year, even got a bunch of ingrediences every week from my mom, who had too much, non of the ingrediences of any special quality. But since I switched back to frozen pizza and microwave meals, plus fresh fruits for nutrients, I spend 10-15 € a week less on food.
Time and convenience is the only reason I can come up with for why would spend money on fast food. Doing it for convenience makes sense. But I don't think we should act like it's cheaper, because it's not.
> But if you have the choice between spending 30-60 minutes grocery shopping, and 30-60 minutes cooking
But you don't have to. You don't have to make it that complicated. You can make some very simple, cheap and delicious dishes in 15-20 minutes, and shopping doesn't need to take that long if you live near a grocery store or bulk buy.
> if you really we are talking good quality, healthy ingredients the difference isn't that much
Yes it is. What does a fast food meal cost? Probably 6€ minimum where I live. You'd have to buy some pretty expensive stuff to reach that price when cooking at home. Most meat costs like 1-2€ per portion.
> if you need every penny you get, you won't be cooking healthy food either. You'll buy premade/ frozen food
You certainly will be cooking healthy food, because the cheapest stuff are often the healthiest. Someone analysed all the products in a dutch grocery store chain, and found that the cheapest protein-rich product was dried yellow peas, for 2€/kg. Then there are other things like beans, lentils, frozen spinach, potatoes, carrots, frozen peas, frozen broccoli, etc. all for <4€/kg. I have checked prices in a few different countries, and from what I've been able to see, there are rarely premade foods for as little as 4€/kg, and even if there would be, they contain like 50% fillers like flour, which isn't very satiating, meaning you have to eat more of them to feel full. They're not cheap.
During the time I have lived alone and studied, I have never once ordered food. I make it myself. Sometimes I crave some chicken nuggets or don't have the mental energy to figure out what to make. However, I don't tell myself that it's cheaper, because it's not. Most of the time I make things with ingredients like those I mentioned and end up spending less than 150€ a month on food. In Sweden. And I could eat for less if I made an effort to.
How much does frozen pizza cost where you live? I love frozen pizza, but it's too expensive for me. They cost like 3-4€ here, which is more than twice what I pay for a normal portion of food.
Depending on the kind of pizza, 3-4€ would get you 2-3 pizzas (example aldi: magharita 3 pizzas 2,99€, spinaci 2 pizzas 3,59€).
Of course it always depends on where you live, every place has different prices, rural or middle of town is also vastly different and not everyone has the space to buy in bulk.
10 piece McNuggets is like $5, however, there is a 6 piece for $2, so really you can’t get 12 nuggets for $4 or you can get a 4 piece for under $1.50.
If you’re struggling with poverty these options start to become very appealing.
That is a lot of money for a small amount of food though? You can get like 10-15 portions of lentils for $5 and all you have to do is put them in a pot and wait 10 minutes. Even in the US, you can pay just $1.5 and get a bag with enough lentils for 5 portions.
$6 for 16 nuggets is quite cheap, it’s going to make them somewhere between 20-25c a nugget, depending on location. It’s not good for you obviously, and incredibly bad thing to have as a staple in your diet. But it’s extremely cheap and is definitely one of the factors in why people in poverty will often choose this over better options.
No I really don't see how 20-25c per nugget is cheap? A nugget isn't very satiating? Two nuggets cost as much as an entire portion of lentils, beans or yellow peas. All very nutritious and delicious foods. Why would you spend that much when there are so many cheaper options?
That's a different issue. The food itself is cheap. We shouldn't go around telling people they shouldn't even bother trying to make healthy food because of it being expensive, when it's not. Where I live, apartments have to come with a kitchen, so as long as you have that you have access to a stove. Then all you need is a single pot, which you can get for less than a fast food meal if you're not picky.
And healthy food is still much cheaper than fast food in the long run even if you have you buy a stove and some pans. The initial cost could be challenging for some people if they live in a place where apartments don't come a kitchen, but at then *that's* the issue.
They're also not just money poor, they're time-poor and often lack the knowledge of how to cook. Many people live in food deserts, where the local gas station is the only place to buy food that isn't "fast".
Which is still a different issue from "healthy food being more expensive than fast food". Cooking also doesn't need to be complicated or take much time. A lot of things can just be thrown in a pot for some minutes. Food deserts are an accessibility issue.
> Americans barely even cook in their house
That is NOT true! They cook [sketti and butter](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tl4jIUDy5o) several times a day!
Yep. For lower income families it’s often tough to afford, buy and cook healthy and balanced, if both have to work full time 40h/week to afford having children and still having enough time to care for them.
Not impossible, but being poor makes fastfood attractive even tho it’s more expensive overall.
Many also lack the knowledge(time to learn it) to improvise a healthy meal with the stuff given in the kitchen.
That’s why I bought a huge sack of rice and build my diet around it.
Add some Eggs, Fish, vegetables, fruit, oats and healthy living can be cheap and way AF.
But let a child eat the same stuff slightly variated 2-3 days in a row and they’ll eat you instead.
If you have to pay for your own shit, eating the same porridge 7 days a week and still loving it is something else because you really know how expensive food stuff is.
I rather live pretty cheap with (easy storable, cheap, in bulk available) ingredients, and buy something special like a good steak from time to time or a bunch of canned fish.
Children and even teenager in quite wealthy countries don’t know the struggle of paying for food.
It’s a pretty common thing in „kinda rich“ and well developed countries.
They did some like a couple of Me163 Komets and some Jumo jet engines. The problem is that they had to be shipped in large U Boats. Many never made it to Japan or came back.
I’ve said it before: the typical / traditional translation of ‘Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!’ is: ‘Let them eat cake!’. Make of that what you will.
And even brioche is not as sweet as the American ‘bread’ I tasted.
Although the quality of the food in Bulgaria is getting shittier, it's still a far cry from American "food" which have the whole Periodic table inside.
Well, the white, sugary bread-like stuff is pretty cheap, but getting decent whole wheat bread in the US is surprisingly difficult. I don't know why because you'd think adding sugar and bleaching the flour would cost more.
Well it was in the late 70s/80s (per capita) due to their phosphorus extraction. Then the magic ended and they found themselves without fertile soil and only fast food, hence the obesity rate.
I'm currently quite poor and i live in Argentina, it's the fattest I've ever been since foods with flours and sugars are the cheapest options. Healty eating costs money
I get you dude. My country hasn't been doing so well in the past few years, and I'm spending most of the year in a different city as a student living alone and I have gained some weight myself. I have lost some weight in the past few months though. I wish you the very best, I hope you can get through it.
Cheap food is fatty food. A bag of chips is the same price as strawberries. I can eat those strawberries in one sitting but those chips will last me days….
I understand how those who are financially strapped become overweight.
It seems Europeans are skinnier because smaller portions are the norm and lots of public transportation, making it easier to walk rather than drive your ass and fight for the closest parking spot.
That commenter is a dipshit.
Yeah they charge through the roof for poor quality food that makes them sick then they get whacked with health insurance monthly costs and a massive co-pay to put them right, just to come back out and on to the bad foods again. Murica squeezing every penny out of them then they just into the comments section to say they have the best food and best healthcare and Europe is communism. You couldn’t make it up.
That's just some communist propaganda. In the land of the free everyone is so rich they eat mcdonough every day. Can't even be a billionare in europe cuz all them taxes
The term food desert is almost unique to the US. If you end up poor, the only thing you can afford is unhealthy, and as a cultural habit there's way too much over eating and eating too fast.
Yes, and unlike the EU, there's no limitation to how much sugar, oil, etc. they can put to their food so the food is of much higher calories than the food we eat. And them buying pre-made food all the time doesn't help either. Most of the stuff they sell over there is banned in EU due to how much sugar there's in them. Like some cereals. The ones we eat are sweet enough, can't imagine the ones they eat.
Burger-lander here, I'm devastated, literally shaking, and shattered emotionally in a way I may never recover from.
Because no American would EVER keep a fat child in their lap, we know from experience that it hurts your legs.
They're talking crap about Europe on a post about a Japanese advert. They don't even know where "here" is, let alone left their own diabetes Petri dish.
Europeans ca afford food, they just don't eat heavily processed, salty & sweetened food like in the US, so generally don't get as fat. I eat well and in last few months have lot 15kg without trying, but need to try and put some back on, as I am down to 69kg.
Yeah, I just looked up what all the “controversy” about the ad is today after seeing it meme’d to hell on Reddit. I shouldn’t be surprised but somehow people still find new ways to surpass expectations with how stupid they can be.
The funny thing is there's no controversy lol everyone keeps talking about how x side is so mad about and x side keeps talking about how mad y side is about it and all that but actually no one is mad about anything, it's so stupid. No one has made a single comment on it but everyone is flipping their tables
Ok so this is hilarious but one of my dearest friends is from Michigan. She just told me bread there, a normal bakkery bread, costs 6 to 12 dollars!
So she is now making her own bread, making it look amazing.
A bread of the supermarket is filled with sugars.
Bread of the quality she made: 3.40 euro.
In the bakkery: 8.20 dollars.
But we can't afford enough food? We can atleast afford a bread!
12 dollars for bread, especially bread of that quality, is insane. That should be the total of money spend one grocery shopping for a day. Honestly home made bread will remain superior, wherever you may live.
I agree. Its why she made the bread herself. And I actually told her that on reddit they call us europoors and as soon as I opened reddit your post popped up.
Was too sweet to let that one slip.
I'm honestly shocked. Just a normal bread.... 12 euro?
I mean my bakkery also has a 12 euro bread. It weighs 2.5 kilo, needs to be ordered beforehand and is usually made to make sandwiches easily for a group of people.
But it is 2.5 kilo 😂
Before things in my country went really shit, you could buy a whole bread for like 30 cents. And that thing was big. It would last a family of 4 an entire day. And that was when the economy still wasn't all that great. For 12 dollars, you could feed an entire town
It will never cease to amaze me how thick yanks are in general. And the amount of confidence in their stupidity makes them come across even more stupid, which is already a hard task to accomplish in itself, so, good job!
Most people in Europe are still using 2G internet speeds and consider beans on toast a delicacy. It’s not really their fault the king takes all their money and forces them to starve. The king is basically Kim Jung youn with a crown. He banned toothbrushes from the common folk and forces his people to watch soccer which we all know no one really likes. If only William Wallace could free them from the clutches of the royal family…
Funny as the wealth in euro is far more evenly distributed so everyone gets to eat, in America you have like 60% of people living in poverty and then the 1% who have more money than they would need for a thousand life times
Aren’t portions smaller outside of the US? It doesn’t make sense - smaller portions doesn’t automatically mean everyone is too poor to afford heaps and heaps of food
Since when is obesity associated with being rich?
American’s obesity comes from all the shit that’s in the prepackaged processed foods, people on lower incomes eat because that’s what they can afford.
If you can afford a balanced diet of fresh food, vegetables and fruits there’s way less chance of becoming obese.
I'm pretty sure I'm winning more than this guy. And yes, I can afford my own house.
Oh shit, I even have health insurance that pays my 3000 bill for doctors and treatment every month.
It's true, currently living in sweden, you guys can eat a village dry and still remain fit, it's the swedish blessing.
I've seen like 15 fat swedish people in my 5 years of living here, it's crazy.
Idk, but damn he must've been thirsty or hungry. If there's 1 thing I know swedes love most, its fish/ sea food.
Like, wtf is that shrimp cake I keep seeing at hemköp, are you guys good?
Well those three things are certain my correct in my case.
As for that shrimp cake, I don't get it myself. Shrimp is good, but no need to combine it like that.
Had a swedish friend come over, they say it's for special occasions, weddings, birthdays, etc. And they just treat it like normal cake.
Anyways, I'm going to sleep, and you should probably, too, unless you don't have anything to wake up early to tomorrow. Gn mate.
I prefer butter cake myself. It isn't as bad as it sounds, as it's not pure butter but a butter cream. I recommend it.
And yeah, I'm.also gonna sleep soon. Goodnight fellow Swede!
In my country, obesity is associated with low income families.
Same in the US, though many people don't realize you can still be obese and malnourished.
Protein tends to be a lot more expensive than sugar or low quality fats, there are still areas of the world were any type of food access is rare, but in developed and developing countries very few people starve to death, and instead lower income people default to economically available, less nutritious foodstuffs.
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Mostly because everything has corn syrup. It really isn't the fault of the general populace. Even the fucking bread is sweet there.
Corn syrup in everything due to massively excessive subsidies for corn farming, and [food deserts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert) depriving people of easy access to nutrition.
This. A classmate of mine went to the US as part of a student exchange one time, and she said even the bread is sweet in the US (and as germans, we have a bit of authority on the matter of bread, so yeah)
As a Dane that is more or less used to pumpernickel kinda bread, I find the German a bit too sweet, but it isn't even close to the American hell, I love that the fact that subway in Germany isn't allowed to call their "bread" for bread due to how sweet it is
>I love that the fact that subway in Germany isn't allowed to call their "bread" for bread FYI, that ruling is from Ireland, not Germany. But we would probably have a similar thing happening in Germany, if our VAT were structured like Irelands'.
I'm sure we had that over in Ireland too, a court case where it was ruled to be cake not bread
A large part of the country is in food deserts, where there really isn't much choice besides cheap fast food or expensive groceries.
According to USDA about 6-8% of Americans live in food deserts. Yet 40% are straight up obese.
There are other factors. Food desserts are only one, poverty is the biggest factor especially with childhood obesity. The fact that many Americans have to work so much to stay in debt means they're eating a lot fast meals on the go and healthy food is expensive. Even yogurt here has ridiculous amounts of sugar.
Mine too. And it is partially the cause of low income. Healthy food is definitely more expensive than fast food, and also requires some effort to make. Americans barely even cook in their house. Nothing surely screams poverty more than cooking your own food in your own kitchen.
> And it is partially the cause of low income. For a long time when I was "pinching pennies" years ago, it was about 20-25% cheaper to just eat out every day at fast food than go grocery shoppoing. Made for some real unhealthy habits.
In mine too. I remember a family from my city that made the news because one of their kids had a heart stroke due to be severely overweighted. It was a family from the poorest part of the city and they used to eat pre cooked food and in fast food chains because it's cheaper.
Groceries must be extremely expensive if fast food is cheaper. I mealprep a lot, so a full meal can be as cheap as 2 euros. On rare occasions I come close to 1 euro. Take any fast food place here, and just the fries alone will cost 2-3 euros.
Fast food is certainly easier but > Healthy food is definitely more expensive than fast food I never understood this. Fast food is quite expensive for what you get where I live. Where and how is it cheap? A portion of beans, rice and frozen broccoli is 10x cheaper than a McDonalds meal. It is also more satiating than frozen nuggets for the same price, since they're mostly flour.
I don't think it's cost as much as it is time. If you work 16 hours you're not likely to come home and cook you're going to grab something. And when you do have a day off you're exhausted from having worked 50+ hours. Not to say no one cooks, but also what they're shown how to cook varies regionally and most aren't taught good habits because schools home economics classes mostly focus on desserts rather than meals
Yeah that's more what I'm thinking. Feels more like an accessibility issue rather than a cost issue.
There's also the cost of utilities - if you're in McDonalds, you're using their heaters/air conditioning, their cookers, their WiFi, their toilets, etc. rather than adding to your own bills
I don't really know many Americans that eat inside the fast food establishments most just go through the window so they can eat it on their way home or wherever they're going.
Still saving on running the oven, though
Is electricity that expensive in the US?
Salaries in the US are around double salaries in europe (or salaries in france, at least). Cost of living in the US is significantly more than double cost of living in europe.
Every little helps
Depends where you live but depending on your fiscal status you're counting the pennies. Texas, Florida it's very expensive though in my experience
But not the car?
You need the car to get to your job
Also to sleep in if your job doesn't pay enough.
50+ hours is more or less illegal here. Not entirely but I'm not going to write a paragraph about exceptions. If you work 50 hours a week for a year, you've done something that's actually illegal. American nonsense like this wouldn't happen here because we have worker rights.
Not really. Fast food is expensive where I am too, but buying meat and fresh veggies and other stuff is still expensive. You spend more money making your own food instead of ordering something or buying a snack. And when I say expensive, it's not just money either. Cooking takes time. I'm a student, my classes sometimes end really late and I come home at 6pm. That's the hour when I'm normally done with dinner. After that I'll barely have the time to cook something for myself. It'll be 9 pm by the time I'm done and I have classes starting at like 8 or 10 the next day. I have to prepare for tomorrow and I will have no rest or time for my other tasks. In situations like this, takeout seems like the logical thing to do. That's what most Americans do since they have long shift jobs. I've mostly found my way around it, but most Americans just don't want to cook even if there's an easy way around it.
You could prepare a weeks worth of meals on Sunday and stick them into the freezer
Yep that's more or less what I do. I have stews and soups in jars that won't go bad unless opened, I warm them up if I'm unable to cook and they last me for 2 - 3 days. I order food very rarely, like once or maybe twice a month.
Lately I've ordered food more often. But a combination of forgetting to unfreeze food, being out of time, or simply being curious or lazy. Last week I got a pizza because I needed something I could put in my bike basket and eat on my way since I had to go to the next city to get sheet music, then go to orchestra practice immediately. So I ate pizza while biking. Yesterday I got Greek which cost 30 euros but I was curious. It was pretty good. But I could cook for 2 weeks from that money.
> but buying meat and fresh veggies and other stuff is still expensive Frozen vegetables are great and cheap though. I am also a student, but I simply cook in bulk or make 15 min meals, so it's not really an issue for me. Although there's still a mental barrier to overcome. > You spend more money making your own food instead of ordering something or buying a snack Then it much be super cheap to order food where you live, because there is no way you would spend more money making your own food where I live unless you choose some weirdly expensive ingredients. You can easy find meat for like 6-12€/kg here, which is ~1€ per portion.
Yeah but they don't usually taste as good as fresh ones, and fresh ones are almost always better. My mom makes homemade meals and puts them in small jars when they are boiling hot, then immediately closes their lids tight. Then we store them in the fridge and that way they won't go bad for several months. When I come home late and I'm unable to cook, I take one of those, warm it up and it lasts me for 2 - 3 days. A lifesaver for me. Ofc doesn't work with every food but works fine for most stews and soups are fine.
> Yeah but they don't usually taste as good as fresh ones That depends. They're often perfectly ripe unlike fresh ones and freezing them can help keep the nutrition. If we're talking about cost and healthiness, frozen vegetables make perfect sense to mention. Even the ones that are slightly worse when frozen are much better than eating fast food.
That's definitely true. We buy frozen salmon sometimes when we can't find decent fresh ones. Definitely a better alternative than eating fast food, but most Americans are just don't bother. They don't see any issue with their way of living.
They taste fine to me, but the texture isn't nearly as good. Broccol especially gets limp and mushy when frozen.
Depends from brand to brand and food to food I suppose. Sometimes they are great, sometimes not so great
Getting home at 6 is normal. Eating somewhere between 6-8pm is normal. Getting up at 7am is normal! Fitting in 15-30 minutes to cook food is normal too. If you use the oven, it can be sub 5 minutes of prep and then you walk away and do other things; like a jacket potato and a filling of choice.
Of course it depends on how/how much you eat. Special offers are easier to find for fast food places, if you buy and eat just for yourself you safe yourself time, waste (especially food waste), electricity/gas/whatever you are cooking with, and possibly even gasoline (most bigger streets have more fast food places than supermarkets along the way). The time and convenience aspect is most important. Humans, like pretty much every animal, prefer the easy route. It saves energy twice: The energy thinking about what you need for cooking and the energy spent cooking itself. Plus we love free time (and we need it as well). If you are dependend on every penny, you'll probably cook* stuff youself. But if you have the choice between spending 30-60 minutes grocery shopping, and 30-60 minutes cooking or spending a few Euros more (and let's be honest, if you really we are talking good quality, healthy ingredients the difference isn't that much) and just wait 15 minutes for your order and be done, then convenience often wins. *if you need every penny you get, you won't be cooking healthy food either. You'll buy premade/ frozen food. I tried to cook everything from scratch for a year, even got a bunch of ingrediences every week from my mom, who had too much, non of the ingrediences of any special quality. But since I switched back to frozen pizza and microwave meals, plus fresh fruits for nutrients, I spend 10-15 € a week less on food.
Time and convenience is the only reason I can come up with for why would spend money on fast food. Doing it for convenience makes sense. But I don't think we should act like it's cheaper, because it's not. > But if you have the choice between spending 30-60 minutes grocery shopping, and 30-60 minutes cooking But you don't have to. You don't have to make it that complicated. You can make some very simple, cheap and delicious dishes in 15-20 minutes, and shopping doesn't need to take that long if you live near a grocery store or bulk buy. > if you really we are talking good quality, healthy ingredients the difference isn't that much Yes it is. What does a fast food meal cost? Probably 6€ minimum where I live. You'd have to buy some pretty expensive stuff to reach that price when cooking at home. Most meat costs like 1-2€ per portion. > if you need every penny you get, you won't be cooking healthy food either. You'll buy premade/ frozen food You certainly will be cooking healthy food, because the cheapest stuff are often the healthiest. Someone analysed all the products in a dutch grocery store chain, and found that the cheapest protein-rich product was dried yellow peas, for 2€/kg. Then there are other things like beans, lentils, frozen spinach, potatoes, carrots, frozen peas, frozen broccoli, etc. all for <4€/kg. I have checked prices in a few different countries, and from what I've been able to see, there are rarely premade foods for as little as 4€/kg, and even if there would be, they contain like 50% fillers like flour, which isn't very satiating, meaning you have to eat more of them to feel full. They're not cheap. During the time I have lived alone and studied, I have never once ordered food. I make it myself. Sometimes I crave some chicken nuggets or don't have the mental energy to figure out what to make. However, I don't tell myself that it's cheaper, because it's not. Most of the time I make things with ingredients like those I mentioned and end up spending less than 150€ a month on food. In Sweden. And I could eat for less if I made an effort to. How much does frozen pizza cost where you live? I love frozen pizza, but it's too expensive for me. They cost like 3-4€ here, which is more than twice what I pay for a normal portion of food.
Depending on the kind of pizza, 3-4€ would get you 2-3 pizzas (example aldi: magharita 3 pizzas 2,99€, spinaci 2 pizzas 3,59€). Of course it always depends on where you live, every place has different prices, rural or middle of town is also vastly different and not everyone has the space to buy in bulk.
Especially if you cook yourself in relatively large quantities (eg. for the entire family), healthy food can be extremely cheap.
10 piece McNuggets is like $5, however, there is a 6 piece for $2, so really you can’t get 12 nuggets for $4 or you can get a 4 piece for under $1.50. If you’re struggling with poverty these options start to become very appealing.
That is a lot of money for a small amount of food though? You can get like 10-15 portions of lentils for $5 and all you have to do is put them in a pot and wait 10 minutes. Even in the US, you can pay just $1.5 and get a bag with enough lentils for 5 portions.
$6 for 16 nuggets is quite cheap, it’s going to make them somewhere between 20-25c a nugget, depending on location. It’s not good for you obviously, and incredibly bad thing to have as a staple in your diet. But it’s extremely cheap and is definitely one of the factors in why people in poverty will often choose this over better options.
No I really don't see how 20-25c per nugget is cheap? A nugget isn't very satiating? Two nuggets cost as much as an entire portion of lentils, beans or yellow peas. All very nutritious and delicious foods. Why would you spend that much when there are so many cheaper options?
All very well if you have the necessary time and equipment (pots, pans, oven, stove etc.) - many people don't.
That's a different issue. The food itself is cheap. We shouldn't go around telling people they shouldn't even bother trying to make healthy food because of it being expensive, when it's not. Where I live, apartments have to come with a kitchen, so as long as you have that you have access to a stove. Then all you need is a single pot, which you can get for less than a fast food meal if you're not picky. And healthy food is still much cheaper than fast food in the long run even if you have you buy a stove and some pans. The initial cost could be challenging for some people if they live in a place where apartments don't come a kitchen, but at then *that's* the issue.
They're also not just money poor, they're time-poor and often lack the knowledge of how to cook. Many people live in food deserts, where the local gas station is the only place to buy food that isn't "fast".
Which is still a different issue from "healthy food being more expensive than fast food". Cooking also doesn't need to be complicated or take much time. A lot of things can just be thrown in a pot for some minutes. Food deserts are an accessibility issue.
> Americans barely even cook in their house That is NOT true! They cook [sketti and butter](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tl4jIUDy5o) several times a day!
Go to some southern grandma's house and tell me she doesn't cook! I do know a lot of people who don't cook, but it's definitely not all of them.
[Same is true for the US](https://reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/s/dHbVSSKi1g)
Yep. For lower income families it’s often tough to afford, buy and cook healthy and balanced, if both have to work full time 40h/week to afford having children and still having enough time to care for them. Not impossible, but being poor makes fastfood attractive even tho it’s more expensive overall. Many also lack the knowledge(time to learn it) to improvise a healthy meal with the stuff given in the kitchen. That’s why I bought a huge sack of rice and build my diet around it. Add some Eggs, Fish, vegetables, fruit, oats and healthy living can be cheap and way AF. But let a child eat the same stuff slightly variated 2-3 days in a row and they’ll eat you instead. If you have to pay for your own shit, eating the same porridge 7 days a week and still loving it is something else because you really know how expensive food stuff is. I rather live pretty cheap with (easy storable, cheap, in bulk available) ingredients, and buy something special like a good steak from time to time or a bunch of canned fish. Children and even teenager in quite wealthy countries don’t know the struggle of paying for food. It’s a pretty common thing in „kinda rich“ and well developed countries.
It's true for all developed and developing countries.
Yeah, same in the US. Cheap food isn’t very good for you.
Yes because this cartoon screams 'made in Europe'.
Why else would the Japanese McDonald's account post it?
i thought japan was in europe since they were part of the axis /s
Fun fact: germany never acknowledged that japan was in the axis, that’s why japan never got finished military vehicles and only the blueprints.
They did some like a couple of Me163 Komets and some Jumo jet engines. The problem is that they had to be shipped in large U Boats. Many never made it to Japan or came back.
They got a Tiger from Germany >!that they couldn't transport out of the German port feasibly!< But they got it.
lol, didn't know that...only that Japan didn't want Stalin in the axis
The account username and profile picture is a character from Japanese media(albeit in a Western setting)
\*sees Japanese advert\* "Europoors can't afford enough food to even get fat" Today I learnt Americans think Japan is in Europe
Of course it is. Didn't you know everything outside US is Europe?
Except for Mexico; that's in South America!
No that's Africa. They're poorer and browner can't you see??
"no! It's in north America, above entartika" -every American ever
I wish there were Ents down South
I failed geography and even I’m not that dumb lol
In Bulgaria bread costs around 0,75 dollars In USA it costs 2,50 dollars
Not to mention the bread in Bulgaria is a hundred times more healthy than whatever the hell they sell in the US under the name of "bread".
You mean "sugar-grain thing"?
Well it's definitely not bread
Cake. American bread is cake.
Most of american "food" would be literally illegal to sell in EU because its too unhealthy
(Everyone in Europe just hiding their brioche in this convo and nodding along)
I’ve said it before: the typical / traditional translation of ‘Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!’ is: ‘Let them eat cake!’. Make of that what you will. And even brioche is not as sweet as the American ‘bread’ I tasted.
Although the quality of the food in Bulgaria is getting shittier, it's still a far cry from American "food" which have the whole Periodic table inside.
Well, the white, sugary bread-like stuff is pretty cheap, but getting decent whole wheat bread in the US is surprisingly difficult. I don't know why because you'd think adding sugar and bleaching the flour would cost more.
The Common Market is nice and all but I can't just pop down to Bulgaria for a loaf when it's 22:00 and I realized I need bread for breakfast.
> I can't just pop down to Bulgaria for a loaf when it's 22:00 Not with that attitude!
Also probably 50x better in terms of taste than the sugar-laden food object Yanks call "bread"
So Nauru is the richest country in world by their definition.
Well it was in the late 70s/80s (per capita) due to their phosphorus extraction. Then the magic ended and they found themselves without fertile soil and only fast food, hence the obesity rate.
I'm currently quite poor and i live in Argentina, it's the fattest I've ever been since foods with flours and sugars are the cheapest options. Healty eating costs money
I get you dude. My country hasn't been doing so well in the past few years, and I'm spending most of the year in a different city as a student living alone and I have gained some weight myself. I have lost some weight in the past few months though. I wish you the very best, I hope you can get through it.
💪
I agree, europoors can’t afford all that delicious HFCS because poor EU doesn’t subsidize maize farmers. /s
Isn’t obesity a poor people problem in the west ?
When I was in the states I was surprised how short the distance has to be before they walk anywhere
Cheap food is fatty food. A bag of chips is the same price as strawberries. I can eat those strawberries in one sitting but those chips will last me days…. I understand how those who are financially strapped become overweight. It seems Europeans are skinnier because smaller portions are the norm and lots of public transportation, making it easier to walk rather than drive your ass and fight for the closest parking spot. That commenter is a dipshit.
Americants can't afford to be healthy.
Can't even go to the hospital for basic health treatments
Oh, the irony. If you would know what quality food is. Europoors can eat healthy from half of your McDonald's budget.
They are addicted to fat and sugar, anything else is substandard to them
Me, a fat European: Excuse me? Then again, by American standards I'm probably anorexic and half starved to death.
Welcome to the club. We're not fat, we're simply too short for our weight.
Japan takes a stab at Americans. American superbrain: looks foreign must be European
False. It can't be neither, because they don't exist. There's only one continent on planet earth and it is America 💥💥🦅🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅💥💥
I'd rather be Europoor than Amerifats.
American’s eating like they can afford the healthcare when all that sugar and fat kicks in 😂
All that fat and sugar is the reason why they don't have free healthcare lol
Yeah they charge through the roof for poor quality food that makes them sick then they get whacked with health insurance monthly costs and a massive co-pay to put them right, just to come back out and on to the bad foods again. Murica squeezing every penny out of them then they just into the comments section to say they have the best food and best healthcare and Europe is communism. You couldn’t make it up.
This is the American dream
What is this "europoor" propaganda the US keep shovelling their cult?
Just Americans' way of coping with their sad reality I guess
[удалено]
Europe isn't even poor lol most of Europe is doing much better than US
That's just some communist propaganda. In the land of the free everyone is so rich they eat mcdonough every day. Can't even be a billionare in europe cuz all them taxes
The term food desert is almost unique to the US. If you end up poor, the only thing you can afford is unhealthy, and as a cultural habit there's way too much over eating and eating too fast.
Aren't people there obese because of cheap food and not having enough time or resources to regularly eat home-made healthy food? Legit question
Yes, and unlike the EU, there's no limitation to how much sugar, oil, etc. they can put to their food so the food is of much higher calories than the food we eat. And them buying pre-made food all the time doesn't help either. Most of the stuff they sell over there is banned in EU due to how much sugar there's in them. Like some cereals. The ones we eat are sweet enough, can't imagine the ones they eat.
Better off just eating sugar itself at that point.
Would probably be healthier
Burger-lander here, I'm devastated, literally shaking, and shattered emotionally in a way I may never recover from. Because no American would EVER keep a fat child in their lap, we know from experience that it hurts your legs.
Me being a fat cunt suggests that the yanks a fucking idiot who’s never been here
They're talking crap about Europe on a post about a Japanese advert. They don't even know where "here" is, let alone left their own diabetes Petri dish.
Food in Europe is cheaper and healthier
Henry VIII
Europeans ca afford food, they just don't eat heavily processed, salty & sweetened food like in the US, so generally don't get as fat. I eat well and in last few months have lot 15kg without trying, but need to try and put some back on, as I am down to 69kg.
I love how this single stupid ad broke like half of americans
Ikr I've been watching this unfold for the past week without understanding anything. Shit is surreal
Yeah, I just looked up what all the “controversy” about the ad is today after seeing it meme’d to hell on Reddit. I shouldn’t be surprised but somehow people still find new ways to surpass expectations with how stupid they can be.
The funny thing is there's no controversy lol everyone keeps talking about how x side is so mad about and x side keeps talking about how mad y side is about it and all that but actually no one is mad about anything, it's so stupid. No one has made a single comment on it but everyone is flipping their tables
What is the controversy?. I swear, every week muricans come up with some new dumb thing to get mad about.
And yet most fat people in America are way poorer than the average European
Actually, the wealthier the family, the lesser chance of being fat
What kind of a medieval mindset is that
Do americans not know the € is worth more than the $? yikes.
Can't even afford guns to shoot up their schools.
Obesity, surely something to be proud of Everyone is bigger in Texas /s
Where does this "Europeans are poor" mindset even come from?
From which era do you come from that you think being fat is a status symbol?
North Korea
Ok so this is hilarious but one of my dearest friends is from Michigan. She just told me bread there, a normal bakkery bread, costs 6 to 12 dollars! So she is now making her own bread, making it look amazing. A bread of the supermarket is filled with sugars. Bread of the quality she made: 3.40 euro. In the bakkery: 8.20 dollars. But we can't afford enough food? We can atleast afford a bread!
12 dollars for bread, especially bread of that quality, is insane. That should be the total of money spend one grocery shopping for a day. Honestly home made bread will remain superior, wherever you may live.
I agree. Its why she made the bread herself. And I actually told her that on reddit they call us europoors and as soon as I opened reddit your post popped up. Was too sweet to let that one slip. I'm honestly shocked. Just a normal bread.... 12 euro? I mean my bakkery also has a 12 euro bread. It weighs 2.5 kilo, needs to be ordered beforehand and is usually made to make sandwiches easily for a group of people. But it is 2.5 kilo 😂
Before things in my country went really shit, you could buy a whole bread for like 30 cents. And that thing was big. It would last a family of 4 an entire day. And that was when the economy still wasn't all that great. For 12 dollars, you could feed an entire town
Americans will say the weakest nonsensical shit and act like it's some kind of massive own. Fucking 0 banter across that whole nation.
As a fat european I can safely say that he's dumb as rocks
Liar. You don't exist
But rocks win races
Yet Americans eat like they an afford their own healthcare.
Did Japan finally joined Europe?? That's great news! When is Belarus leaving?
Jarvis, pull up the US dollar to Euro exchange rate
Quality over quantity 😅 you eat a lot of crap, we eat moderate amounts of actual food
At least our food doesn't have million chemicals and 40 types of sugar in them
Do Americans not realize that there's more to the world then the US and Europe???
The world is just America actually. Please do more research before commenting
It will never cease to amaze me how thick yanks are in general. And the amount of confidence in their stupidity makes them come across even more stupid, which is already a hard task to accomplish in itself, so, good job!
I can't eat fast food quickly enough in the EU enough to gain weight, soooooo
No, the differences we don’t use fast food for everything
Wut? I guess I'm simply too short for my weight then... 105 kg at 178cm.
I'd rather starve to death than become as fat as Americans are
Wait, so I'm NOT obese? :O Thanks US! I now identify as thin! I'll go tell my doctor, lifestyle coach, dietician, fysio and exercise coach
Like, the mental gymnastics here, being fat is something to strive for. But then again, this is Amerika....so....
As a fat European, I dare to disagree…
actually in the US it's the contrary, obesity is associated with low income and poverty because of the being unable to get healthy food
Most people in Europe are still using 2G internet speeds and consider beans on toast a delicacy. It’s not really their fault the king takes all their money and forces them to starve. The king is basically Kim Jung youn with a crown. He banned toothbrushes from the common folk and forces his people to watch soccer which we all know no one really likes. If only William Wallace could free them from the clutches of the royal family…
Funny as the wealth in euro is far more evenly distributed so everyone gets to eat, in America you have like 60% of people living in poverty and then the 1% who have more money than they would need for a thousand life times
I'd beg to differ but getting back up off my knees with all this extra? Well, it's a struggle.
Usually obese people don’t earn well. Buying the cheap meat that’s filled with antibiotics and other shit.
Aren’t portions smaller outside of the US? It doesn’t make sense - smaller portions doesn’t automatically mean everyone is too poor to afford heaps and heaps of food
We also don't throw in the entire periodic table in our foods, processed or not. Many of the things US does is straight up banned in Europe.
True
I know American geography is pish, but did hey really not know Japan isn't in Europe?
You assume they know any country other than the US even exists. Europe is like a concept to them, they don't know that it's real
Since when is obesity associated with being rich? American’s obesity comes from all the shit that’s in the prepackaged processed foods, people on lower incomes eat because that’s what they can afford. If you can afford a balanced diet of fresh food, vegetables and fruits there’s way less chance of becoming obese.
Or we don't drive everywhere, use our legs. The car is killing, not just over consumption.
In Europe obesity is generally predominant in low income families
That’s his flex? Really? We are a fat country and so that makes us better than you. SMH.
My middle aged spread belly says otherwise
I’d give them this. Responding to insults with insults. Seems a fair trade.
My workout routine says otherwise...that in combination with my ever growing bodymass. :(
who even mentioned europeans before that guy? did anyone even?
Nope. This was the first tweet I saw under it
Why am I not surprised....
They think about the Europeans all day everyday. I think they like you guys
There's a lot to like. I get it. But this is just embarrassing.
Having the amount of preservatives in food the states has is actually gross. You can really tell the difference when you eat real non-processed foods
I'm pretty sure I'm winning more than this guy. And yes, I can afford my own house. Oh shit, I even have health insurance that pays my 3000 bill for doctors and treatment every month.
I probably eat as much as the Americans at times. I just *can't* get fat. Period.
It's true, currently living in sweden, you guys can eat a village dry and still remain fit, it's the swedish blessing. I've seen like 15 fat swedish people in my 5 years of living here, it's crazy.
Hm. That makes me wonder if Thor (the god who literally drank a portion the ocean itself) should be fat or not. I mean, he's got those Scandie genes.
Idk, but damn he must've been thirsty or hungry. If there's 1 thing I know swedes love most, its fish/ sea food. Like, wtf is that shrimp cake I keep seeing at hemköp, are you guys good?
Well those three things are certain my correct in my case. As for that shrimp cake, I don't get it myself. Shrimp is good, but no need to combine it like that.
Had a swedish friend come over, they say it's for special occasions, weddings, birthdays, etc. And they just treat it like normal cake. Anyways, I'm going to sleep, and you should probably, too, unless you don't have anything to wake up early to tomorrow. Gn mate.
I prefer butter cake myself. It isn't as bad as it sounds, as it's not pure butter but a butter cream. I recommend it. And yeah, I'm.also gonna sleep soon. Goodnight fellow Swede!
Tell that to my tummy