Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Senior]

For me, there is nothing perverse about wasting food. Sure, there are starving people in the word, but my ability to waste food doesn't take food out of their mouths. It's not a zero sum game. The poor have the necessary things to produce food, but there are (usually political) impediments standing in their way. I refuse to feel guilty or inconvenience myself for the acts of others.

[DorkothyParker]

I am recently getting over the whole "eat everything off my plate" thing. Going out to eat back home meant getting epic portions. I could save half or a third and it would make a decent lunch for the following day. Here I find the portions to be only slightly larger than I want. I don't have enough to save so I would eat the entire bowl of soup or rice. I gained a little bit of weight my first couple months (3-4 lbs? I dunno, it's hard to tell what's water and what's a hard gain in that range). It's hard to stop when I'm full because it's there and I love food and I hate knowing part of it cannot be enjoyed. But I also know when I overeat I am not enjoying my food anymore.

At home, I've started using smaller plates. It looks like more food and I eat more slowly. If I'm still hungry do I get seconds? Yeah! I'm an adult and can make that decision. But I won't get more just because it "tastes good."


I think the diet industry makes people fat. Sorry, no science. All I know is that when I was eating convenience foods like Lean Pockets or low cal snacks I was slightly heavier than when my husband started making fattening meals from scratch that called for butter or olive oil. I wasn't exercising really at this time, either. I didn't have a car so I just walked everywhere. 1/2 to the mall, 1/4 mile from work to the bus stop... etc. I think if basic sensibility was used (don't over eat, graze on a single serving for a snack, walk occasionally, take the stairs, eat food made from food) instead of this "all or nothing" view of dieting, people would be much healthier. Right now it's just a series of people crash dieting up and down which only makes it EASIER to gain the weight back.

[FredDaSked]

A good place to start learning. Just type in any old email address, or your own, because this site has a lot of good information.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/04/10/corn-fat.aspx

also, this site says that agave sweetener is not a good sugar substitute. So, stay sweet, kids, but not that way.

[bucheon bum]

[Reggie]

I really don't think corn is to blame. I'm currently in the US and I grow a lot of corn and other vegetables, and corn is a very large percentage of my diet, much moreso than other Americans, since it's free for me. I'm 6'2" and weigh 180 pounds, which I feel is a good weight for my frame and build. Of course, almost all of the corn I eat is straight from the cob and not processed bullshit with a lot of grease and stuff mixed in. Let's not confuse corn on the cob with Frito-Lay corn chips. One is very healthy, one is unhealthy especially if "once you pop you can't stop."

However, I have overweight friends and relatives who eat and eat and eat fried foods and they don't exercise. They even seem a little annoyed when I pull into the first available parking space instead of driving around for several minutes to see if there's some ideal parking space 10 or 20 feet closer to the door of the shopping center.

When I see how much some Americans eat, I'm actually surprised they're not fatter. Maybe they burn a lot of calories taking enormous dumps as a result of eating so much food? I've heard some of them complain about genetically modified food, but I think the genetically modified seed are actually a good thing since it provides us with more production per acre and provides better flavors. I always eat the sweetest corn I grow, Kandy Korn and that G70 shit or whatever it's called that is so sweet, etc. If someone just eats and eats and eats, I guess the sweeter corn with higher sugar content would make someone fatter, but it's an issue of self-control instead of genetically modified seed.

I agree that some corporations are a problem. Archer Daniels Midland seems to buy off the US government to levy insane taxes on sugar to cause Coca-Cola and other food and drink manufacturers to use corn syrup instead. I do think corn syrup is less healthy than sugar, but if Americans are going to buy the 7-11 Big Gulp instead of drinking a reasonable quantity, they're going to get fat whether or not the Big Gulp soda contains sugar or corn syrup.

Even though I'm thin, I often feel hungry after a meal at restaurants when I'm in Korea unless it's at a buffet style place like VIPS. I think my body is so used to American portions that a meal in Korea is just not enough. When I'm in Korea, I cook a lot at home, because if I only ate at restaurants, even McDonald's, the portions are so small I would be chronically underweight. That's how much we pig out in America. If portions in Korea seem very light to me as a skinny American, I can only imagine how tiny they must seem to phat Americans. An overweight Canadian co-worker used to buy two or three meals when we would stop at McDonald's but, in his defense, the portions are so tiny for us North Americans used to living large.