I always had the misconception that meat caused rapid weight gain. But... I couldn't help but notice that all the fat people shopping at my local grocer all had sugar sugar and more sugar in their carts. Pop and other high carb products literally FILLED their carts. Also, when I was at my local bulk food store, this obese couple ahead of me in line had $146 worth of gummie candies, licorice, etc. Not only were they huge, but slow moving as well. They kinda looked sickly.

Incontrovertible proof?

I also have an old friend and a coworker who eat red meat every day and they are skinny as rails. I know it may just be their body types but still......

I wouldn't doubt it. I got obese eating the processed sweets. When ice cream and candy bars became more of a staple in my shopping cart than meats and vegetables, the weight piled on in no time flat. Processed sweets are a definite binge trigger for me. After hundreds of binge mishaps, you'd think I'd just say no to the bad stuff, but I keep going back to it, thinking "this time will be different and I'll have self-control." Yeah right. It's frustrating that I can be smart in other areas in life, but be so dumb when it comes to sticking with healthy eating.

You posting this observation makes it all the more clear to me how important it is that I teach my kids healthy eating habits now and not wait until they are fat or sick.

mmm penny sweets. love them. they are my weakness. when i have a high carb day the first thing i get is a bag of penny sweets

Absolutely. I got this way by eating vegetarian and eating sugar.

I'm always looking in people's carts at the grocery store. It's hard not to make correlations.

I'm a cart-watcher too. However...

Nearly every cart I see is a festering pile of ****. Almost nothing but boxes, bags and frozen goods and so on. A *little* meat and produce and dairy. Mostly crap with a capital C.

This goes for skinny people and fat people, young people and old people, men and women -- with one exception. Men shopping alone tend to have a lot of frozen meals, chili and stuff in cans, soda and some snacks. Men with women, or women, though, tend to have immense amounts of junk. I think the idea that fat people are fat because they have crappy groceries is limited; skinny people have crappy groceries too. They either stay skinny for genetic reasons or they get fat.

But on the whole as far as 'society' goes most people are eating the same stuff. It isn't like the non-fat people I know are eating well. In fact all (without exception) my kid's acquaintances and their families absolutely *live* on fast/convenience/junk food. If they aren't fat that is considered ok.

I sometimes wonder what people think of my basket. I see people looking at mine compared to theirs. There is not a single box in my basket. If anything's frozen, it's peas or blueberries. If anything's jar'd, it's just a couple jars like spaghetti or verde sauce. If anything's canned, it's just a couple cans like olives. My whole full basket is usually almost nothing but a bunch of meat, some cheese and eggs, half a dozen can/jars, and a bunch of produce. I feel guilty like my enormous size is poorly representing the quality of the foods in my basket!

PJ

Ha Ha! MEEEE TOOOOO!!!!!

I ofen wonder what people think when they see my cart with red meat, avocadoes, heavy whipping cream, veggies from the produce section, bacon, eggs.

I don't see that here at all, everyone buys a lot of different things no matter what their weight. Then again I rarely see very obese people besides myself anywhere but Dollar General and Walmart so I may have missed the poverty = carbs angle.

It's surely like that here. Every cart, just filled with crap...as mine used to be. Chips, sodas, crackers and other snack foods....

I've said it so many times, but grocery shopping is no longer a chore. No more going up and down every single isle, deciding what I want to have. Now, I get to breeze through produce, stockpile on my meats, hit the dairy section...and then it's a quick trip down the houshold items isle...baggies, plastic wrap, parchment paper...and I'm done. It's SO nice.

One day I was stocking up on NY Strip steaks when they had a really good sale. It was funny because something triggered the register to require a manager's authorization because of the amount of meat I got (I guess there might have been a limit that I missed...or ignored :lol.

I live in a very diversely ethnic area full of immigrants. It is interesting for me to see the parents who are very thin have young children who are quite thick by my standards. These parents typically have lots of juice in their carts.

Frankly, I noticed that many people spend tons (TONS) of money on beverages. I find this an absurd waste of money, but then I grew up drinking water from the front yard hose.

I have a game I play at the checkouts where I look at the person and then try to guess what theyre buying before i look at the stuff in their cart. I know when I see a really thin wrinkly older woman that she is buying a lot of veggies, whole grains and fat free dairy. Regular weight women are usually the ones buying the most regular food, meat, milk, veggies, butter. Overweight people are usually buying a lot of stuff they think is healthy but isn't (I pretty much exclusively shop at WF and TJ's) like organic waffles and organic juices and organic chips. Men usually buy frozen dinners or stuff from the prepared foods bar. Younger hip women are usually buying things like hummus, guacamole, snacky stuff that is kinda healthy but doesn't take a lot of cooking. O and really old people usually only have like 4 things in their cart, like a loaf of bread, an onion, a pint of milk and coffee. I am always slightly jealous of the simplicity of that kind of shopping

It's a really fun game and I am very often right.

I was buying lightbulbs and undies at Walmart the other day. I was annoyed b/c all the checkout lanes were full and the guy in front of me had a cart OVERFLOWING with stuff. Since I had nothing better to do, I watched him unload it. This is what he had:

1. 3 "Family sized" bags of chips
2. Several cases diet soda (thank God it was diet!)
3. Lots of frozen pizzas
4. several boxes of cookies/snack cakes
5. two boxes of crackers
6. apples
7. oranges
8. LOW FAT yogurts
9. One package of pork chops (the only edible item he had!)
10. a couple anemic looking vegetable items (pre-cut carrots, iceburg lettuce)
11. Various Lean Cuisine entrees

I made up the following story in my head:
The man was grocery shopping for his family's food for the week. He probably has a few kids, who he feeds the junk to. Then I thought that maybe the man, or his wife at home might be trying to start a diet, and thus the lean cuisine and low fat yogurt. The man wasn't overweight, but I bet his insides weren't too healthy either! It breaks my heart that people eat that crap.

Bonebrine, good observation. When I think back at my pre-low carb days, when I dieted myself UP to over 200 pounds, all my grocery carts were filled with "good food" Lots of fruit, low fat yogurt, whole grain cereal and bread, rice and pasta. BLAH!
Not long ago, cnmLisa posted a picture of her weekly grocery shop. I'll see if I can find the link to it, or you could do a quick search. An amazing sight.
Another forum-friend, LCMermaid, pointed out to me that our low carb food doesn't leave crumbs. I love that!

Isn't it weird to walk into the supermarket, now that you know what food really is, and see the rows upon rows of cardboard boxes and cellophane packages that you used to think were food? It's like being in the Twilight Zone. I want to run around like that guy from Soylent Green, yelling, "But it's not fooooooood!"