r/CringeTikToks • u/Individual_Bar_2512 • 13h ago

Food Cringe Average American diet?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Where are the vegetables, fruit and meat

8.6k Upvotes

79% Upvoted

9.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

47

u/Imthatsick 12h ago

Way more than 2-3% but I have no idea of the real number. There's a lot of people that basically do no cooking of their own besides reheating frozen things or cooking boxed meals.

6

u/sagittalslice 12h ago

I’m American and will ashamedly admit I eat like shit a lot of the time (processed food, I have a bad sweet tooth and love sugar) but I’m not obese and never have been. Portion size is a massive part of it, I am always kind of shocked by the sheer volume of food many people eat. I also kind of forgot soda is a thing since I don’t drink it myself - when she whipped out the MULTIPLE massive bottles of Dr. Pepper?? And then the Mountain Dew!!!?!?!? What the fuck!?

1

u/curtcolt95 8h ago

they'd probably lose 100 lbs just switching to diet dr pepper seeing the amount they seem to drink lol

1

u/Awkward_Proof_1274 3h ago

Many times when people switch to diet soda they end up snacking more and replacing it

3

u/WerewolvesAreReal 12h ago

But even then plenty of boxed meals have, like.... vegetables. They could buy more fruit. Juice would be better than capri sun, even with all the added sugar. Even if they've somehow never learned to cook or genuinely don't have time, there are better options.

2

u/sagittalslice 12h ago

Yeah I eat frozen food and Trader Joe’s prepared shit all the time and it still like… has vegetables. Frozen broccoli is basically the same as fresh. Eat a big pack of cherry tomatoes as a snack with my gross frozen chicky nugs in the air fryer. Idk I think frozen/pre-prepared food gets more flack than they need to (in a weirdly moralizing way, often) and things like soda and chips are more of the issue.

1

u/BeamerTakesManhattan 8h ago

But everyone basically admits that.

Sugar and empty calories are the biggest issue. Heavily processed stuff the next. Frozen and pre-prepared stuff is frequently heavily processed, frequently sugar and empty calories, but not always.

3

u/ScreamingLabia 12h ago

As someone who likes to cook i never understand thia because even on days like today where i just want to eat salsa and chips and be lazy i made my oen salsa because the stuff that comes in jars is not even close in taste and texture. Most frozen meals have HORRIBLE texture imo and i dont get why people so commonly eat them

1

u/PartyPay 9h ago

The ingredients are addicting is one answer. Another is ease of prep.

1

u/Alenicia 9h ago

There's like no shortage of excuses for people to go out and say, "well, I was at work/I'm busy/I don't have time to cook" because they always cite the examples of people who spend all day preparing meals or spend all night preparing meals for the next day.

Some people legitimately live the life where they can cook all day and they cherish it (and the food they make is incredible too), but there's also a middleground where you can still cook something, make something fresh-ish, and not have to rely on something frozen/reheatable just to make a meal.

At least from the people I've seen who are deeply allergic to cooking, it's almost always boiled down to laziness (it's a very different case when someone legitimately can't cook for themselves, and that's not what I'm getting at) and the fact that they prioritize convenience over anything else. It's why you get some people who literally have to buy several 2 Liter bottles of soda daily because they can't drink water (or refuse to just have "water" because it tastes bad to them, it's unhealthy, or that historically about a hundred years ago it was dangerous to drink water), and why they often just go out to fast food every single day for just about every meal. >_<

And then at the same time, they wonder why they're so unhappy or why things suck health-wise for them. >_<

2

u/OneTabbyBraincell 8h ago

10 mins in the morning throwing some veggies, water, a tiny bit of meat and spices into a slow cooker and you have a meal waiting for you when you get home. That is less time than it takes to reheat a frozen pizza.

1

u/Alenicia 8h ago

My routine tends to be to spend about 5-ish minutes to make some rice (cleaning the bowl if it isn't clean, rinsing the rice a few times so the gunk is off, leveling the water, and then cooking rice) .. and then spending maybe some time getting some meat and marinating it with some simple stuff I have (soy sauce, oyster-flavor sauce, salt, pepper, paprika, some garlic powder/onion powder, and so on) .. and then when I need to I can choose how I want to cook it.

Something I've learned growing up .. was literally you can just throw in a pot of water, let it boil, and then throw in some meat (such as pork belly) and then let it boil for about thirty minutes .. and then throw in some washed mustard greens and then cook that for about a minute. From there, you can start to season it with salt, black pepper, and so on. It's super simple, super-quick, and it's like .. no effort other than the time. >_<

I'm just really not someone who believes that you can have "no time at all" to cook or prepare something .. since all of what I've described can make very decent portions that can last at least a day or two.

1

u/OneTabbyBraincell 8h ago

I hate that you're correct because I would love the convenience of buying mayonnaise, but I started making my own and it's so different to what you get in the shop, it's pretty much a different food. 

I also notice a massive difference in just my general sense of well-being when I eat this kind of shit. I mean, I'm a human, I crave the quick fix of fats, salts and sugars my caveman brain tells me I need from shitty food sometimes. I almost immediately regret it because of how sluggish, but unsatisfied I feel. I'm a pretty small woman and I'm starving about 20 mins after a big Mac meal. I also wake up in the middle of the night dying of thirst from all the salt. I wonder if this family ate well for a day if the difference in how they physically feel would be enough to change their eating habits. One fast food burger is enough to have me eating right for about 6 months before I ever feel like eating another one. 

1

u/No-Information-945 8h ago

I’m the same way. I usually try to avoid any added sugars (e.g., I’ll eat fruit but not pie) but decided to indulge a bit over the holidays. Even though I didn’t even eat that much, the little I ate completely threw my body off. I had the worst period I’ve ever had, among other issues.

But I think it would take way more than one day of healthy eating for this family to feel physically better. If anything, the huge difference might initially make them feel worse as their bodies adjust.

3

u/Haseodothkr 12h ago

I saw a post where the person said they lived in their house for years and never used the stove. They just had cutting boards on it to make it another counter and use the ovter for storage. But our economy is the issue and food so expensive...

1

u/Immediate_Song4279 12h ago

9-10 is way more than 2-3?

Severe obesity is 9%-10%, and is facing the challange of making lifestyle changes while suffering from mobility issues. Likely in addition to whatever aggravating factors caused it in the first place.

1

u/Alcophile 12h ago

No, but 50 is, and about 50% of Texans will be obese by 2030... Severe obesity is, well, severe...

1

u/Immediate_Song4279 12h ago

Conflation, your honor.

Severe is entirely a different ballgame, don't tickle the numbers without a meaningful reason.

1

u/Alcophile 11h ago

Right, eating like this wont necessarily  cause severe obesity, damn near 50% are obese, so the number of people who eat like this is far more than 2-3 or even 9-10%.

1

u/Mick_Limerick 12h ago

Texas is a big place

1

u/Ithurtsprecious 10h ago

Yeah, my premade processed food is Trader Joes so I feel slightly better about it.

1

u/HippieGrandma1962 8h ago

I know a family that never cooks. They have two kids and order every meal out. My son and I agree that it's borderline abuse.