Half and Half

[annuin]

On an episode of Queer Eye For The Straight Guy earlier they were doing a weight loss challenge for a newly wed couple, because apparently newlyweds tend to chub up quite a bit once they hit the "comfortable" married zone.

When asked why they thought they were getting fatter, they pretty much answered with "I'm not sure". Mind you, they ate ice-cream nearly every night, and the guy was saying that usually he'd polish off half a Breyers tub in a single sitting. I think Breyers comes in 1/2 gallon tubs... and I think one tub was 14 servings, or so Carson was saying. Their dinners consisted of massive servings, and the woman ate her cereal not with 1% or 2% milk, or even whole... she had Half and Half* on it.

Who even eats cereal with Half and Half on it? The idea alone is enough to make me gag. The only time I've heard of something similarly ridiculous it was reading a post ages ago by someone who decided (F)Atkins was the stupidest thing she'd ever heard of after her brother had started eating his cereal with full cream, because cream had less carbs than milk, and he didn't seem to realise how completely ludicrous that was.

I guess I'm just baffled by the fact that these people seemed to be clueless as to where the faults in their diet lay. My diet is by no means perfect, but at least I know where my trouble spots are.


*"Half and Half" being half cream and half whole milk, for those of you for whom the term is new.

Comments

[lunamoth42.livejournal.com]

I've encountered a number of old friends (like, I've known them since high school) who chubbed up now they're in their 30's. What it came down to is, they continued to eat the same way as when they were 16. And since our metabolism slows down in our mid to late 20's, they started putting on the pounds and not understanding why. It takes actual thought and consideration to put it together, which a lot of people don't have.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Well, often it seems as though they were able to maintain their weight while single and actively in the dating market, but once they're married then people don't seem to give a crap anymore. I've noticed it with married relationships too... people seem to think that they don't need to try once the ring is on the finger, as though they've accomplished their goal and that was it. And that's why I think many marriages fail and fail within the first couple of years.

This couple looked like they were late 20s early 30s at least, not super young or anything.

And when asked specifically about what in your diet is ruining it, it shouldn't be hard to pick out what might be bad? I'm sure we all have problems with portion control (given what we're served as "normal" portions in restaurants in this country), but besides that, anyone should be able to target the foods in their diet that are worse than others (like eating a quart of ice cream or more each day or having half and half on their cereal).

But I guess I'm trying to give some people more credit than they deserve?

[lunamoth42.livejournal.com]

But I guess I'm trying to give some people more credit than they deserve?

Indeed. People are generally rather dumb I've noticed. This is why we need to put warnings on things like don't use your hairdryer while in the tub. :P

[catdraco.livejournal.com]

I think a certain amount of chubbiness once you get married is fine. I mean, you do kind of "let go" a bit once you really feel like you're in a relationship where you're loved for the person you are, rather than what you look like. But I'm talking a dress size, not an entire wheelbarrow of lard. And you don't get to just become apathetic in general: I think in a healthy relationship, your focus shifts from things like "how good do I look?" to "where are we going together?" You know, working on meaningful goals - as long as you're healthy, weight is then a side issue, not a deal-breaker: it's also not a symptom of a generalised apathy, which I think is a deal-breaker.


Anyway. Yeah, I agree. So many people are absolutely clueless about what's healthy and what isn't. I have all sorts of theories about why, but I think the strongest reason is that most people don't know how to cook. I mean, you know how much fat is in icecream if you make it yourself just once - same goes for mayonnaise. Ain't no denial once you start beating in that entire cup (or more) of oil.

I'm not sure how much of that is enculturated, and how much is just apathy or stupidity.

I'm really looking forward to teaching our kid/s about food and eating. To really love food, rather than eating.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

This couple was letting go in more than a single dress size. The woman had size 12 clothing (though looking at her chest, size 12 was optimistic) and was saying how she'd like to be a size 6, ideally. You don't get to be a size 6 with half-and-half.

And I do think you've touched upon the main issue... the fact that many people don't cook. I already explained in other comments about how the landlord's daughter doesn't cook, and she's in her 30s with 2 kids and a live-in boyfriend. He cooks occasionally, but she's home before him, and it's not entirely fair to expect him to cook everything all the time. But I'm quite sure that they're not unique in their situation either.

Somewhere along the line education failed, either that from our parents or from elsewhere. Many people aren't being taught to cook from their mothers, which is where it would traditionally be learned from. Maybe a cooking/home ec. class back in schools wouldn't be such a bad idea, and something that's a little more in-depth than boiling an egg and such... real cooking basics, cooking staples, making sauces etc. With the way that obesity is a rising epidemic, it's something that I think we need to pay attention to. And people need to learn that cooking can be fun and enjoyable, and not just some tedious chore.

[ozzguy.livejournal.com]

Im not perfect either but I agree in that they really need to 'get a clue' We get that tv show called the biggest loser here like you do in the states and also an aussie version.

The local version had contestants crying at the fist weigh in looking at life sized photos saying they never knew they were 'that much weight'.

Once you saw how much they ate and drank the answers they needed were pretty obvious! God I sound so mean haha

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

saying they never knew they were 'that much weight'.

Denial is a strong component in these things sometimes. Much like with any addiction, if you don't accept that you have a problem, then you can avoid actually dealing with the problem.

Once you saw how much they ate and drank the answers they needed were pretty obvious!

I think everyone has problems realising what a normal portion looks like. Here in the US it's hard because if you go to an average chain family restaurant (like a Lonestar or something), the portions you get served are massive, and are really about twice what a normal sane portion ought to be. Hence the prevalence of doggy bags too. I remember one program saying that if you wanted to lose weight and still eat out, ask for the doggy bag up front, halve the portion you're served, put half in the doggy bag and eat the remaining half. But if you don't realise this, and you come to think that those portions are representative of a normal portion, then you can get into trouble really easily.

[catdraco.livejournal.com]

I have an LJ friend who's finally made it to the great list of people not on my Default View filter: she's a nice lady, and I don't want to 'unfriend' her (as then she won't be able to read my journal), but I can't bear looking at her journal any more. The level of denial is just too much for my eyes.

This woman is really the side of a house. She is so obese, she requires an oxygen tank to get around. She's on some medications which would probably be exacerbating her weight slightly, but she blames her entire weight gain on that.

She also doesn't eat vegetables, because she doesn't like them. She eats salami and nuts as a snack because "her body needs protein". She thinks two quesadillas is a small breakfast, and organises every social event with her friends around Applebee's or Wendy's. She refuses to cook because she doesn't like cooking. She congratulates herself on exercising if she goes to the mall.

But it's just the medication making her fat, you see. Just the medication.


It makes me want to beat my head against the keyboard in frustration, so I don't bother reading her journal any more. But my point is that it's really true: so many seriously obese people are in denial both about their real size, and about what got them that way. As Dr Phil says, "It's because you sit on your ass and you eat too much food!"


Oh dear. I didn't realise I had that much rant in me about it.

[ozzguy.livejournal.com]

Its actually very sad and I feel that they cannot see themselves from the outside looking in and it would be insightful for them to get help.

The one thing that never changes is that they stay good people though.

[catdraco.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's true. As I said, she is a lovely lady. I felt it was better for me to take time out from reading her journal - I'm hoping there'll come a point where I can be all encouraging and gentle again without frustration threatening to blow my eyeballs out - because I do like her.

The thing is that she absolutely does not want to take responsibility for her own weight/diet. I've done everything I think I can to gently nudge her, to encourage her when she starts a diet/exercise kick (they tend to last a week, if that - but I encourage her, tell her she can do it, give her helpful pointers, easy recipes, more encouragement, congratulations when she loses a pound)... the next step was to get mean, and say straight out "It's your fault. You are making yourself fat with your choices, and either you accept your choices and accept your weight, or you make different choices and take responsibility for getting healthy". Maybe I would actually be helping her if I did that, but it feels too harsh for me to be able to do it.

I dunno. Maybe if I take some time out from her journal, it will become clearer later how I can help her, if I can help her at all. *sigh*

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

She sounds like she's one of those people who would probably need the direct approach, though it probably wouldn't cut through the denial either.

This all reminds me of my mother, and attempts to help her. Really it doesn't matter what you say, they need to hit their rock bottom and decide to accept responsibility and to change. Obviously pushing around an oxygen tank really isn't rock bottom enough for her (yet?).

One of PreZ's cousins by marriage died last year basically from being morbidly obese. Named Tiny, he never really was. 3 kids in the early 20s range, and 1 grandchild who was 2 weeks old when he died. Even being told by his physicians to change didn't help him.

And that's really who should be telling your lj friend to "put the fork down" (as Denis Leary put it), her doctors. Or Dr. Phil... lol.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Wow, just, wow.

It'd be hard for me not to just say something at some point, you know? And it probably wouldn't be very nice, especially after longterm exposure to the denial she's showcasing.

As Dr Phil says, "It's because you sit on your ass and you eat too much food!"

As much as I think Dr. Phil is a schmuck sometimes, I do like how he generally doesn't beat around the bush and tells people straight up what the problem is.

[catdraco.livejournal.com]

It'd be hard for me not to just say something at some point, you know? And it probably wouldn't be very nice, especially after longterm exposure to the denial she's showcasing.

*nods*

I'm not sure if I really like Dr Phil or not. But I know that he's right on the money where the weight thing is concerned. Very, very few people have genuine physical conditions that cause them to be overweight. Everyone else is making choices. And you know, fair enough, those choices are usually related to something else - whether it's emotional eating or whatever. But no matter what's behind them, you can't tackle the problem until you identify it. And that's pretty brutal for a lot of people.

Anyway, I think I've hijacked your post and turned it into a fat thread instead of the post you started with.

But yeah. People need to learn to love food, and have mastery over it - to learn what great ingredients are, and what to do with them. I don't know how to do it on a large scale. We had compulsory Home Ec classes when I was in year 8, and we learned basic baking techniques, how to do a fry-up breakfast, and all sorts of rote information like "What is an egg? An egg is a raising agent, a binding agent, a thickening agent..." etc. We learned basic nutrition in HPE, but somehow the two subjects never really merged.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

But I know that he's right on the money where the weight thing is concerned. Very, very few people have genuine physical conditions that cause them to be overweight.

Too many people like the excuse of saying it's a thyroid issue, or some other issue... anything that absolves them from responsibility.

Behaviour that you see everywhere, not just with weight issues. Pregnancy communities have their share of "OMG it's not my fault I 'failed' or caved in to some procedure" or whatever, as you will notice at some point. Anything that will lay blame elsewhere.

[leonatos.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. Over here in Ireland it's not nearly as bad, but we are always hearing about horror stories of 30 stone people and kids keeling over with heart disease because they are so fat.

In Ireland, we don't eat out as much as in the US, and what some people don't realise is that eating out means more salt, fat and preservatives in their food, and means more weight gain compared to an equal serving of food cooked at home.

I'm fortunate in that the lifestyle I lead means that I don't need to worry about my weight. Thanks to the 10-12 miles I cycle most days of the week, I eat two full dinners (one in college, one at home) with a healthy breakfast and snacks (little pop or soda and maybe some alcohol) and still keep a healthy weight, if leaning towards and becoming slightly underweight at times. Hell, I'm one of the few students I see lacking some form of a jowl or another. No gym, but I have a large dog to walk as well.

[lunamoth42.livejournal.com]

what some people don't realise is that eating out means more salt, fat and preservatives in their food, and means more weight gain compared to an equal serving of food cooked at home.

*emphatic nod* Yup yup yup. When you eat out, you have no control over the ingredients and they are under no obligation to divulge every single thing that goes in it. At least when you work with groceries and make it yourself, you know precisely what you're getting.

Not to mention, eating out costs so much beyond the worth of what you're getting. I mean, if a package of dry organic pasta is $2 and jarred organic sauce is $5, that's a dinner for 4 totalling $7. Compared to ONE pasta dish at a chain restaurant like Olive Garden.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

I mean, if a package of dry organic pasta is $2 and jarred organic sauce is $5, that's a dinner for 4 totalling $7. Compared to ONE pasta dish at a chain restaurant like Olive Garden.

Yeah, and you're buying organic. It's interesting when people don't want to buy organic because of cost, yet have no qualms about going out to dinner all the time.

As I replied to leonatos, our landlady only cooks for herself and her husband, so her daughter and boyfriend (both in their 30s) and the daughter's 2 sons (9 and 1.5 - 6 weeks older than Dashiell), are on their own for food. The daughter doesn't cook, so it's take-out or eat-out every night, unless the landlady cooks enough for them too. The oldest boy had cellulite on his tummy when we moved in, which is almost 5 years ago... imagine having cellulite and being overweight at age 5 or so.

Even besides not wanting take-out/eat-out every night, I couldn't justify the amount of money that eating that way would cost.

But mostly the original post was just about my surprise that someone would actually eat cereal with half and half and not understand how bad that is.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Well, it does depend where you eat out too. The quality/class of restaurant has a lot to do with it. In higher end restaurants they're more often going to be using more fresh products, which reduces the amount of preservatives and other crap in the food. But the lower end chain restaurants, the ones that serve the same exact stuff on one side of the country to the other, they'd be more likely to have some kind of pre-made food items that come from the franchise place, and as a result higher in preservatives, salt and crap.

Eating out here happens a lot. Our landlord's daughter and her boyfriend live upstairs with the landlord, for some reason our landlady generally doesn't cook for them, just for herself and her husband, so the daughter and bf are on their own (they're both at least 30+). She doesn't cook, and he is usually the one home later... they eat out or get take out pretty much every night of the week that they're not eating something that our landlady made. And most of the time we're not talking high end take out/eat out food either... pizza, fast food, italian food etc. It's no wonder that the daughter is getting bigger and bigger.

Personally I couldn't justify the expense of eating out or getting take-out every night, and it's not like we couldn't afford it, technically. I'd just consider it a massive waste of money to constantly overpay for food that you can make yourself much cheaper.

Anyway, my post wasn't anything against overweight people, just the surprise about how some people can eat things that you just have to know is bad for you, or high fat or whatever, and that they still don't understand what the problem is. I thought that nutritional education was a bit more widespread than I guess it is.

[catdraco.livejournal.com]

Anyway, my post wasn't anything against overweight people...

Having ranted in a comment up there, I should make sure I'm clear that it's not her weight that bothers me. It's the complete ignorance (and in this case, absolute stubborn ignorance) about food and exercise choices that makes me want to claw my eyes out. I'd feel the same if she were skinny but had some other obvious diet-related problem. You know, like diabetics who drink beer all the time then complain that their sugar level's up.

=)

[catdraco.livejournal.com]

...what some people don't realise is that eating out means more salt, fat and preservatives in their food, and means more weight gain compared to an equal serving of food cooked at home.

Also, it's been shown time and time again that when people eat out, especially in company, they eat larger portions of food than if they eat at home. So couple that with the added salt/fat/preservatives...

[deinera.livejournal.com]

I am definitely in the category of "doesn't eat well," but I know I don't. I worked at one of those "coffee" places. And occasionally people would come in and order their drinks with steamed heavy whipping cream. :| You think half & half is bad? Have your cereal with heavy whipping cream.

*shudders*

[abigailvr.livejournal.com]

Half and half on cereal?? A whole tub of Breyers?? Cripes!

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

I think the guy said he'd polish off half a tub of Breyers in about an hour while watching a movie. Which is still an insane amount of ice cream.

The half and half thing really gets me. The idea makes my stomach roll, but then I don't even like whole milk on my cereal because I don't like really fatty milk.

[abigailvr.livejournal.com]

That is a ridiculous amount of ice cream. The fact that he does it while watching a movie demonstrates the dangers of distracting oneself while eating. He just eats without thinking about it and then is surprised he's gaining weight!

I am pretty sure that after not having any cow's milk for years I won't be able to tolerate the mouthfeel of whole milk on cereal or to drink either. Half and half belongs in coffee or maybe on fresh strawberries but certainly not in cereal! Ick.

[passercul.livejournal.com]

Half and Half sounds like it would make me sick if I drank it.

Then again, I suppose most asians are at least slightly lactose intolerant.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Usually, if you use half and half, it's like something you would use to pour into your coffee, or maybe over dessert. I've used it when making crème brûlée before, because that's a creamy custard dessert.

Either way it's something best kept for small doses or specific cooking/baking purposes.

With the level of fat in it, it'd probably make me sick if I drank it too. I dislike fatty milk, and generally don't even drink whole milk if I can help it. Mostly I go for 1% milk, or 2% if they're out of 1%.

[passercul.livejournal.com]

1% milk... is that like skimmed milk? That's the only thing I drink.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

I think it might be, it might be less fat than that. It's the least fat one that's not fat free milk (if that makes sense). I think 2% is something like half the fat of whole milk.

Here you can buy fat-free, 1%, 2% and whole milk. I like some fat in my milk, because it does add to the flavour, but 2%/half-fat is as high as I go.