food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

I don't know if its just me or whether it really is different here in LA.
England hardly has a good reputation for good diets, food and restaurants but I find it very confusing here.
Though restaurants are plentiful and by and large good, good quality, service and value there are so many places selling junk food it makes me feel physically sick. We have free food at my company and watching the greed of already huge people again makes me feel physically sick. I know england is following in this but surely its not as bad here. People just seem so greedy.
People have no concept of quality or true choice. They believe that choice is 100 flavours of snapple, the same liquid with just different colours and flavourings, 20 kinds of milk, each exactly the same base substance (cows milk) but with different things added or removed. Where is the goat's milk, the sheeps milk etc. etc.
We have Gelsons here which sort of equates to waitrose but is a poor cousin indeed.
It seems that certainly in the South East and London Organic food is now widely accepted by many middle class people. Here though its still sort of an oddity. People just seem to care about price and nothing else. They have no appreciation of the chemicals that go into their body. The amount of chemicals and highly processed ingredients in food that americans eat is just terrifying. Its very very hard to find just basic food with not chemical shit added.
The sort of quality and choice that I took for granted in London seems only available in the very most expensive stores such as Wholefoods which charge huge premiums.
It always amazes me how average 'normal' middle class well educated people actually eat in mcdonalds on a regular basis. You see huge queues at the dirve ins in the morning. I am pretty sure that similar preofssional people in England wouldnt do this, in my mind/world at least well educated people kind of look at mcdonalds as something slightly gross that is indulged in in moments of madness..
Maybe I am just a terrible snob and english people are just the same..
what do you think?

Re: food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

hi and welcome ....yep you have to shop around...most of the grocery stores here do a limited stock of organic but i shop at wholefoods for fresh produce...think we've been spoilt by waitrose and marks :)

Re: food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

You have to go looking for it. Here in memphis we have Fresh Market and Wild Oats where you can get all sorts of organic stuff.

Interestingly enough, Walmart has recenlty started to "highlight" their organic products. This could lead to other retailers following their lead.

Re: food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

It is much harder work to find wholesome food - but Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are quite good, also we have a Farmer's Market in Calabasas on Saturdays and there is one on 3rd St.

We have recently had a couple of posters on here epitomising the atitude - price is all that matters, not taste or health.

Welcome anyway, how do you like it here otherwise?

Re: food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

This pervades most parts of the american lifestyle

Re: food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

Try being a vegetarian in the States :(

I've been to more than one BBQ here where there isn't a single thing on the menu that isn't meat; even the green salad and coleslaw had meat in them.

We've been to Arby's where they don't have a single sandwich that doesn't have two inches of meat on it. Lots of small chain restaurants (the kind with laminated menus) have nothing but meat dishes.

It's tricky to find tins of baked beans with no meat in them.

I'm not a "save the cute animals" treehugger really, I just don't like meat!

Which is a shame really, because it's the one food item here that comes in more varieties than Snapple.

Re: food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

I am a meat eater but still find it astonoshing that here in the south people think that if they cook veggies without "fatback" or some other sort of meat flavouring then it isn't seasoned. We have some Indian programmers here who have a hard time when we have pot lucks because of the amount of pork people cook into veggies.

Re: food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

so very very true...karma on it's way :)

Re: food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

I think you're preaching to the choir for the most part.

Re: food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

Heinz "Vegetarian" Beans are pretty widely available. They do seem to have loads of sugar in, even more than the Brit variety, but are the best of a bad bunch.

Re: food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

Baked beans are one of the interesting differences between UK and US culture. Here, they come in a hundred and fifty "flavours", whereas in Britain you can just get "plain beans" or "beans with sausages".

We do buy Heinz beans, mostly for my husband's nostalgia, along with Branston, piccalilli and my beloved Fry's Turkish Delight (thanks to Larry's Markets).

But American baked beans are different, same as their bread is different. I quite like the treacly rather than tomatoey sauce.

One thing we have noticed here, it's really difficult to get Diet lemonade (Sprite or 7UP). You can get Diet Coke, Diet Dr Peppers etc, but no one ever seems to stock the lemon drinks in lowcal versions. Last time we saw some in Fred Meyer, we filled the trolley because we know they'll be gone for six months once their current stock gets sold.

Re: food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

Have you found The British Pantry in Redmond, yet? Lots of goodies there - at a price mind you, but still its nice to find things.

Re: food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

I have indeed ... it's one of the fixed settings on my GPS :D

We don't go very often, but a Christmas trip is essential for us - you can't get mince pies or Christmas pud anywhere else.

Re: food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

www.eatwild.com to find local farmers in your area selling pasture fed meat, usually way cheaper than the stores.

We have a discount organic store come to town, and they are very reasonable. Weetabix, organic from the Uk at 2.69 for the large box, whereas Publix et al, sell it for 4.99 or thereabouts.

Re: food, diet and shopping for groceries
 

Hi There

When I moved here twelve years ago there was a HUGE discrepancy between Uk and Us supermarkets. I think the gap is closing a little. ALthough it probably helped that I moved from Indiana to DC!! I agree that's there's certainly a quantity over quality mentality to a lot of products in supermarkets. Try finding a normal-size packet of crips!!

But, having just returned from England I didn't notice such a massive difference between the produce on offer here vs. there. I certainly think the meat (with the exception of lamb and a nice pork roast with crackling) is much better here. As with everything, there's an element of seeing things through rose coloured glasses when you think fondly of things back home.

Also, for those with Harris Teeters in their hood, you can get real Heinz beans there! Although I have to say I quite like the taste of American beans now. Another thing I noticed at home, they sell the La Brea bread that you find in Harris Teeter and Giant at Selfridges as if it's some fancy pants item for about $6.50 a loaf. They're also selling Oreos for about $4. WHOA

C