Obesity

[Badger_Boom]

Massive punitive taxes on junk food. If peole cant afford it, then they won't eat it. May as well lock the thread now.

I agree completely, except that we live in a country where a lot of poorer people live off the stuff because it's cheaper (and more convenient) than healthy(er) food. We need to make proper grub cheaper and more attractive rather than punishing people who can't afford or don't know any better.

 

[tyred]

I wonder is a large part of the problem caused by the fact that many people today are always "grazing?"

My diet as a child was far from healthy in hindsight but in those days we ate at mealtimes.

Nowadays there are endless places to buy food of one sort or another no matter where you go and it's getting worse as during the Covid thing, pop-up coffee stalls and take away vans seem to be everywhere, even in remote places. It's always putting temptation in people's way.

People have more disposable income now too I suspect. There was a tuck shop at school but I rarely bought anything simply because I rarely had money to do so but today's youngsters are to be found buying food in McDonalds, etc.

 

[BoldonLad]

I agree completely, except that we live in a country where a lot of poorer people live off the stuff because it's cheaper (and more convenient) than healthy(er) food. We need to make proper grub cheaper and more attractive rather than punishing people who can't afford or don't know any better.

It would be interesting to see proof of it being cheaper.

 

[Badger_Boom]

Maybe it's weasel advertising, but a burger for a quid sounds cheaper than a real meal.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

It would be interesting to see proof of it being cheaper.

If you go into any of the supermarkets they all have a value range, take ham for instance, you have a huge range of price variation, from the processed stuff, which even looking at it is 25% fat, to the expensive hand sliced stuff that looks very lean, lots of the cheap stuff has added stuff to make it cheap, the stuff the more expensive items have removed.

 

[Badger_Boom]

The contrast with my grand-children could not be greater, almost no activity, ferried to school and everywhere else, by car, fizzy drinks, sweets by the hour, although, strangely, they rarely eat what I would call a "proper meal". All 7 of them are overweight, one of them positively huge.

In my experience, there seems to be a huge number of people who "can't eat breakfast" but can consume 500ml of foul tasting Monster at 0600.

 

[battered]

Instead of a tax on takeaway food, maybe it's time to tax chocolate, fresh cream, bakery goods,

This is the difficulty with the taxation solution. It's extremely difficult to hit the target without taxing other foods which to be honest didn't need it. As an example the sugar tax on soft drinks has hit cordials, which are now propped up with arti sweeteners to get the final sugar content below 5%, and tonic water, which was never consumed in excess and is, again, now arti sweetened to <5%. It has however been successful in reducing sugar consumption in carbonated soft drinks.

 

[battered]

I agree completely, except that we live in a country where a lot of poorer people live off the stuff because it's cheaper (and more convenient) than healthy(er) food. We need to make proper grub cheaper and more attractive rather than punishing people who can't afford or don't know any better.

Junk food isn't cheaper that health(ier) food. The last time I went to a takeaway it was £6 for a kebab. Saturday, since you ask. I was there because it was 10pm and I was drunk. £6 will feed me at home for 2 days, not a single meal.
Proper food is dirt cheap, all food is. I can buy you a chicken and a pile of vegetables that will feed an entire family for less than my Saturday night kebab. What you can't do is just cram it down your face.

 

[battered]

I can think of occasions in my deep dark past where that was not the case. Although the tonic water was collateral damage, as it were.

One of the Two Fat Ladies chefs went to her doc with health problems. He ran checks and asked "have you been taking antimalarial drugs for a long time?" No, never. "Well, that's strange, because the blood tests show that you have mild quinine poisoning."
You guessed it, the tonic water. You have to drink a LOT of tonic water to get quinine poisoning.

 

[battered]

If you go into any of the supermarkets they all have a value range, take ham for instance, you have a huge range of price variation, from the processed stuff, which even looking at it is 25% fat, to the expensive hand sliced stuff that looks very lean, lots of the cheap stuff has added stuff to make it cheap, the stuff the more expensive items have removed.

I work in food. The material that you add to cheap food to cheapen it is generally water. Fat is expensive.

 

[Scaleyback]

1. It’s not always a conscious choice.
2. What makes them choose as they do?
Hint: it’s significantly more complicated than you pretend.

What is the opposite of a "conscious choice" an unconscious choice ? 😊

 

[Scaleyback]

Indeed. Taking another statistically insignificant sample, or 1 (ie me):

I was born 1947, into a "working class" household. Looking back as far as I can remember, we appeared to eat far more than now:

Breakfast : cornflakes or porridge
Lunch (we called it dinner): Walk home from school for something with chips (cooked in lard, in a chip pan)
Dinner (we called it tea) : Cooked meal with meat of some form with potatoes, vegetables, or, maybe a casserole
Supper (yes, we ate yet again!): toast and jam, or, maybe cereal

We never had coffee that I recall, but, tea came with two spoons of sugar, sugar was sprinkled on cereal liberally.

Fizzy drinks were almost absent (ie, one bottle of "pop" per week (I had two brothers).

Sweets, choclolate etc were almost absent, ie "a quarter of sweets, per child" once per week, if Dad had overtime that week, otherwise, zilch.

Activity levels were much higher, a one mile walk to and from school, twice a day (we came home for lunch).

We had no car, so, any outing involved walking/bus/train

Takeaway food, other than Fish & Chips were unheard of, and,

BoldenLad, I also was born in 1947 and If I had to post a synopsis of my childhood you could just have written it. In those days there was an occasional fat child and unfortunately they would get a 'hard time' Today, overweight/obese is almost the new 'normal' Peer pressure to look similar to the majority has largely been removed.

 

[battered]

What is the opposite of a "conscious choice" an unconscious choice ? 😊

How about a choice made without knowing the range of chouces available?

 

[matticus]

I work in food.

Are you as happy as a pig in sh*& ?

 

[matticus]

So I think that simply pointing the finger at fast food doesn't wash.
<... massive snip... >
Underlying causes are likely to be many and complex.

So... why can't fast food be part of the causes?

[I'm not saying it definitely IS! I'm saying that the other confounding factors don't RULE OUT fast food being a cause.]