
Obamacare Calorie Count Rules Ushered In - mgdo
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/obamacare-calorie-count-rules-ushered-in
======
drak0n1c
As a skinny young man with a big appetite I've found myself using these
calorie counts as a way to maximize calories for the lowest price.

~~~
ProfessorLayton
Heh, I occasionally shop at 99¢ stores, and am often amazed at how many
calories one can buy for a dollar.

Chocolate pound cake is the clear winner (not counting items that are just
ingredients like cooking oil etc.): 900kcal/99¢! (~1.09 after tax where I
live)

~~~
chrisseaton
Is vegetable oil better? Or what about sugar or syrup?

~~~
EpicEng
Do you sit down to a nice meal of sugar and vegetable oil often?

~~~
chrisseaton
Well I don't sit down to a meal of chocolate pound cake either.

~~~
EpicEng
...but people do. No one does the former... pretty sure you understand that
and are just being purposely dense.

------
airstrike
> Restaurants will also have to provide on-site additional nutritional
> information, such as fat and sodium levels.

Can we please talk about sugar? It's objectively worse than just "fat" as not
all fats are created equal and certain kinds are actually _really important_.

~~~
m-watson
You can (and should) say the exact same thing about sugars as you did about
fats. There is a healthy way to eat sugars, fats, and proteins. They are all
important and what it usually comes down to is the age old saying "all things
in moderation."

~~~
toomuchtodo
Fat and protein are healthier for you than sugar. Sugar should be your least
consumed macro. All things in moderation is a cop out.

~~~
Latty
Focusing on one "evil" is as much of a cop out. Sugar isn't the only way you
can be overweight or unhealthy.

------
keithnz
In new zealand we have
[http://www.foodstandards.govt.nz/consumer/labelling/panels/P...](http://www.foodstandards.govt.nz/consumer/labelling/panels/Pages/default.aspx)

and Mcdonalds for instance...
[https://mcdonalds.co.nz/sites/mcdonalds.co.nz/files/Nutritio...](https://mcdonalds.co.nz/sites/mcdonalds.co.nz/files/Nutrition-
Information-2-May-2018.pdf)

which is great if you care about it. But generally if you care about such
things you have a pretty good idea for most foods anyways. Though, there are a
few foods that it's not entirely obvious there's lots of sugar in them.

~~~
keithnz
Maybe it's just me because I don't know how the US works, but when trying to
find the official information for this, it seems like none of the news
agencies I found via googling reference official information, they just
reference their own news about things officials said. Eventually I found a
reference to a fda document. Seemed painful to find though.

[https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/GuidanceRegulation/Guidan...](https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/UCM461963.pdf)

------
shawn
The most effective labels we could have are "Added sugar" and "Added corn
starch".

If you show exactly how much extra sugar and corn starch you're consuming,
it's much harder to get fat by accident.

~~~
Latty
Calorie counts are all that really matters when it comes to "getting fat" \-
while obviously that doesn't mean _healthy_ \- sugar isn't any more relevant
to getting fat than anything else.

Now, there are easy wins from sugars - particularly if you are drinking lots
of regular soft drinks, you can reduce your calorie intake relatively easily
by cutting them out, but everyone's diet is different.

~~~
EpicEng
>sugar isn't any more relevant to getting fat than anything else.

That's not quite true. High sugar intake results in an insulin spike, which in
turn results in more fat being stored than would be had you eaten the same
number of calories in the form of e.g. protein. Sugar also results in more net
calories per calorie as it takes very little energy to digest.

From a behavioral perspective (this matters!), sugar does not leave you
feeling full. You can talk calories all day, but when it comes to weight loss
you have to factor in how people actually work. A full person is less likely
to overeat than a hungry one.

------
sundvor
Outsider's view:

As a Norwegian, when I visited Boston in 1999 for an Allaire dev conference I
saw more grossly fat / obese people in the _hour_ spent switching flights at
Newark airport than I had in my (then) home country in the preceding year. I
was really taken aback.

There's clearly a lot of things the US is not doing right on many, many
levels. This could help chip (sorry) away at that.

------
s73v3r_
As someone who is starting to watch what they eat, and try to watch calories
as well as other nutrition things, I'm glad this is happening, but I wish it
was possible for it to apply more broadly, too. For that, I guess, it would
need to be easier/cheaper to get the nutrition of a recipe than it is now.

~~~
sbenitoj
Congrats on starting! That’s the hardest part. As someone who helps people
lose weight professionally, I’m curious to hear what program, if any, you
found and how did you decide to do it? (I’m not selling anything, just
curious).

~~~
s73v3r_
I had been going to the gym, but I was frustrated with the crappy heart rate
monitors on the cardio machines there. I was also looking for a replacement
for my Pebble Time, so I got the new Fitbit Versa. It works pretty well, and
has a nice feature of giving me a "calorie budget," telling me about how much
I can eat.

So far, though, the hardest part is estimating how many calories are in
something, and how much of something I'm eating.

~~~
sbenitoj
If you stick with properly raised proteins, healthy fats (no trans fats), and
low-carb veggies you don’t have to keep track of anything, the calories take
care of themselves.

Limit starchy carbs and treats to one meal after your workouts.

People love to downvote me on this thread but that advice is essentially what
people pay me thousands of dollars to get them lean.

------
gremlinsinc
> "Daren Bakst, a fellow with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the
> law equates to government overreach.

'It’s not up to the government to influence what people eat — that should be
left up to each individual,' he said."

I wonder if he has the same 'feels' about legalizing all illegal drugs? Seems
most conservatives only support laws that fit their 'narrative'.. I'm obese, I
sit and code all day, and I don't think people 'should' do
lsd/weed/heroine/etc... but I don't think they should go to jail if they end
up in the rat-trap of addiction. It's a mental health issue, and the
distribution lines should be only ones policed imho..

But why is the DEA not government overreach for enforcing 'possession' but
listing calorie counts so people can purposefully limit intake is?

------
sbenitoj
As someone who helps people lose fat professionally, I can say with near 100%
confidence this will have almost zero effect on the vast majority of people.

People were lean long before calorie counts were readily available, the
problem people have is NOT lack of awareness of the number of calories in
their food.

The problem is philosophical — if you think all edible substances qualify as
“food,” you’re never going to lose weight and keep it off.

If you think you should only be consuming whole foods the VAST majority of the
time, then you will lose weight and keep it off relatively effortlessly.

~~~
danhak
As someone who has lost 20 pounds since the new year, I can say with near 100%
confidence that it would not have happened for me without obsessive calorie
tracking. Can't recommend MyFitnessPal enough.

~~~
NegativeLatency
Great job. Don’t listen to the haters. :)

~~~
DEFCON28
And especially don’t listen to anyone who is overweight. They are like crabs
in a bucket and will try to pull you back in.

