Nutritionists warn diners to be wary of Warren Buffett's 'junk-food' portfolio

[cloud]

Do you invest in anything that brings profit?  I don't. I avoid businesses that don't really benefit others. I invest in neutral or beneficial businesses.

 

Rational thinking should overwhelm sense organs.  I am big admirer of vulcan in Startrek.  I am not saying all emotions are bad. 

I rather eat veggies and have a painless old age than indulging in meat and junk food and possibly die slowly with support of meds and medical equipment.  Success in one area can often blind sight people in other areas of life. 

"If somebody told me that I live a year longer by eating nothing but broccoli and asparagus from now on ... every day will seem like as long. I'll stick with the Cheetos and the Coke," Buffett told CNBC in March 2010. "  - It's not about living longer. It's about having less suffering.  and there are a lot more to eat than just broccoli and asparagus. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/25/us-kraft-m-a-buffett-diet-idUSKBN0ML2SY20150325

 

"Why Prevention is Worth a Ton of Cure"

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/why-prevention-is-worth-a-ton-of-cure/

 

"Taxpayer Subsidies for Unhealthy Foods"

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/taxpayer-subsidies-for-unhealthy-foods.html

 

 

"Asian men who live in Asia have the lowest risk; however when they migrate to the west, their risk increases. "

"Why is prostate cancer so common in the Western culture and much less so in Asia, and why when Asian men migrate to western countries the risk of prostate cancer increases over time? We believe the major risk factor is diet – foods that produce oxidative damage to DNA. "

http://www.pcf.org/site/c.leJRIROrEpH/b.5802029/k.31EA/Prevention.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LC]

Rational thinking should overwhelm sense organs'

 

I disagree in some contexts. Sensory perception and body language overwhelm rational thought in most communication. Imagine approaching a woman at a bar. Rational discourse is probably the least important aspect. And yet the goal is forming a relationship which can create life (or at least practice :D)

[cloud]

Rational thinking should overwhelm sense organs'

 

I disagree in some contexts. Sensory perception and body language overwhelm rational thought in most communication. Imagine approaching a woman at a bar. Rational discourse is probably the least important aspect. And yet the goal is forming a relationship which can create life (or at least practice :D)

 

Charlie Munger once was asked one word to describe the reason of his success, his' response?  Rationality.

 

Rationally, if I were looking for a woman as a long term partner, I wouldn't look for someone who's a party girl or who frequently hang out at the bar. I would find someone who's a good girl, smart, happy go lucky,  feminine,  and family oriented instead of career oriented..  i would also avoid women brainwashed by extreme feminism.

 

Also as charlie Munger said: if you want to get a good spouse, you have to deserved a good spouse because a good spouse by definition is not nuts.  In other words, if we increase our own value, we get higher value partner. There's no need to chase.  Chasing something or someone we don't deserved is a waste of time.  Like attracts like.

 

The danger of letting sensors to overwrite rationality is that it can often create great suffering.

Binging on junk food is not much different than binging on sex or porn. When people binge on anything, the dopamine reward circuit in the limbic system is being overloaded.  If you put a  male mouse to female mouse  within a confined space and the male will mate with that female. After he's done, he won't repeat it. There's natural mechanism to let him rest. Then the researchers put new female mice into the cage one after another, the male mouse mates again and again.(Coolidge effect: novelty creates new desire) He keeps doing that until he dies of exhaustion. That's the problem of letting sensors become captain. The senors should be servant.  Same with food, governments subsidize unhealthy food so the citizens binge on unhealthy food and become unhealthy.  I don't know why they are doing it, maybe to create jobs in the health industry. Or the government like junk food themselves. 

 

 

 

[Guest Schwab711]

Rational thinking should overwhelm sense organs'

 

I disagree in some contexts. Sensory perception and body language overwhelm rational thought in most communication. Imagine approaching a woman at a bar. Rational discourse is probably the least important aspect. And yet the goal is forming a relationship which can create life (or at least practice :D)

 

Charlie Munger once was asked one word to describe the reason of his success, his' response?  Rationality.

 

Rationally, if I were looking for a woman as a long term partner, I wouldn't look for someone who's a party girl or who frequently hang out at the bar. I would find someone who's a good girl, smart, happy go lucky,  feminine,  and family oriented instead of career oriented..  i would also avoid women brainwashed by extreme feminism.

 

Also as charlie Munger said: if you want to get a good spouse, you have to deserved a good spouse because a good spouse by definition is not nuts.  In other words, if we increase our own value, we get higher value partner. There's no need to chase.  Chasing something or someone we don't deserved is a waste of time.  Like attracts like.

 

The danger of letting sensors to overwrite rationality is that it can often create great suffering.

Binging on junk food is not much different than binging on sex or porn. When people binge on anything, the dopamine reward circuit in the limbic system is being overloaded.  If you put a  male mouse to female mouse  within a confined space and the male will mate with that female. After he's done, he won't repeat it. There's natural mechanism to let him rest. Then the researchers put new female mice into the cage one after another, the male mouse mates again and again.(Coolidge effect: novelty creates new desire) He keeps doing that until he dies of exhaustion. That's the problem of letting sensors become captain. The senors should be servant.  Same with food, governments subsidize unhealthy food so the citizens binge on unhealthy food and become unhealthy.  I don't know why they are doing it, maybe to create jobs in the health industry. Or the government like junk food themselves.

 

How does the government subsidize junkfood? Food stamps? At some point I don't think it's "right" to force choices upon citizens (even if they make sense) or to criticize others of choices, assuming they don't harm others. The 2nd part is probably much more controversial. I don't mean any offense by this but in my opinion the innate right of citizens extends to "killing themselves" through bad choices (that don't harm others) and should be protected with as much vigor as the readily agreed upon innate right "to live".

 

I certainly understand your point of view but I'm probably the complete opposite end of the spectrum. I almost never a support laws that eliminate free choice, even if I don't necessarily support those same choices in my personal life (e.g. prostitution, junkfood restrictions, drugs, ect unless there's limited restrictions like junkfood/drugs in schools lol).

 

I tend to agree with Buffett though, I'd probably take a couple years off my life if I have can have a greater cumulative total of happiness in that life, whatever that means :)

[Palantir]

Government subsidizes junk food via corn subsidies -----> corn syrup. The leading purveyor of corn syrup is liquid diabetes manufacturer Coca Cola.

[Uccmal]

Government subsidizes junk food via corn subsidies -----> corn syrup. The leading purveyor of corn syrup is liquid diabetes manufacturer Coca Cola.

 

It wouldn't make a difference whether it was cane sugar or corn sugar.  Both have fructose and glucose.  Its the volumes people consume these days and the lack of offsets, such as regular full body mobility. 

 

The subject of Buffett's diet comes up now and again.  From what I read he is kind of weird about food.  I'll steer away from diagnosing him.  Schroeder mentioned alot about this in the biography.  One thing I recall is that when he wanted to lose weight he would switch to Diet Coke and eat next to nothing until he reached his goal.  I would say he meets the other 80% of the equation for health and longevity fairly well: lucky genes (both sisters are alive and his mother lived into her 90s), reasonably active, and doesn't smoke or drink.  His stress level has been discussed before.  He seems to live a normal sort of life in the stress regard - I think he causes others alot of stress.

 

Cloud, At what point do we stop worrying about diet and fitness, and just enjoy things with some degree of moderation.  Worrying about it is just more stress, right?  If you follow research about stress and its affect on telomeres lengths, that seems to say alot.  People who care for a spouse, disabled child,  or parent full time without a break have been shown to suffer from chronic stress and it reduces their health and well being immensely. 

[cloud]

Government subsidizes junk food via corn subsidies -----> corn syrup. The leading purveyor of corn syrup is liquid diabetes manufacturer Coca Cola.

 

Cloud, At what point do we stop worrying about diet and fitness, and just enjoy things with some degree of moderation.  Worrying about it is just more stress, right?  If you follow research about stress and its affect on telomeres lengths, that seems to say alot.  People who care for a spouse, disabled child,  or parent full time without a break have been shown to suffer from chronic stress and it reduces their health and well being immensely.

 

Sorry to say, you shoot yourself on the foot with this.  Moderate amount of a bad thing is still a bad thing.

Preventing suffering doesn't cause me any stress.  I don't worry about preventing suffering. I just take actions to the best of my ability.  I don't feel stressful about: e.g. eating healthy, exercising,not drinking any alcohol (meaning no chance of getting in a car accident under influence of alcohol),  avoiding smoking cigarettes, no texting and driving.    I do see smokers become stressful when they are suddenly cut off from cigarettes.  The ability to say no is a key indicator of success in all areas of life. Check out Stanford marshmallow experiment.

 

Now let's talk about stress ...  Some people don't care about their financial health and physical health. For example, when they lived carelessly for their whole life without any consequences. Then they reach age of 60,70, after an operation, let's say to take out a gallbladder after a gallbladder attack,  they suddenly can barely walk, and experience urine incontinence. (What causes formation of gallstone?)  Or worse, they have cancer.  Now, because they are not financially independent, they will need their children, probably at their 30s, to become care giver.  That's endless medications, doctor appointments. Meanwhile their children are working full time and use up their 2 weeks vacations just to go to their parents doctor appointments.  At this stage of life, their children are probably starting to think about or just started raising their own family.  If their children don't have  high enough income, they are been sandwiched between their own family and their parents. They are called sandwich generations.  Some even  are so stressful that they can't have their own family.

 

I take care of my financial health and physical health to ensure my children will not become sandwich generations.

For wealth, I'll become financially independent at age 45.

For health, I want to be like Fauja Singh than one day laying on a death bed dying slowly.

 

 

 

 

[Uccmal]

Government subsidizes junk food via corn subsidies -----> corn syrup. The leading purveyor of corn syrup is liquid diabetes manufacturer Coca Cola.

 

Cloud, At what point do we stop worrying about diet and fitness, and just enjoy things with some degree of moderation.  Worrying about it is just more stress, right?  If you follow research about stress and its affect on telomeres lengths, that seems to say alot.  People who care for a spouse, disabled child,  or parent full time without a break have been shown to suffer from chronic stress and it reduces their health and well being immensely.

 

Sorry to say, you shoot yourself on the foot with this.  Moderate amount of a bad thing is still a bad thing.

Preventing suffering doesn't cause me any stress.  I don't worry about preventing suffering. I just take actions to the best of my ability.  I don't feel stressful about: e.g. eating healthy, exercising,not drinking any alcohol (meaning no chance of getting in a car accident under influence of alcohol),  avoiding smoking cigarettes, no texting and driving.    I do see smokers become stressful when they are suddenly cut off from cigarettes.  The ability to say no is a key indicator of success in all areas of life. Check out Stanford marshmallow experiment.

 

Now let's talk about stress ...  Some people don't care about their financial health and physical health. For example, when they lived carelessly for their whole life without any consequences. Then they reach age of 60,70, after an operation, let's say to take out a gallbladder after a gallbladder attack,  they suddenly can barely walk, and experience urine incontinence. (What causes formation of gallstone?)  Or worse, they have cancer.  Now, because they are not financially independent, they will need their children, probably at their 30s, to become care giver.  That's endless medications, doctor appointments. Meanwhile their children are working full time and use up their 2 weeks vacations just to go to their parents doctor appointments.  At this stage of life, their children are probably starting to think about or just started raising their own family.  If their children don't have  high enough income, they are been sandwiched between their own family and their parents. They are called sandwich generations.  Some even  are so stressful that they can't have their own family.

 

I take care of my financial health and physical health to ensure my children will not become sandwich generations.

 

 

 

 

 

I am not sure what you mean that I shoot myself in the foot. What you have done is argue with me from a sample of one, you. 

 

There are no guarantees whatsoever in this world.  I have watched enough healthy people die young due to bad luck: cancer, stroke, heart attack, etc.  Conversely, I know enough people who have done nothing but abuse their bodies and go on and on, in near perfect health - alot more than you'd think.  Yeah, you can sway the odds in your favour, but only a certain amount.

 

Somewhat related: There was an article in Bloomberg today showing a study of wealth and health.  I cant seem to get the link.  The results are clear.  The wealthier you are, the better your health.

 

Have a look at the London Trolley Bus study sometime:  They compared drivers who sit all day to ticket takers, who move about all day.  The workforce is unionized so a driver is likely to remain a driver and a ticket taker a ticket taker.  Ticket takers live longer healthier lives regardless of any other factors: diet, smoking, other exercise.  The effect of regular full body movement on health is being borne out in more studies.  The more you move the better your health. 

 

People waste too much time focussed on the wrong things. 

 

 

 

[oddballstocks]

Government subsidizes junk food via corn subsidies -----> corn syrup. The leading purveyor of corn syrup is liquid diabetes manufacturer Coca Cola.

 

Cloud, At what point do we stop worrying about diet and fitness, and just enjoy things with some degree of moderation.  Worrying about it is just more stress, right?  If you follow research about stress and its affect on telomeres lengths, that seems to say alot.  People who care for a spouse, disabled child,  or parent full time without a break have been shown to suffer from chronic stress and it reduces their health and well being immensely.

 

Sorry to say, you shoot yourself on the foot with this.  Moderate amount of a bad thing is still a bad thing.

Preventing suffering doesn't cause me any stress.  I don't worry about preventing suffering. I just take actions to the best of my ability.  I don't feel stressful about: e.g. eating healthy, exercising,not drinking any alcohol (meaning no chance of getting in a car accident under influence of alcohol),  avoiding smoking cigarettes, no texting and driving.    I do see smokers become stressful when they are suddenly cut off from cigarettes.  The ability to say no is a key indicator of success in all areas of life. Check out Stanford marshmallow experiment.

 

Now let's talk about stress ...  Some people don't care about their financial health and physical health. For example, when they lived carelessly for their whole life without any consequences. Then they reach age of 60,70, after an operation, let's say to take out a gallbladder after a gallbladder attack,  they suddenly can barely walk, and experience urine incontinence. (What causes formation of gallstone?)  Or worse, they have cancer.  Now, because they are not financially independent, they will need their children, probably at their 30s, to become care giver.  That's endless medications, doctor appointments. Meanwhile their children are working full time and use up their 2 weeks vacations just to go to their parents doctor appointments.  At this stage of life, their children are probably starting to think about or just started raising their own family.  If their children don't have  high enough income, they are been sandwiched between their own family and their parents. They are called sandwich generations.  Some even  are so stressful that they can't have their own family.

 

I take care of my financial health and physical health to ensure my children will not become sandwich generations.

For wealth, I'll become financially independent at age 45.

For health, I want to be like Fauja Singh than one day laying on a death bed dying slowly.

 

"I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all."

 

Here's the thing, time and chance do happen to all of us.  You might never touch a drop of alcohol and never drive.  But what if you're walking and a drunk plows into you at an intersection?

 

Maybe you exercise and eat only the best food but still get cancer.

 

The fact is everyone dies.  The person who shoves their face with McDonalds and never leaves a couch as well as the health nut, both die.  Sometimes the health nut dies first.

 

There are no guarantees in life.  There is no magic formula.  Eating perfectly and exercising doesn't guarantee a long life.  Just as eating terribly and never doing a thing doesn't always mean an early death.  Time and chance happen to us all.

 

There's a stress and worry that I think is robbing some people, it's the stress of being healthy.  Of never doing anything unhealthy to ensure a long life.  The thing is that's just a stressful as someone who's working a high pressure job.

 

The best way to reduce stress is to actually enjoy life!  Talk a walk on a nice day, play with kids or grandkids.  Go have a beer with friends.  Go hiking or running.  Enjoy life.

 

I exercise myself, I like to run.  I went running this afternoon.  Not because I want to live long, but because I truly enjoy it.  I also enjoy a good beer, so I'm having one now.  Did I negate the running?  I don't know, and honestly I don't care either.

 

Here is a very personal story I'll share.  My dad was the model athlete, he held a state record in a sport for years and went to college on a full ride scholarship.  He played three sports in college before being forced to choose one.  He stayed in shape his adult-life.  My mom was into health food.  White bread?  Never ate it.  She used to shop at some boutique health place in the 80s.  So fast forward...10 years ago he was diagnosed with cancer.  Then his body was riddled with arthritis, it runs in the family.  He's had numerous joint replacements.  The cancer was gone, then came back and gone again.  He has another replacement surgery this week.  He said he thinks he needs three more (another hip and two shoulders).  He was strong, athletic and did nothing wrong.  Yet his body fell apart.  His youngest brother was just as athletic and went farther than my dad.  He played MLB baseball for years in the late 70s and early 80s as a relief pitcher.  Excellent shape as well, kept up with athletics and sports through his adult years.  He has a number of health issues as well and hobbles around.  I asked him if he could even pitch a baseball anymore, he said he couldn't.

 

Maybe my stories are the anomalies.  I feel great right now, but I'm also young.  I know I might end up like my dad and have health issues in my 50s.  Or I could be like my mom's family and never exercise, eat terribly and live to my mid-90s.

 

The bottom line is this.  You need to enjoy life.  My guess from your post is you're young and you have the world by its reigns.  You already know everything and we're probably all wrong.  I just hope in 5-10-15 years maybe some of this will be remembered and sink in before it's too late.

[cloud]

Government subsidizes junk food via corn subsidies -----> corn syrup. The leading purveyor of corn syrup is liquid diabetes manufacturer Coca Cola.

 

Cloud, At what point do we stop worrying about diet and fitness, and just enjoy things with some degree of moderation.  Worrying about it is just more stress, right?  If you follow research about stress and its affect on telomeres lengths, that seems to say alot.  People who care for a spouse, disabled child,  or parent full time without a break have been shown to suffer from chronic stress and it reduces their health and well being immensely.

 

Sorry to say, you shoot yourself on the foot with this.  Moderate amount of a bad thing is still a bad thing.

Preventing suffering doesn't cause me any stress.  I don't worry about preventing suffering. I just take actions to the best of my ability.  I don't feel stressful about: e.g. eating healthy, exercising,not drinking any alcohol (meaning no chance of getting in a car accident under influence of alcohol),  avoiding smoking cigarettes, no texting and driving.    I do see smokers become stressful when they are suddenly cut off from cigarettes.  The ability to say no is a key indicator of success in all areas of life. Check out Stanford marshmallow experiment.

 

Now let's talk about stress ...  Some people don't care about their financial health and physical health. For example, when they lived carelessly for their whole life without any consequences. Then they reach age of 60,70, after an operation, let's say to take out a gallbladder after a gallbladder attack,  they suddenly can barely walk, and experience urine incontinence. (What causes formation of gallstone?)  Or worse, they have cancer.  Now, because they are not financially independent, they will need their children, probably at their 30s, to become care giver.  That's endless medications, doctor appointments. Meanwhile their children are working full time and use up their 2 weeks vacations just to go to their parents doctor appointments.  At this stage of life, their children are probably starting to think about or just started raising their own family.  If their children don't have  high enough income, they are been sandwiched between their own family and their parents. They are called sandwich generations.  Some even  are so stressful that they can't have their own family.

 

I take care of my financial health and physical health to ensure my children will not become sandwich generations.

For wealth, I'll become financially independent at age 45.

For health, I want to be like Fauja Singh than one day laying on a death bed dying slowly.

 

"I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all."

 

Here's the thing, time and chance do happen to all of us.  You might never touch a drop of alcohol and never drive.  But what if you're walking and a drunk plows into you at an intersection?

 

Maybe you exercise and eat only the best food but still get cancer.

 

The fact is everyone dies.  The person who shoves their face with McDonalds and never leaves a couch as well as the health nut, both die.  Sometimes the health nut dies first.

 

There are no guarantees in life.  There is no magic formula.  Eating perfectly and exercising doesn't guarantee a long life.  Just as eating terribly and never doing a thing doesn't always mean an early death.  Time and chance happen to us all.

 

There's a stress and worry that I think is robbing some people, it's the stress of being healthy.  Of never doing anything unhealthy to ensure a long life.  The thing is that's just a stressful as someone who's working a high pressure job.

 

The best way to reduce stress is to actually enjoy life!  Talk a walk on a nice day, play with kids or grandkids.  Go have a beer with friends.  Go hiking or running.  Enjoy life.

 

I exercise myself, I like to run.  I went running this afternoon.  Not because I want to live long, but because I truly enjoy it.  I also enjoy a good beer, so I'm having one now.  Did I negate the running?  I don't know, and honestly I don't care either.

 

Here is a very personal story I'll share.  My dad was the model athlete, he held a state record in a sport for years and went to college on a full ride scholarship.  He played three sports in college before being forced to choose one.  He stayed in shape his adult-life.  My mom was into health food.  White bread?  Never ate it.  She used to shop at some boutique health place in the 80s.  So fast forward...10 years ago he was diagnosed with cancer.  Then his body was riddled with arthritis, it runs in the family.  He's had numerous joint replacements.  The cancer was gone, then came back and gone again.  He has another replacement surgery this week.  He said he thinks he needs three more (another hip and two shoulders).  He was strong, athletic and did nothing wrong.  Yet his body fell apart.  His youngest brother was just as athletic and went farther than my dad.  He played MLB baseball for years in the late 70s and early 80s as a relief pitcher.  Excellent shape as well, kept up with athletics and sports through his adult years.  He has a number of health issues as well and hobbles around.  I asked him if he could even pitch a baseball anymore, he said he couldn't.

 

Maybe my stories are the anomalies.  I feel great right now, but I'm also young.  I know I might end up like my dad and have health issues in my 50s.  Or I could be like my mom's family and never exercise, eat terribly and live to my mid-90s.

 

The bottom line is this.  You need to enjoy life.  My guess from your post is you're young and you have the world by its reigns.  You already know everything and we're probably all wrong.  I just hope in 5-10-15 years maybe some of this will be remembered and sink in before it's too late.

 

I am not know-it-all. I just read a lot and have open mind.

 

Some people died while wearing seat belt. I still wear the seat belt every time I drive.

There are many  factors affect outcomes in life. I just control what I can control to produce the result I want. I don't worry about what I can't control,.e.g. DNA,accidents, or natural disasters.

if trying to live a  health life is a worry or stress  then trying to beat the stock market is a worry/stress too. We all going to die in the end, the money is not coming with us. Why get rich then?  That shouldn't we stop worrying about beating the average market return and just buy the index like most people do?  No we don't, we don't want average return, so we put in more effort and get 15%, 20%, 30% / year return.  To me, it's well worth it to work extra harder to get 20% to 30% return, I don't enjoy less about life from doing this. In fact, I have more peace of mind and sense of accomplishment getting 20% to 30% return.  If life is a dream, I want a good dream rather than a nightmare.

 

There are two major factors deciding our health and life span: 1. DNA which we have no control.  2. Diet and being active.

If anyone is interested:

How to Live to 101 - Horizon - BBC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc7joeDjF84

This BBC documentary shows couple groups of people living long life and short life. There is a  group living a long life due to inter-family marriage and resulting DNA anomaly. They eat lots of meat and drinks a lot and many still live to 100 in good health.  There's a group living a short life due to DNA.  Other groups living a long healthy life all have same thing in common: low/no meat diet and active life style: Okinawan and 7th day Adventist. Those are very happy people. I don't see them stressful at all.