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[Go_Ly_Dow]

USA is #1 in dirt cheap junk food and buffets everywhere.

Watch US tv channels and when it comes to commercial breaks, it's tons of bargain priced fast food combos from companies all trying to one up each other, $1 tacos or new pop and potato chip flavours. And you're bound to see a Golden Coral ad promoting a buffet for $12.

It's madness. I think in the UK we have a lot of restrictions now around junk food ads, particularly soda. You don't see it advertised much, if at all on TV.

Two reasons, in my opinion:

- Nutrition education in this country is abysmal, if it exists at all in some places. Even when I was in public school 30+ years ago when health and physical education classes were required all four years of high school, nutrition education was maybe a grand total of a week. It wasn't until I began seeing a gastroenterologist for my gut issues in my mid-20's that I was introduced to an actual nutritionist.

- Decades of marketing have effectively convinced the general public that grabbing a soda is just a refreshing, tasty way to hydrate rather than what they actually are: liquid candy. Similarly, they've convinced people that these sugar laden corn puffed flavored cereals are "part of a balanced breakfast".

Liquid candy describes it well. When I drink even a can of coke now I feel like absolute shit.

I'm sure the UK has excessive soda consumption compared to let's say East Asia, but I've never seen the kind of soda drinking culture presented in this vid:



These people are so depserately addicted to it and it seems drinking water isn't even an option.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

It's madness. I think in the UK we have a lot of restrictions now around junk food ads, particularly soda. You don't see it advertised much, if at all on TV.



Liquid candy describes it well. When I drink even a can of coke now I feel like absolute shit.

I'm sure the UK has excessive soda consumption compared to let's say East Asia, but I've never seen the kind of soda drinking culture presented in this vid:



These people are so depserately addicted to it and it seems drinking water isn't even an option.

I love my junk food myself. But the US is in another stratosphere. My buddies and I will do some sports trips to Buffalo or Detroit every once in a while to catch a hockey or baseball game.

We'll stop off at grocery stores to buy shit. I admit Im one of them. The amount of products for pop, chips, cookies etc... is literally like double the aisles space compared to a Canadian grocery store.

Also due to low taxes in the US, booze is cheap too. Beers are probably a good 25% cheaper in the US even after paying for the lousy currency exchange! If currency was 1:1 par value, beers in the US would be about 40-50% cheaper. So it's understandable why Americans drink so much beer.

 

[Nydius]

These people are so depserately addicted to it and it seems drinking water isn't even an option.

It's definitely a problem. The hardest habit to get my wife to address after she was diagnosed with diabetes was her near addiction to root beer. It took years to get her to stop guzzling it down. At her worst she was going through 3 liters a day (a full 2L and half of a second).

She still refuses plain water. She drinks mostly artificially sweetened sparkling water now but I'm not so sure those are great for managing her blood glucose either. I've run into too much research that shows artificial sweeteners also negative affects insulin levels. But it's better than previous soda intake at least.

Edit: In typing this it made me realize a third point for my prior post:

- Compared to "sugar free alternatives", sodas appear cheaper. A 12 pack of the sugar free sparkling drinks my wife likes costs $3-$4 more than a 12 pack of the brand name sugared root beers she used to drink. Liquid Death's soda alternatives are almost 3 times the cost of brand name sugared sodas. Of course sodas are only cheaper up front as they cost more long term in increased medical care/bills.

 

[DavidGzz]

If you can afford sodas, everyone should be on that coke zero time or great value coke zero. Not drinking your calories unless it's milk with your donuts. Nom nom

 

[rapid32.5]

Cane sugar is healthier than syrup. Coke in other countries tastes better which is ridiculous for the US manufactured drink.