Obesity

[lazybloke]

Sooooo....
Enough. What are the solution(s) IF we think we know what the problem is/are?

Some people must have terrible diet if they can suffer rickets or even scurvy in a modern day UK despite all those fortified foods.


Difficult to extrapolate that to the UK population, but I'd say a combination of better diet and a less sedentary lifestyle is the answer.
Personally speaking, I need to consider both of those points judging by my weight gain in the last year or so.
Others would have their own balance of issues that would need addressing in a manner tailored to their circumstances.

Those cursed with a slow metabolism will find it particularly difficult.

I'm not sure that taxes on unhealthy food achieve much, but I'd be very supportive if those taxes funded a subsidy of healthy ingredients. I doubt that's workable in practice; it would be a system potentially rife with loopholes, would have to be legislated and implemented very carefully. It would be challenged at every step in the courts by the penalised side of the food industry.

 

[winjim]

Some people must have terrible diet if they can suffer rickets or even scurvy in a modern day UK despite all those fortified foods.

Rickets is coming back. There's been a large increase in diagnosis of Vit D deficiency in recent years, although that could be due to improved methods and more requests for Vit D analysis. There aren't many cases of rickets per year, but they are increasing.

Incidentally, obesity itself is a risk factor for deficiency of Vit D, and other fat soluble vitamins.

 

[mistyoptic]

Hmmm...

Well the "What are we feeding our kids" BBC documentary was certainly thought-provoking (it's available on the i-player and worth watching IMHO), and the results of the one man experiment were compelling enough for the study about the addictiveness of ultra processed food and how it impacts on the brain to be taken further. Of course, you can't draw conclusions from a sample of one, but I'd be really interested to know what a wider study will throw up.

At least I now have a good idea as to *why* I struggle to stop eating when I open a packet of savoury snacks.

But if it's proved through such a study that some types of food are indeed addictive and affect the same areas of the brain as alcohol, cigarettes and hard drugs, then both the government and the food industry have some pretty tough decisions to make.

We just finished watching that and I agree. It was very thought provoking and, in some respects, quite scary. Made me look at what we eat as a household.

I’d like to see a bigger study and I wish he’d talked to a politician in the food policy group as well as the chap from the food industry.

well worth a view on iPlayer

edit: not sure what the conspiracy theorists will make of it 😉

 

[KnittyNorah]

At least I now have a good idea as to *why* I struggle to stop eating when I open a packet of savoury snacks.

My simple solution, of never (or vanishingly-rarely ...) buying them, works for me! But easier said than done for many people, I suspect.

 

[Reynard]

My simple solution, of never (or vanishingly-rarely ...) buying them, works for me! But easier said than done for many people, I suspect.

I do buy them. But I don't keep them in the house.

I keep them in the utility room at the back of the garage. So if I want something snacky, I have to go out of the house, along the path, unlock the utility room etc. It does make me stop and think whether I really should have that bag of crisps / cheese savouries / marmite rice cakes / poppadoms.

 

[Deleted User]

I do buy them. But I don't keep them in the house.

I keep them in the utility room at the back of the garage. So if I want something snacky, I have to go out of the house, along the path, unlock the utility room etc. It does make me stop and think whether I really should have that bag of crisps / cheese savouries / marmite rice cakes / poppadoms.

Surely if you didn't buy them at all you couldn't eat them?

 

[KnittyNorah]

I do buy them. But I don't keep them in the house.

I keep them in the utility room at the back of the garage. So if I want something snacky, I have to go out of the house, along the path, unlock the utility room etc. It does make me stop and think whether I really should have that bag of crisps / cheese savouries / marmite rice cakes / poppadoms.

That's a good solution too; it wouldn't work for many people though. Over the years, I've had so many friends and acquaintances who've gone through agonies of stopping/controlling their eating, drinking/smoking/gambling/illegal drug use, often alongside compulsive behaviours of different sorts, that I count myself very fortunate to have genetics/metabolism/personality (or whatever it is) that isn't prone to succumb to any of those things. One friend couldn't understand how I walk past the snack cheesey things in the supermarket and 'not be bothered' about buying any.

 

[Deleted User]

That's a good solution too; it wouldn't work for many people though. Over the years, I've had so many friends and acquaintances who've gone through agonies of stopping/controlling their eating, drinking/smoking/gambling/illegal drug use, often alongside compulsive behaviours of different sorts, that I count myself very fortunate to have genetics/metabolism/personality (or whatever it is) that isn't prone to succumb to any of those things. One friend couldn't understand how I walk past the snack cheesey things in the supermarket and 'not be bothered' about buying any.

Same here, I like a pint though so have to work a bit harder sometimes.

 

[Reynard]

Surely if you didn't buy them at all you couldn't eat them?

True.

But there's absolutely nothing wrong with the occasional little bit of what you fancy, just to scratch the itch, like. If I have one pack of crisps a week at the moment, that's a lot.

I've actually eaten a lot less snacky stuff in lockdown, because a bag of crisps is one of those things you automatically throw in a pack up alongside the ubiquitous cheese sandwich and a banana. But no cat shows, no motor racing, no throw-the-bike-on-a-train away days, ergo fewer crisps down the cakehole. I'm sat at home eating three square meals a day rather than eating weird things at odd hours.

Although a strategy that works for me might not necessarily work for someone else. We're all different, and this is precisely why addressing the problem is so challenging.

 

[Reynard]

That's a good solution too; it wouldn't work for many people though. Over the years, I've had so many friends and acquaintances who've gone through agonies of stopping/controlling their eating, drinking/smoking/gambling/illegal drug use, often alongside compulsive behaviours of different sorts, that I count myself very fortunate to have genetics/metabolism/personality (or whatever it is) that isn't prone to succumb to any of those things. One friend couldn't understand how I walk past the snack cheesey things in the supermarket and 'not be bothered' about buying any.

The other reason I can't keep them in the house...

I have a tortoiseshell cat who steals crisps.

Irrelevant to this thread, I know, but after I've swept the carpet for the umpteenth time because Madam Poppy has helped herself, it does make one re-think one's storage options...

 

[KnittyNorah]

The other reason I can't keep them in the house...

I have a tortoiseshell cat who steals crisps.

Irrelevant to this thread, I know, but after I've swept the carpet for the umpteenth time because Madam Poppy has helped herself, it does make one re-think one's storage options...

I had a Jack Russell who'd steal ....
wait for it ...

Spoiler

Cauliflower! raw for preference ..

 

[Blue Hills]

Hmmm...

Well the "What are we feeding our kids" BBC documentary was certainly thought-provoking (it's available on the i-player and worth watching IMHO), and the results of the one man experiment were compelling enough for the study about the addictiveness of ultra processed food and how it impacts on the brain to be taken further. Of course, you can't draw conclusions from a sample of one, but I'd be really interested to know what a wider study will throw up.

Thanks for the recommendation (or was it someone else upthread?) - will try to get my mum to watch it - I think the issues go way beyond youngsters - I think the rot started in the 60s and 70s when manufactured food was associated by many with prosperity and being modern. I didn't really start eating lots of natural veg until I left home for university.

On the plus side, the fight back about this crap started to gain traction in the 70s I think.

 

[Blue Hills]

I had a Jack Russell who'd steal ....
wait for it ...

Spoiler

Cauliflower! raw for preference ..

get a jack russell and you need never hoover again - at least not for crumbs and the like.

 

[Blue Hills]

F** me, that "what are we feeding our kids" was worth it just for the sorry tale of the floating supermarket Nestle sent up and down the amazon for years supposedly delivering nutrition to benighted riverside folk but in truth stacked full of ice cream, chocolate , iced lollies* and other similar junk.
Followed of course by the beeb having to insert the customary additive-rich Nestle PR/lawyer statement.
Folk with a tendency to value more fibre in their intellectual diet will I hope see through this/see what the likes of Nestle are really about.

* nothing wrong with them in moderation of course/.as an occasional treat but it's all too clear that that's not how they are used/promoted.

 

[battered]

True.

What works for me might not necessarily work for someone else. We're all different, and this is precisely why addressing the problem is so challenging.

Got it in one.