Fat

M

Matesrates

Well-known member
Again bad publicity for Blackpool, third highest obesity in the country, with 2 out of 5 over 18 either obese or overweight. I hope they don’t ban pies.
 
Obesity is such a problem for this country. Sugar is the biggest challenge as opposed to actual fat in foods.
Clearly the region enjoys too much sugar - be that in processed food, alcohol or actual sweets/deserts/sugar drinks.

Sugar is bloody addictive too.
 
People have much less available income, especially during a cost of living crisis. Good healthy foods cost more than the cheap offers for fatty and sugary foods. Sadly though that's been the equation for years.

As for Blackpool being nr 3, that's not too surprising given we've taken in many people from elsewhere on benefits. Another stick to batter us with, for once I'd like to see this kind of explanation/analysis behind these "headline figures".
 
Dave62 said:
People have much less available income, especially during a cost of living crisis. Good healthy foods cost more than the cheap offers for fatty and sugary foods. Sadly though that's been the equation for years.

As for Blackpool being nr 3, that's not too surprising given we've taken in many people from elsewhere on benefits. Another stick to batter us with, for once I'd like to see this kind of explanation/analysis behind these "headline figures".
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Don’t agree fresh food is cheaper than fatty/sugary takeaways, people are too lazy to cook.
 
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Gods honest truth said:
Don’t agree fresh food is cheaper than fatty/sugary takeaways, people are to lazy to cook.
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There is some truth in that.

Even if you can’t get fresh veg then frozen veg is a good option and reasonably cheap. There are many households that don’t see vegetables from one week to the next.

It really isn’t cheaper to eat all the processed crap out there. It’s cheaper to bulk cook healthy meals but it’s the effort that isn’t there these day.
 
Dave62 said:
People have much less available income, especially during a cost of living crisis. Good healthy foods cost more than the cheap offers for fatty and sugary foods. Sadly though that's been the equation for years.

As for Blackpool being nr 3, that's not too surprising given we've taken in many people from elsewhere on benefits. Another stick to batter us with, for once I'd like to see this kind of explanation/analysis behind these "headline figures".
Click to expand...
Can't agree with that at all. You can cook fresh very cheaply, rice/pasta a large chicken etc. My wife makes home made soup in batches, the problem is too many people haven't got a clue of basic cooking.
 
Shandypants said:
Can't agree with that at all. You can cook fresh very cheaply, rice/pasta a large chicken etc. My wife makes home made soup in batches, the problem is too many people haven't got a clue of basic cooking.
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Totally agree, both me and my wife cook using fresh/frozen ingredients and always make our own sauces and never use jars or packets as they always contain sugar.
 
Gods honest truth said:
Don’t agree fresh food is cheaper than fatty/sugary takeaways, people are to lazy to cook.
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Shandypants said:
Can't agree with that at all. You can cook fresh very cheaply, rice/pasta a large chicken etc. My wife makes home made soup in batches, the problem is too many people haven't got a clue of basic cooking.
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Fair enough. I was referring to the ever increasing cost of fresh fruit and veg when I do a shop, whilst the offers all seem to be on chocolates and ready meals. I think you can tell I'm not the cook in our house. Our fridge is full of pre cooked veg as well, so a Fair point
 
We did some really interesting research at work into this area with a Teesside University occupational therapy student who was with us for 12 weeks.

It's difficult to write down in an order as all of these things are true concomitantly.

Hartlepool has one of the highest takeaway/head of population in the country and is probably the highest non-tourist town in the country (Blackpool and Yarmouth have more, but that's not a surprise).

Just Eat have an average of 15,000 orders per day (there are approximately 45,000 households in the borough) - so on any given day about 1 in 3 households have ordered food - not all will be crap, not all will be fast food, but mostly it will be.

The GP's describe a condition "shit life syndrome" which is shorthand for the multiple factors which are wrong in people's lives and leads to life limiting general unhealth (both physical and mental).

Eating fast food releases dopamine - basically a physiological feel good chemical - although ultimately it's bad for you; the salt/fat/sugar combinations which you cannot recreate in home cooked food - makes you feel good.

Given that thousands of people have a shit life, from the anticipation of the order, to pressing that button on your phone, to eating the food could well be the best 'high' they feel all day - if that's the case you'd do it again (and again and again). The physical impact of this gives you more of a shit life and so the downward spiral begins.

The alternative to get the high, is exercise BUT, that's far harder to achieve than pressing an app on a phone and eating what arrives at the door; we found the vast majority of people we spoke to knew there were very few genuine barriers to exercise - mostly embarrassment and childcare - not cost as people recognise they can do it for very little expense - but physical exertion is hard when you are unfit.

As a result of this, we are going to be trying to do some very small group work in the new year, using Nintendo switch type sports (inside, childcare provided, FUN) as the first step to being more physically active - alongside support to look at what other simple changes can be made to get out of the downward spiral. It will be for 12 weeks so that people embed the change as that's the point when behavioural changes become more likely to be permanent.

No idea whether it will work, but at least what we are trying to achieve is based on pretty solid evidence.

It will be exactly the same in Blackpool, I'm sure there will be an equivalent project taking place - but as always, it's the scale of intervention which is hardest to achieve.
 
Ye but we ain’t allowed to call them out are we , apparently it’s called fat shaming😃 fat people struggling to walk everywhere you go it’s actually disgusting , sorry no sympathy, the main reason Doctors surgeries and hospitals are at breaking point🙁
 
TSSeasider said:
We did some really interesting research at work into this area with a Teesside University occupational therapy student who was with us for 12 weeks.

It's difficult to write down in an order as all of these things are true concomitantly.

Hartlepool has one of the highest takeaway/head of population in the country and is probably the highest non-tourist town in the country (Blackpool and Yarmouth have more, but that's not a surprise).

Just Eat have an average of 15,000 orders per day (there are approximately 45,000 households in the borough) - so on any given day about 1 in 3 households have ordered food - not all will be crap, not all will be fast food, but mostly it will be.

The GP's describe a condition "shit life syndrome" which is shorthand for the multiple factors which are wrong in people's lives and leads to life limiting general unhealth (both physical and mental).

Eating fast food releases dopamine - basically a physiological feel good chemical - although ultimately it's bad for you; the salt/fat/sugar combinations which you cannot recreate in home cooked food - makes you feel good.

Given that thousands of people have a shit life, from the anticipation of the order, to pressing that button on your phone, to eating the food could well be the best 'high' they feel all day - if that's the case you'd do it again (and again and again). The physical impact of this gives you more of a shit life and so the downward spiral begins.

The alternative to get the high, is exercise BUT, that's far harder to achieve than pressing an app on a phone and eating what arrives at the door; we found the vast majority of people we spoke to knew there were very few genuine barriers to exercise - mostly embarrassment and childcare - not cost as people recognise they can do it for very little expense - but physical exertion is hard when you are unfit.

As a result of this, we are going to be trying to do some very small group work in the new year, using Nintendo switch type sports (inside, childcare provided, FUN) as the first step to being more physically active - alongside support to look at what other simple changes can be made to get out of the downward spiral. It will be for 12 weeks so that people embed the change as that's the point when behavioural changes become more likely to be permanent.

No idea whether it will work, but at least what we are trying to achieve is based on pretty solid evidence.

It will be exactly the same in Blackpool, I'm sure there will be an equivalent project taking place - but as always, it's the scale of intervention which is hardest to achieve.
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An informative and interesting post. Unusual on here these days!

Agree with an earlier post that cooking lessons should be taught in schools; we are generally becoming less practical as a society.

And it doesn`t help that food lobby groups, masquerading as think tanks, try to stymie anything that attempts to make food healthier for the public...
 
Keep the faith said:
Ye but we ain’t allowed to call them out are we , apparently it’s called fat shaming😃 fat people struggling to walk everywhere you go it’s actually disgusting , sorry no sympathy, the main reason Doctors surgeries and hospitals are at breaking point🙁
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Well is there any evidence that "calling it out" works? Because I grew up in the 90s and 00s where every magazine cover had a photograph of a celebrity in a bikini who was apparently fat and disgusting now because you couldn't see her ribs and every TV show on Channel 4 or Sky One was about how Britain was just full of big fat disgusting families with 6 kids and they were all on benefits and ate 17 takeaways a day. We had a borderline obsession with mocking fat people for entertainment. With hosts licking their lips as they called Mick from Newcastle a lard arse and showed him how many gallons of vegetable oil he consumed in a year from crisps.

And yet here we are with obesity rates rising. In fact, apparently no country has ever reduced it's overweight/obesity rate since records began. 200 odd countries and it's only ever gone up in every one. So clearly something drastic needs to happen, and 'lets call fat people fat' isn't drastic.
 
Lala said:
There is some truth in that.

Even if you can’t get fresh veg then frozen veg is a good option and reasonably cheap. There are many households that don’t see vegetables from one week to the next.

It really isn’t cheaper to eat all the processed crap out there. It’s cheaper to bulk cook healthy meals but it’s the effort that isn’t there these day.
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Takeaways are absolutely not cheap at all. I also think the easy access to those mobility scooters hasn’t helped. There at so many people that have left theirselves unable to walk or move by getting a scooter when there were other (maybe more tough) options available.

My friends sister is now a size 20 thanks to the scooter. Started as a bad back and the tough option was walk more, diet and then move some more again.

As soon as the mobility grant was given that was it. More weight piled on and no effort at all to try to lose weight or help her self.

There are many that have serious medical conditions that need mobility support. There are also too many that see them as the easier option
 
Shandypants said:
Can't agree with that at all. You can cook fresh very cheaply, rice/pasta a large chicken etc. My wife makes home made soup in batches, the problem is too many people haven't got a clue of basic cooking.
Click to expand...

I think good fresh food can be rather pricey but it's probably better to ask can you afford not to buy it - healthwise - rather than can you afford it.

I certainly wouldn't pretend to be an expert on that though and I would not have a fecking clue about cooking.
 
Chunkylad said:
Takeaways are absolutely not cheap at all. I also think the easy access to those mobility scooters hasn’t helped. There at so many people that have left theirselves unable to walk or move by getting a scooter when there were other (maybe more tough) options available.

My friends sister is now a size 20 thanks to the scooter. Started as a bad back and the tough option was walk more, diet and then move some more again.

As soon as the mobility grant was given that was it. More weight piled on and no effort at all to try to lose weight or help her self.

There are many that have serious medical conditions that need mobility support. There are also too many that see them as the easier option
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I would agree that takeaways are not cheap Chunky and that's probably a good thing if it did actually put people off.

I think, as LALA suggested, the problem is that far too many find them far too convenient.

I am guilty myself from time to time but I have started to look at the price and I'm certainly far better off - both financially and health wise - going to the shops for proper food.
 
Keep the faith said:
Ye but we ain’t allowed to call them out are we , apparently it’s called fat shaming😃 fat people struggling to walk everywhere you go it’s actually disgusting , sorry no sympathy, the main reason Doctors surgeries and hospitals are at breaking point🙁
Click to expand...

Great post/point Keep.

It really is tragic.

We have a family member who is becoming grossly overweight and not allowed to say a word.

The other day I saw a picture of an overweight young girl - young as in early 20s, not a child - struggling to fit in to her car.

The post was made by herself and she was telling the world how proud she was of her body.

For every 1,000 people telling her to be proud of her body there was 1 person saying it certainly wasn't OK and warning of the dangers.

Professor Sikora on Twitter has touched on this and warned of the dangers of everybody telling such folk to be proud of their bodies.
 
Chunkylad said:
Obesity is such a problem for this country. Sugar is the biggest challenge as opposed to actual fat in foods.
Clearly the region enjoys too much sugar - be that in processed food, alcohol or actual sweets/deserts/sugar drinks.

Sugar is bloody addictive too.
Click to expand...
People have always eaten sugar. Sugar is not the problem. Neither are things like salt and butter.
The main problem is that people are generally lazy and don’t exercise enough / at all. Not active enough. And that starts from Primary school.
Fast food chains and easy delivery won’t be helping now either. Also, people got into a lot of bad habits during lockdown.
 
foggy said:
Well is there any evidence that "calling it out" works? Because I grew up in the 90s and 00s where every magazine cover had a photograph of a celebrity in a bikini who was apparently fat and disgusting now because you couldn't see her ribs and every TV show on Channel 4 or Sky One was about how Britain was just full of big fat disgusting families with 6 kids and they were all on benefits and ate 17 takeaways a day. We had a borderline obsession with mocking fat people for entertainment. With hosts licking their lips as they called Mick from Newcastle a lard arse and showed him how many gallons of vegetable oil he consumed in a year from crisps.

And yet here we are with obesity rates rising. In fact, apparently no country has ever reduced it's overweight/obesity rate since records began. 200 odd countries and it's only ever gone up in every one. So clearly something drastic needs to happen, and 'lets call fat people fat' isn't drastic.
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Another good post/point Foggy.

I don't think anybody was suggesting that calling fat people fat will solve everything but we are now at the stage when not only should we not criticise fat people, we have begun telling them to be proud of their bodies.

This is not the right direction to be moving in.

I am not suggesting that's what you were suggesting.
 
SEASIDE2020 said:
Another good post/point Foggy.

I don't think anybody was suggesting that calling fat people fat will solve everything but we are now at the stage when not only should we not criticise fat people, we have begun telling them to be proud of their bodies.

This is not the right direction to be moving in.

I am not suggesting that's what you were suggesting.
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I think breaking the cycle of people hating themselves, which is proven to lead them to eat/drink more, is a very obvious and necessary step. But sometimes it can look silly, and at times send the wrong message for sure. But I'm unfortunately convinced that a lot of this conversation (not pointing fingers to anyone here) is in bad faith, and it's not truly the cost to the NHS that motivates people, but rather their desire to call fat people fat, and annoyance that anyone who is fat may be happy. Some of the language is utterly dehumanising. There's also the idea that anything less than this is 'soft' or 'woke', when doing the same thing over and over again and expecting results is, clearly, insanity.
 
foggy said:
Well is there any evidence that "calling it out" works? Because I grew up in the 90s and 00s where every magazine cover had a photograph of a celebrity in a bikini who was apparently fat and disgusting now because you couldn't see her ribs and every TV show on Channel 4 or Sky One was about how Britain was just full of big fat disgusting families with 6 kids and they were all on benefits and ate 17 takeaways a day. We had a borderline obsession with mocking fat people for entertainment. With hosts licking their lips as they called Mick from Newcastle a lard arse and showed him how many gallons of vegetable oil he consumed in a year from crisps.

And yet here we are with obesity rates rising. In fact, apparently no country has ever reduced it's overweight/obesity rate since records began. 200 odd countries and it's only ever gone up in every one. So clearly something drastic needs to happen, and 'lets call fat people fat' isn't drastic.
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When I went to school in the 60/70s we got freshly cooked large portioned school meals ,The only takeaways were chippies ,kids walked everywhere and there was very few fat kids about.
 
Gods honest truth said:
When I went to school in the 60/70s we got freshly cooked large portioned school meals ,The only takeaways were chippies ,kids walked everywhere and there was very few fat kids about.
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I know Neil said about people always eating sugar but it’s the vast quantity eaten now (including high GI foods) compared to the past.

Your point on the 60s / 70s is fair. It was the 80s onwards that the food industry made a fortune demonising ‘fats’ and supplementing with sugars.
Everyone jumped on the ‘low fat’ food bandwagon which if you look at the nutritional values are far more fattening than the foods available and consumed in the 60s / 70s.

The food industry is powerful. They are expert lobbyists and block every government attempt to slow their march. There’s a strong financial case for actually paying people to eat healthier and exercise versus the medical costs of treating the results of obesity.
 
foggy said:
I think breaking the cycle of people hating themselves, which is proven to lead them to eat/drink more, is a very obvious and necessary step. But sometimes it can look silly, and at times send the wrong message for sure. But I'm unfortunately convinced that a lot of this conversation (not pointing fingers to anyone here) is in bad faith, and it's not truly the cost to the NHS that motivates people, but rather their desire to call fat people fat, and annoyance that anyone who is fat may be happy. Some of the language is utterly dehumanising. There's also the idea that anything less than this is 'soft' or 'woke', when doing the same thing over and over again and expecting results is, clearly, insanity.
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Foggy

I was certainly not meaning to be critical of you and am not being now.

I can only speak for myself but I can assure you that all I want from this is for each and everybody to live more healthily and enjoy the obvious benefits of doing so.

I am overweight myself and a family member has a problem that is getting worse by the day, I want this person to live more healthily and have no desire to call them fat but it is not something to be proud of.
 
tangerine_neil said:
People have always eaten sugar. Sugar is not the problem. Neither are things like salt and butter.
The main problem is that people are generally lazy and don’t exercise enough / at all. Not active enough. And that starts from Primary school.
Fast food chains and easy delivery won’t be helping now either. Also, people got into a lot of bad habits during lockdown.
Click to expand...
Exercise is key, buying a mobility scooter cos they are too far to walk is not going to help anyone 🙁
 
SEASIDE2020 said:
Great post/point Keep.

It really is tragic.

We have a family member who is becoming grossly overweight and not allowed to say a word.

The other day I saw a picture of an overweight young girl - young as in early 20s, not a child - struggling to fit in to her car.

The post was made by herself and she was telling the world how proud she was of her body.

For every 1,000 people telling her to be proud of her body there was 1 person saying it certainly wasn't OK and warning of the dangers.

Professor Sikora on Twitter has touched on this and warned of the dangers of everybody telling such folk to be proud of their bodies.
Click to expand...
It’s a ticking time bomb, if you look at old photos of crowds of people going back to 40s 50s 60s even 70s there’s hardly any fat people . Now it’s a hell of a lot, god help them all when they get into their 50s and the complications start.
 
SEASIDE2020 said:
I think good fresh food can be rather pricey but it's probably better to ask can you afford not to buy it - healthwise - rather than can you afford it.

I certainly wouldn't pretend to be an expert on that though and I would not have a fecking clue about cooking
Click to expand...
SEASIDE2020 said:
Great post/point Keep.

It really is tragic.

We have a family member who is becoming grossly overweight and not allowed to say a word.

The other day I saw a picture of an overweight young girl - young as in early 20s, not a child - struggling to fit in to her car.

The post was made by herself and she was telling the world how proud she was of her body.

For every 1,000 people telling her to be proud of her body there was 1 person saying it certainly wasn't OK and warning of the dangers.

Professor Sikora on Twitter has touched on this and warned of the dangers of everybody telling such folk to be proud of their bodies.
Click to expand...
What I think is tragic is when you see a young overweight / obese couple ,with 2/3 kids ,kids have burger in one hand bottle of coke in other and starting to look like a mini version of their parents.That they will have health issues when they get older.
 
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I drive along the prom on my way to work & am always amazed at the number of not just obese but morbidly obese people around. This is not just a Blackpool thing coz these people are obviously visitors. It must be costing the NHS an absolute fortune treating all the associated medical conditions .
 
Chunkylad said:
Obesity is such a problem for this country. Sugar is the biggest challenge as opposed to actual fat in foods.
Clearly the region enjoys too much sugar - be that in processed food, alcohol or actual sweets/deserts/sugar drinks.

Sugar is bloody addictive too.
Click to expand...
So why don't they stop producing sugar?
 
Pasty Muncher said:
I drive along the prom on my way to work & am always amazed at the number of not just obese but morbidly obese people around. This is not just a Blackpool thing coz these people are obviously visitors. It must be costing the NHS an absolute fortune treating all the associated medical conditions .
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Yes Ginsters have got a lot to answer for🤣
 
Loftyboy said:
About time all kids were given cooking lessons at school. It will take a couple of generations to re educate people about food health
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🤣🤣🤣🤣
Believe it or not, when I went to school girls did cooking.
It's about time it was brought back and all given lessons.
The only reason it stopped was that it was thought sexist, even though some lads did it.
And btw, you can re-educate all you want but the vast majority of people will still want to eat processed shite, just like loads will want to smoke and drink.
It's called addiction.
 
I think the government needs to take some responsibility for our nations poor diet.

It seems like only a short while ago we weren’t inundated with catchy gimmicky ‘just eat’ adverts encouraging a quick fix salty sugary dopamine dinner in front of the telly.

Nothing wrong with a takeout in moderation, just like a good drink or whatever else.

But it’s true; people need educating. Good, healthy meals are not difficult or expensive to cook. Many people in our society just aren’t aware of their options.
 
My son left home a few years ago and I taught him how to cook(asks for advice now and again) he does a decent meal and enjoys cooking.
Same happened to me when I was young making parents meals while they where both at work as ever at lot of social problems are caused by bad parenting.
 
tangerine_neil said:
People have always eaten sugar. Sugar is not the problem. Neither are things like salt and butter.
The main problem is that people are generally lazy and don’t exercise enough / at all. Not active enough. And that starts from Primary school.
Fast food chains and easy delivery won’t be helping now either. Also, people got into a lot of bad habits during lockdown.
Click to expand...
No, I think it starts from the age when a toddler starts to walk - and how their family encourage the development of this. Some kids are already obese and do not like "moving about" well before Primary School. As with many aspects of life, the ages 0-5 are the most crucial for your future health. A good start then, usually pays dividends.
 
This is not down to one thing. Its multi-faceted. This is how I see it (in no particular order)

1. We don't move enough
- I wouldn't categorise it as laziness, but instead it's our way of life and how its evolved​
- we get transported as opposed to walking​
-we exercise less​
-we are addicted to screen time; whether that be social media, gaming, watching movies etc etc. Screen time mainly is something that's done when we're sat still​
-moving less means we don't burn as many calories so we have a calorific surplus day after day, week after week, month after month. the body stores these calories in the fat cells and thus we get fatter and fatter​
​
2. Eating habits
-we don't eat as many meals around the table as a family due to different working patterns compared to previous generations​
-more working mums means less time for parents to cook a balanced meal​
-we eat on the go in this fast-paced society; and such food is often unhealthy​
-we buy ready meals and other quick to cook food from the supermarket. this is often laden with hidden fat, salt, and sugar​
-we eat vast amounts of takeaway food; much more than in previous generations​
-we drink unhealthily; the soft drinks industry is huge and continuously growing; we don't drink just to quench thirst, but we do it for the pleasurable taste which often means additional calories​
-the explosion of the coffee chop culture means we are having incredibly high calorific (often creamy) drinks from costa, accompanied by a cake etc​
-we eat far too much mayonnaise​
​
3. Marketing

-we are bombarded with advertising for takeaways and chocolate and ice-cream and other such junk​
-we have an industry strategy to make bigger seem better; eg foot-long subway, whopper, big-mac, king-size etc etc​
-supermarkets still promote junk food with offers eg two tins of quality street for £7!​
-unhealthy snacks such as crisps are everywhere we go and usually part of any sandwich meal-deal​
​
4. Normalising obesity

-we are constantly being influenced by media to accept that obesity and fat people are something to be celebrated​
-this flies in the face of our approach to other forms of self-harm such as smoking too much, drinking too much or taking drugs​
-we now have super-size models that we are told we should adore and marvel at for their beauty and bravery, but this is nonsense. there's nothing to celebrate when seeing someone incredibly overweight, knowing that they're setting themselves up for a future of very severe health consequences. we shouldn't fat-shame but nor should we pretend it's ok when it very much isn't ok. these models are the opposite of a good role-model, and are giving the wrong impression to the impressionable, just as much as the stick-thin models are. both are the extreme, and the extreme is extremely unhealthy​
-we aren't doing enough to intervene when kids are becoming fat. we should look at this as potential child-abuse and make interventions for the good of the child and their future health. interventions can be soft such as education for the parents​
-too many blokes are proud of their beer-guts and don't see it as a problem; too many women carry on eating for two after child-birth and are subsequently obese for life​
​
Consequences:

Obesity leads to serious health problems. We have a vast amount of the NHS budget spent treating type 2 diabetes which in short, for most, is a completely avoidable lifestyle health problem.
Our nonchalant irresponsible attitude to our own bodies means we are bringing the NHS to its knees completely unnecessarily. Rather than clap the nhs, and campaign for more nhs spending, we would be much better losing weight. That's probably the most effective thing the overweight could do to help the nhs. But being overweight leads to a snowball effect because it leads to musculoskeletal problems which mean they can't exercise and need painkillers, and need diabetes drugs, and then they get high blood pressure and need drugs for that, and have heart problems and breathing problems, get depressed about their weight and want an op to remove fat or have a stomach bypass, and they need a mobility scooter and so on and so on. I generalise of course, but today's beer-swilling, pizza munching game-console addict in his mid-twenties, is tomorrow's diabetes patient. its inevitable but they don't see it coming.

Adults are getting fatter, kids are getting fatter, we are moving less, we are ingesting more calories, we are addicted to mayonnaise, we celebrate obesity and even promote the lifestyle, we shut down any criticism of obesity and class it as fat-shaming.

I don't care what adults decide to do for themselves, but I very much care for innocent kids who are being indoctrinated into this ruinous way of living. The answer isn't a quick fix such as a tummy tuck or a fat-burning pill or anti-depressants. Rather the answer starts at school with education, including practical cookery classes and anti-mayo classes as a part of the compulsory curriculum. Sadly we can no longer rely on adults to raise their kids healthily. Instead it needs to be a bottom up approach where kids educate their parents. The current generation is lost. They have lost the will, the know-how and the desire to eat healthily. We need to get into primary school education and try to turn around this heavily listing oil tanker.
​

​
​
​
 
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Malced said:
This is not down to one thing. Its multi-faceted. This is how I see it (in no particular order)

1. We don't move enough
- I wouldn't categorise it as laziness, but instead it's our way of life and how its evolved​
- we get transported as opposed to walking​
-we exercise less​
-we are addicted to screen time; whether that be social media, gaming, watching movies etc etc. Screen time mainly is something that's done when we're sat still​
-moving less means we don't burn as many calories so we have a calorific surplus day after day, week after week, month after month. the body stores these calories in the fat cells and thus we get fatter and fatter​
​
2. Eating habits
-we don't eat as many meals around the table as a family due to different working patterns compared to previous generations​
-more working mums means less time for parents to cook a balanced meal​
-we eat on the go in this fast-paced society; and such food is often unhealthy​
-we buy ready meals and other quick to cook food from the supermarket. this is often laden with hidden fat, salt, and sugar​
-we eat vast amounts of takeaway food; much more than in previous generations​
-we drink unhealthily; the soft drinks industry is huge and continuously growing; we don't drink just to quench thirst, but we do it for the pleasurable taste which often means additional calories​
-the explosion of the coffee chop culture means we are having incredibly high calorific (often creamy) drinks from costa, accompanied by a cake etc​
-we eat far too much mayonnaise​
​
3. Marketing

-we are bombarded with advertising for takeaways and chocolate and ice-cream and other such junk​
-we have an industry strategy to make bigger seem better; eg foot-long subway, whopper, big-mac, king-size etc etc​
-supermarkets still promote junk food with offers eg two tins of quality street for £7!​
-unhealthy snacks such as crisps are everywhere we go and usually part of any sandwich meal-deal​
​
4. Normalising obesity

-we are constantly being influenced by media to accept that obesity and fat people are something to be celebrated​
-this flies in the face of our approach to other forms of self-harm such as smoking too much, drinking too much or taking drugs​
-we now have super-size models that we are told we should adore and marvel at for their beauty and bravery, but this is nonsense. there's nothing to celebrate when seeing someone incredibly overweight, knowing that they're setting themselves up for a future of very severe health consequences. we shouldn't fat-shame but nor should we pretend it's ok when it very much isn't ok. these models are the opposite of a good role-model, and are giving the wrong impression to the impressionable, just as much as the stick-thin models are. both are the extreme, and the extreme is extremely unhealthy​
-we aren't doing enough to intervene when kids are becoming fat. we should look at this as potential child-abuse and make interventions for the good of the child and their future health. interventions can be soft such as education for the parents​
-too many blokes are proud of their beer-guts and don't see it as a problem; too many women carry on eating for two after child-birth and are subsequently obese for life​
​
Consequences:

Obesity leads to serious health problems. We have a vast amount of the NHS budget spent treating type 2 diabetes which in short, for most, is a completely avoidable lifestyle health problem.
Our nonchalant irresponsible attitude to our own bodies means we are bringing the NHS to its knees completely unnecessarily. Rather than clap the nhs, and campaign for more nhs spending, we would be much better losing weight. That's probably the most effective thing the overweight could do to help the nhs. But being overweight leads to a snowball effect because it leads to musculoskeletal problems which mean they can't exercise and need painkillers, and need diabetes drugs, and then they get high blood pressure and need drugs for that, and have heart problems and breathing problems, get depressed about their weight and want an op to remove fat or have a stomach bypass, and they need a mobility scooter and so on and so on. I generalise of course, but today's beer-swilling, pizza munching game-console addict in his mid-twenties, is tomorrow's diabetes patient. its inevitable but they don't see it coming.

Adults are getting fatter, kids are getting fatter, we are moving less, we are ingesting more calories, we are addicted to mayonnaise, we celebrate obesity and even promote the lifestyle, we shut down any criticism of obesity and class it as fat-shaming.

I don't care what adults decide to do for themselves, but I very much care for innocent kids who are being indoctrinated into this ruinous way of living. The answer isn't a quick fix such as a tummy tuck or a fat-burning pill or anti-depressants. Rather the answer starts at school with education, including practical cookery classes and anti-mayo classes as a part of the compulsory curriculum. Sadly we can no longer rely on adults to raise their kids healthily. Instead it needs to be a bottom up approach where kids educate their parents. The current generation is lost. They have lost the will, the know-how and the desire to eat healthily. We need to get into primary school education and try to turn around this heavily listing oil tanker.
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Brilliant post 👍🏻
 
Malced said:
Normalising obesity

-we are constantly being influenced by media to accept that obesity and fat people are something to be celebrated-this flies in the face of our approach to other forms of self-harm such as smoking too much, drinking too much or taking drugs-we now have super-size models that we are told we should adore and marvel at for their beauty and bravery, but this is nonsense. there's nothing to celebrate when seeing someone incredibly overweight, knowing that they're setting themselves up for a future of very severe health consequences. we shouldn't fat-shame but nor should we pretend it's ok when it very much isn't ok. these models are the opposite of a good role-model, and are giving the wrong impression to the impressionable, just as much as the stick-thin models are. both are the extreme, and the extreme is extremely unhealthy
Click to expand...
👏🏻 Spot on.
 
Malced said:
This is not down to one thing. Its multi-faceted. This is how I see it (in no particular order)

1. We don't move enough
- I wouldn't categorise it as laziness, but instead it's our way of life and how its evolved​
- we get transported as opposed to walking​
-we exercise less​
-we are addicted to screen time; whether that be social media, gaming, watching movies etc etc. Screen time mainly is something that's done when we're sat still​
-moving less means we don't burn as many calories so we have a calorific surplus day after day, week after week, month after month. the body stores these calories in the fat cells and thus we get fatter and fatter​
​
2. Eating habits
-we don't eat as many meals around the table as a family due to different working patterns compared to previous generations​
-more working mums means less time for parents to cook a balanced meal​
-we eat on the go in this fast-paced society; and such food is often unhealthy​
-we buy ready meals and other quick to cook food from the supermarket. this is often laden with hidden fat, salt, and sugar​
-we eat vast amounts of takeaway food; much more than in previous generations​
-we drink unhealthily; the soft drinks industry is huge and continuously growing; we don't drink just to quench thirst, but we do it for the pleasurable taste which often means additional calories​
-the explosion of the coffee chop culture means we are having incredibly high calorific (often creamy) drinks from costa, accompanied by a cake etc​
-we eat far too much mayonnaise​
​
3. Marketing

-we are bombarded with advertising for takeaways and chocolate and ice-cream and other such junk​
-we have an industry strategy to make bigger seem better; eg foot-long subway, whopper, big-mac, king-size etc etc​
-supermarkets still promote junk food with offers eg two tins of quality street for £7!​
-unhealthy snacks such as crisps are everywhere we go and usually part of any sandwich meal-deal​
​
4. Normalising obesity

-we are constantly being influenced by media to accept that obesity and fat people are something to be celebrated​
-this flies in the face of our approach to other forms of self-harm such as smoking too much, drinking too much or taking drugs​
-we now have super-size models that we are told we should adore and marvel at for their beauty and bravery, but this is nonsense. there's nothing to celebrate when seeing someone incredibly overweight, knowing that they're setting themselves up for a future of very severe health consequences. we shouldn't fat-shame but nor should we pretend it's ok when it very much isn't ok. these models are the opposite of a good role-model, and are giving the wrong impression to the impressionable, just as much as the stick-thin models are. both are the extreme, and the extreme is extremely unhealthy​
-we aren't doing enough to intervene when kids are becoming fat. we should look at this as potential child-abuse and make interventions for the good of the child and their future health. interventions can be soft such as education for the parents​
-too many blokes are proud of their beer-guts and don't see it as a problem; too many women carry on eating for two after child-birth and are subsequently obese for life​
​
Consequences:

Obesity leads to serious health problems. We have a vast amount of the NHS budget spent treating type 2 diabetes which in short, for most, is a completely avoidable lifestyle health problem.
Our nonchalant irresponsible attitude to our own bodies means we are bringing the NHS to its knees completely unnecessarily. Rather than clap the nhs, and campaign for more nhs spending, we would be much better losing weight. That's probably the most effective thing the overweight could do to help the nhs. But being overweight leads to a snowball effect because it leads to musculoskeletal problems which mean they can't exercise and need painkillers, and need diabetes drugs, and then they get high blood pressure and need drugs for that, and have heart problems and breathing problems, get depressed about their weight and want an op to remove fat or have a stomach bypass, and they need a mobility scooter and so on and so on. I generalise of course, but today's beer-swilling, pizza munching game-console addict in his mid-twenties, is tomorrow's diabetes patient. its inevitable but they don't see it coming.

Adults are getting fatter, kids are getting fatter, we are moving less, we are ingesting more calories, we are addicted to mayonnaise, we celebrate obesity and even promote the lifestyle, we shut down any criticism of obesity and class it as fat-shaming.

I don't care what adults decide to do for themselves, but I very much care for innocent kids who are being indoctrinated into this ruinous way of living. The answer isn't a quick fix such as a tummy tuck or a fat-burning pill or anti-depressants. Rather the answer starts at school with education, including practical cookery classes and anti-mayo classes as a part of the compulsory curriculum. Sadly we can no longer rely on adults to raise their kids healthily. Instead it needs to be a bottom up approach where kids educate their parents. The current generation is lost. They have lost the will, the know-how and the desire to eat healthily. We need to get into primary school education and try to turn around this heavily listing oil tanker.
​

​
​
​
Click to expand...
Spot on Malced
 
Malced said:
This is not down to one thing. Its multi-faceted. This is how I see it (in no particular order)

1. We don't move enough
- I wouldn't categorise it as laziness, but instead it's our way of life and how its evolved​
- we get transported as opposed to walking​
-we exercise less​
-we are addicted to screen time; whether that be social media, gaming, watching movies etc etc. Screen time mainly is something that's done when we're sat still​
-moving less means we don't burn as many calories so we have a calorific surplus day after day, week after week, month after month. the body stores these calories in the fat cells and thus we get fatter and fatter​
​
2. Eating habits
-we don't eat as many meals around the table as a family due to different working patterns compared to previous generations​
-more working mums means less time for parents to cook a balanced meal​
-we eat on the go in this fast-paced society; and such food is often unhealthy​
-we buy ready meals and other quick to cook food from the supermarket. this is often laden with hidden fat, salt, and sugar​
-we eat vast amounts of takeaway food; much more than in previous generations​
-we drink unhealthily; the soft drinks industry is huge and continuously growing; we don't drink just to quench thirst, but we do it for the pleasurable taste which often means additional calories​
-the explosion of the coffee chop culture means we are having incredibly high calorific (often creamy) drinks from costa, accompanied by a cake etc​
-we eat far too much mayonnaise​
​
3. Marketing

-we are bombarded with advertising for takeaways and chocolate and ice-cream and other such junk​
-we have an industry strategy to make bigger seem better; eg foot-long subway, whopper, big-mac, king-size etc etc​
-supermarkets still promote junk food with offers eg two tins of quality street for £7!​
-unhealthy snacks such as crisps are everywhere we go and usually part of any sandwich meal-deal​
​
4. Normalising obesity

-we are constantly being influenced by media to accept that obesity and fat people are something to be celebrated​
-this flies in the face of our approach to other forms of self-harm such as smoking too much, drinking too much or taking drugs​
-we now have super-size models that we are told we should adore and marvel at for their beauty and bravery, but this is nonsense. there's nothing to celebrate when seeing someone incredibly overweight, knowing that they're setting themselves up for a future of very severe health consequences. we shouldn't fat-shame but nor should we pretend it's ok when it very much isn't ok. these models are the opposite of a good role-model, and are giving the wrong impression to the impressionable, just as much as the stick-thin models are. both are the extreme, and the extreme is extremely unhealthy​
-we aren't doing enough to intervene when kids are becoming fat. we should look at this as potential child-abuse and make interventions for the good of the child and their future health. interventions can be soft such as education for the parents​
-too many blokes are proud of their beer-guts and don't see it as a problem; too many women carry on eating for two after child-birth and are subsequently obese for life​
​
Consequences:

Obesity leads to serious health problems. We have a vast amount of the NHS budget spent treating type 2 diabetes which in short, for most, is a completely avoidable lifestyle health problem.
Our nonchalant irresponsible attitude to our own bodies means we are bringing the NHS to its knees completely unnecessarily. Rather than clap the nhs, and campaign for more nhs spending, we would be much better losing weight. That's probably the most effective thing the overweight could do to help the nhs. But being overweight leads to a snowball effect because it leads to musculoskeletal problems which mean they can't exercise and need painkillers, and need diabetes drugs, and then they get high blood pressure and need drugs for that, and have heart problems and breathing problems, get depressed about their weight and want an op to remove fat or have a stomach bypass, and they need a mobility scooter and so on and so on. I generalise of course, but today's beer-swilling, pizza munching game-console addict in his mid-twenties, is tomorrow's diabetes patient. its inevitable but they don't see it coming.

Adults are getting fatter, kids are getting fatter, we are moving less, we are ingesting more calories, we are addicted to mayonnaise, we celebrate obesity and even promote the lifestyle, we shut down any criticism of obesity and class it as fat-shaming.

I don't care what adults decide to do for themselves, but I very much care for innocent kids who are being indoctrinated into this ruinous way of living. The answer isn't a quick fix such as a tummy tuck or a fat-burning pill or anti-depressants. Rather the answer starts at school with education, including practical cookery classes and anti-mayo classes as a part of the compulsory curriculum. Sadly we can no longer rely on adults to raise their kids healthily. Instead it needs to be a bottom up approach where kids educate their parents. The current generation is lost. They have lost the will, the know-how and the desire to eat healthily. We need to get into primary school education and try to turn around this heavily listing oil tanker.
​

​
​
​
Click to expand...
Nailed it completely.

Overweight children is squarely on the parents shoulders too. It’s child abuse
 
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