Obesity

[KnittyNorah]

An indoor lifestyle, use of sunscreen, air pollution, obesity are all contributory factors to Vit D deficiency. We do synthesise it, so in fact it's really a hormone rather than a vitamin...

And it is synthesised by the action of sunlight on that 21st century demon, cholesterol ...
There's a fair amount of Vit D in egg yolks, red meats, oily fish - all too often demonised, so there's most of your dietary sources gone in a puff of 'healthy eating' smoke. Although oily fish has been redeemed, and eggs to some extent.

 

[mudsticks]

And it is synthesised by the action of sunlight on that 21st century demon, cholesterol ...
There's a fair amount of Vit D in egg yolks, red meats, oily fish - all too often demonised, so there's most of your dietary sources gone in a puff of 'healthy eating' smoke. Although oily fish has been redeemed, and eggs to some extent.

There's increasingly evidence and consideration being given to the theory that it was never cholesterol that was 'the demon'
More to do with excessive blood sugar levels, from all the refined carbs, the excess sugar 'roughs up' the artery wall

Cholestoral tries to 'repair' that roughening, or at least innocently adheres itself to the arterial walls causing clogging .

So cholestoral gets the bad rep..

High sugar levels were never a part of our 'found in the wild' diets.

Simple unprocessed fats, butter, oils, lard even, are a natural part of our evolved omniverous diet.

With the caveat, that it is possible to have too much of anything..

But sugars, refined carbs (including alcohol) are cheap to produce, and highly palatable, so manufacturers will load it into processed food to make them appealing , and to reduce costs.

Ta da..

A massive upswing in type 2 diabetes, and other conditions related to excessive calorie intake

 

[winjim]

And it is synthesised by the action of sunlight on that 21st century demon, cholesterol ...
There's a fair amount of Vit D in egg yolks, red meats, oily fish - all too often demonised, so there's most of your dietary sources gone in a puff of 'healthy eating' smoke. Although oily fish has been redeemed, and eggs to some extent.

Cholesterol is itself synthesised by the body so I don't think anyone's at risk of Vit D deficiency secondary to low cholesterol. Regarding fish, farmed salmon is up to an order of magnitude less rich in D than wild salmon, so that's another way that modern food production is contributing to nutrient deficiency.

 

[Fab Foodie]

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.

Will watch. Did they mention 'Kokumi'? I have the same issue with savoury snacks or 'salty' foods. We have a chicken flavour at work which I could eat by the sackload as it's sooooo moreish!!

 

[KnittyNorah]

Most of us should in winter, certainly. And all of us who have a skin colour any darker than native northern European should take one all year round, as should anyone who covers themselves entirely.

 

[KnittyNorah]

Cholesterol is itself synthesised by the body so I don't think anyone's at risk of Vit D deficiency secondary to low cholesterol. Regarding fish, farmed salmon is up to an order of magnitude less rich in D than wild salmon, so that's another way that modern food production is contributing to nutrient deficiency.

I mentioned the cholesterol thing somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it being such a popular demon!

 

[winjim]

I mentioned the cholesterol thing somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it being such a popular demon!

Well yeah, it's a precursor to quite a few important molecules...

 

[Fab Foodie]

Isn’t rickets a vitamin C deficiency?

Isn’t vitamin D the one you get from sunlight?

Or have I failed my NVQ Nutrition?

50% See teach

 

[Fab Foodie]

Vit C deficiency causes scurvy but that's vanishingly rare these days. Vit D deficiency causes rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. It's Vit D that we get from sunlight although much (most?) of the population is deficient by some measure so we really do rely on food fortification.

Rickets is also Calcium deficiency as in Muesli-belt malnutrition....

 

[winjim]

Rickets is also Calcium deficiency as in Muesli-belt malnutrition....

I'd not heard that term before but yes, a low Ca high fibre diet can cause Vit D deficiency. Fortified high fibre milk alternatives may not be as nutritious as one might think, although to be fair I've switched to oat milk on my cereal and gone from severely Vit D deficient a few years ago to Vit D replete last time I measured it.

 

[Blue Hills]

They certainly hadn't by 2018. Their marketing strategy was designed to be appallingly, and very carefully, misleading in their most 'sophisticated' markets, and in their 'less' sophisticated markets they chopped and changed with ingredients, in one country using an ingredient that in other countries they advertised as being omitted 'for baby's good health'. In part of one region, they claimed their baby milk was healthier because it didn't contain vanilla flavouring (vanilla flavouring for a BABY?) and in another part of the same region, they sold vanilla flavoured baby milk ... some/a Nestle product/s in Hong Kong and/or Spain (can't remember which one and can't find the exact piece that I read, which BTW was in a major UK newspaper and not the Daily Wail) were advertised as being 'identical in structire' to human breast milk - which is of course a clear physiological, biological, manufacturing and production impossibility, as breast milk changes greatly throughout the duration of lactation.

No, they are still a bunch of lying murderers or accessories to murder, every single one of them, leaching on the burning desire of most mother to give what she thinks, or has been taught, or has been subjected to false advertising about , is the very best possible for her baby, as indoctrinated Nestle, which to this day is still global market leader in infant milk products.

Yes, we know that many babies - and some mothers - have their lives saved by modern baby formulae. We know that if modern baby formulae were not available, many mothers would be tied to the home for months, even years, at a time, unable to either move forward in a hard-fought-for career, or to earn a little extra money outside the home to care for the rest of the family. But no-one should believe they 'ought' to be feeding their newborn baby junk which they have had to pay for with hard-to-come-by money. Vanilla flavouring! Sucrose! Why not just give the kid a Big Mac as a restorative shortly after it's born and be done with ...

Thanks norah.
Rings true.
Changing the message according to the audience.
Everything from the oil industry to the church, particularly catholic, has indulged in these games.

 

[Fab Foodie]

So here is the part-baked Foodie Obesity-reducing manifesto....

In no particular order:

For health, nutrition and environmental reasons we need to move towards a more plant-based and nutrient high diet, particularly vegetables and reduce dependence on foods that are heavy in fat and sugars and offer little nutritive benefit other than calories. Nudging to be used to drive people to make better purchasing choices, so some examples:

• Increase the sugar tax to all foods, cakes, confectionary, pastries, biscuits and sugar etc. (High calorie, no nutritional value)
• Increase tax on all processed meats but not fresh/frozen joints, chops, mince etc - where meat is reduced in size by cutting/chopping
• Increase tax on White bread and refined white flour based products, white rice etc. such that brown/wholemeal/whole grain forms are cheaper
• Dried beans and pulses to be tax-free, Frozen Veg to be tax-free
• Increase Duty on Take-Out alcohol
• Fortification of 'replacement' products - e.g Iodine and Calcium fortification of non-dairy Milks, Iron fortification of meat replacers etc

I would also ban advertising and sponsorship for take-away foods/delivery services and products such as High Sugar drinks, Confectionary, Cakes, pastries, Alcohol etc - basically those foods that would be given a nudge taxation rise.

Public Health - we need to move to a prevention rather than cure model by changing investment in the NHS (the cost to the NHS/Public purse is significant and rising).

• Free school meals for all children to school leaving age based on a diet as proscribed above - High Veg, low free carb
• Free milk at break and lunch
• Free Breakfasts in particularly deprived areas
• School Nurses - routine health/nutrition MOT during school years
• School 'activity' to be increased sport or similar physical
• End food banks
• Bariatric surgery to be more widely available - the benefits outweigh the costs
• More regular adult health-checks as if you were going private, access to dieticians etc.
• Greater encouragement to be active. Nudges to encourage walking and cycling rather than cars - School runs being a perfect example

Finally, the biggie: It's well documented that Obesity and other ill health issues are related to socio-economic factors, education, deprivation and lack of opportunity. This needs to change.


So, shoot-away!

 

[Oldhippy]

I will vote for you on that alone Fabbers. It really is that simple isn't it.

 

[Reynard]

Will watch. Did they mention 'Kokumi'? I have the same issue with savoury snacks or 'salty' foods. We have a chicken flavour at work which I could eat by the sackload as it's sooooo moreish!!

No, not directly. But they did mention the "pleasure point" that you get with a particular ratio of fat to salt - a bit like Goldilocks and the porridge.

I'm a sucker for cheese or marmite flavoured snacky things. Or marmite or anchovy paste on toast...

 

[Fab Foodie]

No, not directly. But they did mention the "pleasure point" that you get with a particular ratio of fat to salt - a bit like Goldilocks and the porridge.

I'm a sucker for cheese or marmite flavoured snacky things. Or marmite or anchovy paste on toast...

In all of my nearly 40 years in the Food Industry I have never ever met a single person who is looking to engineer a certain Fat/Salt ratio into a product to create that pleasure point to sell more. Though I have seen various bits of taste research that hints at what makes something more moreish with a view to understanding how to make stuff less 'addictive'... Maybe I need to get out more often.