"News" in quotes is appropriate; I consider it "pointless garbage content." They're out to steal your time and attention for a pittance of ad revenue.

...but as for what has changed since the 80s, besides what we talk about a lot here - that high-carb low-fat diet and "just eat less and move more" baloney: The biggest difference I see is how it became almost mandatory to eat and be surrounded by food (most of it crap) ALL THE TIME.

I partially blame the dieticians/clinicians who pushed "grazing" as if you're going to die if you're hungry and have to wait until you finish what you're doing to eat. The epitome of this was a time I was in a Walmart line and was appalled to hear a young mom behind me crack open a bag of whatever-crap-food and start feeding her toddler. Toddler's older sibling asked, "why is he getting Goldfish (or whatever crap it was)?" and mom answered, "because he's hungry." But he wasn't! He wasn't even being fussy! But way to go, (a) committing theft, and (b) teaching this kid to just eat all the damn time for no reason. (I've seen people just start eating in the middle of the store quite a lot, and honestly, if I owned a grocery store, I'd be calling the police on your shoplifting butt. You pay for it first!)

I remember when it was forbidden and just plain rude to eat on public transit or in school. Now? Sure, just whip out that tuna sub on the bus or in the middle of a lecture. For many, it's almost a point of pride: "I'm soooo busy and hard-working, I can't possibly set time aside to sit at a table and eat properly."

...and remember when gas stations just sold... gas?! There's a gas station near us that I actually thought was shut down/derelict because it's just the pumps and a hut. When did EVERY gas station turn into a mini grocery store and restaurant?!

We've normalized this constant eating, especially the hyper-pallatable crap. I don't blame those gas stations, because if the guy across the street is doing it, you want to do more and better to compete for those impulse spending dollars.

No wonder so many of us need support to stay LC. Swimming upstream is hard.

(/rant)