The Uneasy Truth About Traveling While Fat

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

Your Mom is fat because she has no self control.

That ain't fair. It's glandular.

[alek]

Your Mom is fat because she has no self control.

That ain't fair. It's glandular.

Here we go again…

ETA

Took me a bit to remember where this came from, but here it is:

[5hout]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/commen ... irst_time/

"My wife's doctor has recommended a Mediterranean diet. I got two cookbooks from the second hand bookstore and asked her to pick three recipes for the week.

Today's dish was moussaka."

Maybe we're not placing enough emphasis on people being willfully fucking stupid. Doctor says "go eat Med Diet" meaning eat lots of of fresh veg, fish, whole grains/beans/nuts with limited on eliminated added sugar/processed foods/things made from food/flour.

Guy goes out and makes eggplant/béchamel/ground beef casserole. Will no doubt report to doc that they are doing the diet.

[Brackish]

Would I love to see school lunches go back to being made at school with locally sourced produce or even just being based on whole foods as opposed to stuff that comes in bags and just gets heated up? Heck yeah! That would be awesome. That being said, it's just not reasonable. My school system, which is a little baby one in comparison to most, has approximately 18,000 students. That's a big ask when it comes to procuring all of the food as well as finding, hiring, and retaining people that can actually cook to work in the school cafeterias for less than what you would make working at your local fast food joint.

Japan manages it.

We usually think spending more money is the thing to do. It's a very Anglosphere ideal. But sometimes it's a matter of spending the money better...

Obviously there'd have to be a transition period. If you're not used to good fresh fresh it'll be hard to stomach. So the culture would have to change. And just as obviously the useless administrators will resist any useful change, as they instinctively realise it'll lead to their unemployment. So it'd take time. But that's alright. The Anglosphere took fifty years to get fat, if it takes fifty years to get healthier I think we'd be doing well.

In the meantime I'll keep making my kids' school lunches.

I'm perfectly willing to fire a bunch of teachers and admins to turn schools into safe, clean boxes to hold kids with decent food. I realize you may not agree

Yes. And abolish parent-teacher association meetings, that'll save on paying some teacher overtime, give money aside for decent school lunches, and reduce teacher burnout and turnover.

Maybe, but we aren't Japan. We have a completely different culture/belief system. That's not going to change. I agree that the money could be spent better, 100%. But, unfortunately, those decisions are left up to people who don't actually work in education anymore, or never did, and rarely (not trying to start a political argument because it's all politicians, imo) care about anything other than continuing to get to do their job. My state recently passed a law requiring all school teachers across the state to start at a minimum salary of $60,000. However, they provided no funding for the smaller counties to meet those requirements. So, where is all that money going to come from? I can tell you from personal experience since it happened in my county multiple times over the years. They're going to fire new teachers and increase class sizes, force retirement on veteran teachers, cut funding to "special programs" (read - music, art, STEM, etc.), and raise property taxes in the surrounding area, which people probably can't afford which is why the salaries are already lower to begin with. All of this will take place even with the mountains of educational research showing that reducing class sizes, retaining veteran teachers, and offering students the opportunity to participate in "special programs" all have measurable, positive impacts on student achievement. But like I said, they either don't know this or don't care.

Not sure how it works where you are, but there is no "overtime" pay for teachers here. We're contractual employees with a salary. It doesn't matter how many hours I work, I'm getting paid the same. Which is why I refuse to work outside of school hours. The burnout is mostly affecting the teachers that haven't learned to say "no" when they are asked to do this, that, and the other thing while they're also spending hours each night writing lessons/grading/contacting parents/etc. I'm a mentor teacher (one thing I didn't say no to because it's not for the school system) and one of the first things I try to get my mentees to accept is that its ok, and sometimes even the best case scenario, to NOT do ANYTHING school related when you aren't being paid for it. Would you show up at McDonald's and unload the truck for them on a Saturday when you weren't being paid to be there? No? Then why in the hell would you do essentially the same thing for the school system...

[KyleSchuant]

Maybe, but we aren't Japan. We have a completely different culture/belief system. That's not going to change.

Sure. But as I pointed out with other examples, there are plenty of countries with similar cultures to the US who spend less n health and education and get the same or better outcomes, too. Australia, UK, NZ, Canada, etc. "Culture" is like "genetics" - it's just an excuse, really.

As for your raising the teacher salary without changing the budget example, as 5hout said,

Maybe we're not placing enough emphasis on people being willfully fucking stupid.

Some people are determined to fuck things up. Government is a great place to do this.

[Brackish]

Maybe, but we aren't Japan. We have a completely different culture/belief system. That's not going to change.

Sure. But as I pointed out with other examples, there are plenty of countries with similar cultures to the US who spend less n health and education and get the same or better outcomes, too. Australia, UK, NZ, Canada, etc. "Culture" is like "genetics" - it's just an excuse, really.

As for your raising the teacher salary without changing the budget example, as 5hout said,

Maybe we're not placing enough emphasis on people being willfully fucking stupid.

Some people are determined to fuck things up. Government is a great place to do this.

You're right in that some countries spend less and get similar outcomes. The data seems to support that, from what I can find with quick Google searches. Similar outcomes for UK/US/Australia with the first two spending approximately $2k less per kid. Not sure what all figures into that cost, but I'm willing to bet that a decent chunk of that comes from the following areas - more administrators in the U.S. due to increased federal regulation of the educational system (just a guess), more court costs (not sure how litigious Australia and the U.K. are, but parents LOVE taking school systems to court in the U.S.), increased transportation costs (especially compared to a tiny country like the U.K.), etc.

Agree to disagree with culture being an excuse (genetics too but that's a completely different discussion - see how medications affect people differently due to genetic differences - CYP450 testing). Maybe you could make an argument that the U.K./Australia/U.S. share similar cultures, but there are still some pretty big differences in how people born/raised in those places think about things (e.g. "independence"). The differences, culturally, between the U.K./Australia/U.S. and places like Japan/South Korea/other educationally high performing nations are obvious and, in my opinion, can easily explain the differences in student achievement/performance. I think that dismissing those cultural differences as irrelevant or trying to say that they don't contribute in any way to the less money for better outcomes discussion is just silly.

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

The differences, culturally, between the U.K./Australia/U.S. and places like Japan/South Korea/other educationally high performing nations are obvious and, in my opinion, can easily explain the differences in student achievement/performance.

So you're saying that U.K./Australia/U.S. are less good at school because of their "culture" ? Why ?

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/commen ... irst_time/

"My wife's doctor has recommended a Mediterranean diet. I got two cookbooks from the second hand bookstore and asked her to pick three recipes for the week.

Today's dish was moussaka."

Maybe we're not placing enough emphasis on people being willfully fucking stupid. Doctor says "go eat Med Diet" meaning eat lots of of fresh veg, fish, whole grains/beans/nuts with limited on eliminated added sugar/processed foods/things made from food/flour.

Guy goes out and makes eggplant/béchamel/ground beef casserole. Will no doubt report to doc that they are doing the diet.

I'm playing the devil's advocate here but I think you underestimate how uneducated people (and unwilling to learn) are about nutrition. The moussaka dude probably thinks he's going to become a centenarian with his moussaka/baklava/halva strategy.

[5hout]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/commen ... irst_time/

"My wife's doctor has recommended a Mediterranean diet. I got two cookbooks from the second hand bookstore and asked her to pick three recipes for the week.

Today's dish was moussaka."

Maybe we're not placing enough emphasis on people being willfully fucking stupid. Doctor says "go eat Med Diet" meaning eat lots of of fresh veg, fish, whole grains/beans/nuts with limited on eliminated added sugar/processed foods/things made from food/flour.

Guy goes out and makes eggplant/béchamel/ground beef casserole. Will no doubt report to doc that they are doing the diet.

I'm playing the devil's advocate here but I think you underestimate how uneducated people (and unwilling to learn) are about nutrition. The moussaka dude probably thinks he's going to become a centenarian with his moussaka/baklava/halva strategy.

Since I drank a bunch of coffee and am feeling a general spirit of bonhomie: Yeah, honestly you're probably right. I don't really understand this disconnect from food, but I guess if you didn't grow up watching OG Molto Mario in the mid-90s and generally surrounded by what is now typified by Babish and J. Kenji Lopez Alt worshipping foodfucks you would could have that issue. Part of me wants to say "didn't he google it?", but of then my brain kicks in and says "google a food question? holy shit are you better off with random books from a 2nd hand store".

Then you've got the whole general lack of knowledge about what the fuck a carb is vs protein vs fat vs vegetables blahblahblah. Then you add in most doctor's think they are fucking nutrition geniuses (along with geniuses at everything else) when they have less knowledge than a random person on bb.com about diet.

I have officially retracted my point and now I just feel bad for the guy.

2 more points. 1. Halva is fucking disgusting. Every time I forget this I regret eating it. 2. Moussaka is better with potatoes. Fuck eggplants.

[Philbert]

Then you've got the whole general lack of knowledge about what the fuck a carb is vs protein vs fat vs vegetables blahblahblah. Then you add in most doctor's think they are fucking nutrition geniuses (along with geniuses at everything else) when they have less knowledge than a random person on bb.com about diet.

Doctor here, can confirm. In an online discussion between doctors regarding protein supplementation, a geriatrician (who should be paying attention to these things) confidently asserted that a 1/4 lb burger contains 75 grams of protein. He didn't even act embarrassed when called out on his error. At least a random person on BB.com cares about being right about nutrition. There was an hour lecture on nutrition in medical school. Other than that it was whatever slipped into lectures on something else, and whatever is being taught in primary care residency.

[Brackish]

The differences, culturally, between the U.K./Australia/U.S. and places like Japan/South Korea/other educationally high performing nations are obvious and, in my opinion, can easily explain the differences in student achievement/performance.

So you're saying that U.K./Australia/U.S. are less good at school because of their "culture" ? Why ?

All kinds of reasons. I'm going to generalize, so I apologize in advance for that.

1. Collectivist vs. individualistic viewpoint

Students in the U.S. (I'll focus there because it's where I teach.) want to know why they should do X,Y,Z. What will it do for them? What do they need it for? Why should they learn it? Asian cultures tend to lean more towards how can what I'm learning help "us" (the country, family, society, whatever).

2. Strict social hierarchy vs. much more "casual" atmosphere

Students in the U.S., quite a bit of them, think it's completely acceptable to tell their teachers (and any other adult in the building) to go fuck themselves. Or they think that educational staff don't have any right to tell them what to do. "You're not my dad." You can blame their parents, the media, whatever. Some of them think teachers are supposed to be their "friends", and sadly, some teachers here think the same thing. I'm willing to bet that's not the case when it comes to the relationships between students/teachers in Asian cultures.

3. Parental/societal pressure on students vs. parental/societal pressure on teachers

In the U.S., if a kid isn't learning, their parents/society want to point the finger at the teacher/school. Why aren't you helping my kid learn? What are you doing wrong? Are you even doing your job? Doesn't matter that the kid is up all night playing video games, smoking pot, and sleeping through class. Why aren't you doing more to "engage" them in the learning?! Again, no first hand experience with this, but I'm again willing to bet that in Asian cultures the student is held responsible for their learning.

Just a few off of the top of my head. I'm sure there are plenty more.

[KyleSchuant]

If what Brackish says is true, then spending more on health and education still won't give the Anglosphere better outcomes.

[aurelius]

If what Brackish says is true, then spending more on health and education still won't give the Anglosphere better outcomes.

this is true in the US. Where helping people is culturally frowned upon. When legislation is passed for social programs Congress places onerous stipulations and reporting requirements that necessitate large administrative staffs and costly bureaucracy. Greatly increasing the cost and decreasing the effectiveness of these endeavors. Almost by design.

This is happening in education in the US. That has 1 administrator for event 3–4 teachers. These administrators have no role or responsibilities to the students, classroom, or materials taught. To make matters worse they are paid better than teachers which creates incentive for the best teachers to stop teaching and become administrators. During the teacher shortages administrators were largely working remotely and refused to teach classes (at least at my ex’s school). Schools will lay off teachers before cutting admin staff. This system, exists because of all the stipulations and reporting requirements the State placed on the school to receive funding. It’s funny.

Government not working is a self fulfilling prophecy. Especially in the US.

[Philbert]

If what Brackish says is true, then spending more on health and education still won't give the Anglosphere better outcomes.

this is true in the US. Where helping people is culturally frowned upon. When legislation is passed for social programs Congress places onerous stipulations and reporting requirements that necessitate large administrative staffs and costly bureaucracy. Greatly increasing the cost and decreasing the effectiveness of these endeavors. Almost by design.
. . .
Government not working is a self fulfilling prophecy. Especially in the US.

The interaction of the US political system with the welfare sector works like the midwestern couple who couldn't agree on where to go for winter vacation. One wanted to go to the beach in south Florida, the other wanted to go shopping and see the museums in NYC. So they compromised, one winter they went shopping in south Florida, and the next winter they went to the beach in NYC.