Obesity

[Fab Foodie]

I’ve just had 4 bits of KFC original chicken a bag of fries and a Tropicana juice...just sayin’....

 

[Reynard]

Want a bet?

I can always manage to wedge in a pudding

Sadly not always permitted.

Bet's off, I'm afraid.

When you're my height, there's not quite as much space in the old hollow legs, you see...

 

[mudsticks]

I dunno... Healthy food doesn't have to be boring or puritanical. Although alas, that seems to be the perception of it. I do think this perception has to be tackled, and that includes coming down hard on the charlatans who peddle all sorts of whacky diets and detoxes and things like that. It just skews what people think of as healthy.

But I totally get what you say about the cakes and desserts. When you've had a proper meal, there's no way you can wedge in pudding as well. Well, maybe some fruit. I had half a punnet of raspberries after my supper.

Which was a home made salmon quiche (steamed salmon, fresh dill, lemon, pepper, eggs, half fat creme fraiche, grana padano cheese and a pastry base) plus some lovely sliced tomatoes and buttered leeks on the side.

Nom nom 🙂

But regarding heathy being puritanical??


Absolutely not.

This is the point,
Healthy food is, or at least can be totally delicious.

Don't send me into raptures about the delights of pea shoots, right now, or artichokes (globe not Jerusalem) steeped in butter or a good oil, or the near addictive qualities of winter chicories , with baked beetroot and hard boiled eggs.

But at the same time, you do have to know about, have access to, and have experienced these things..

These are the trad low income, dare I say 'peasant' foods of old.

But they've largely been over ridden by bland, industrially produced pap, made of cheap carbs, and cheap fats, to make us unwell, and desultory and uninterested in our food.

Which of course will mark me out as some kind of 'foodie snob' in some folks eyes.

But good nutrition, and health, and deliciousness and complexity used to be, and could still be, vital parts of a good food system

if we choose that way..

Want a bet?

I can always manage to wedge in a pudding

Sadly not always permitted.

Yebbut, for many of us 'Pudding stomach' is separate to the rest of it anyhows..☺

Unlike @Reynard I have very loong legs, there's always room for a 'wafer thin mint'...

 

[Reynard]

Funny you should say about the blandness of prepared food @mudsticks - that's the most common verdict I come to with the bits that I do buy when it pops up on yellow sticker. A lot of it is, to my palate, woefully under-seasoned; it does my head in when they take good strong flavours and turn them into something that tastes like wet cardboard.

Although I don't buy that much to be fair, and the last few years I've been consciously buying less and less (outside of things like really good pork pies and sausage rolls) because I'm finding that it just doesn't appeal to me. I'd much rather cook the same thing from scratch at home.

I let the other yellow sticker regulars squabble over the ready meals and oven ready stuff.

Addictive... Home made hummus with looooooads of garlic and lemon and good olive oil, preferably with pitta bread still hot from the oven.

OK, sometimes I do have a pudding - usually a fruit crumble - but then I'll have a much lighter main meal to compensate.

 

[mudsticks]

Funny you should say about the blandness of prepared food @mudsticks - that's the most common verdict I come to with the bits that I do buy when it pops up on yellow sticker. A lot of it is, to my palate, woefully under-seasoned; it does my head in when they take good strong flavours and turn them into something that tastes like wet cardboard.

Although I don't buy that much to be fair, and the last few years I've been consciously buying less and less (outside of things like really good pork pies and sausage rolls) because I'm finding that it just doesn't appeal to me. I'd much rather cook the same thing from scratch at home.

I let the other yellow sticker regulars squabble over the ready meals and oven ready stuff.

Addictive... Home made hummus with looooooads of garlic and lemon and good olive oil, preferably with pitta bread still hot from the oven.

OK, sometimes I do have a pudding - usually a fruit crumble - but then I'll have a much lighter main meal to compensate.

Mmmm All this talk of food is making me hungry..

Left over crumble for breakfast is a good start to the day

 

[PaulSB]

Yup I agree, education is a big part of it for sure, and there are lots of good hearted people out there getting involved in community initiatives.

And much more could be done in schools, and school food could be a lot better.

In some places provision is good, others not so much.

Other countries have far higher standards around public procurement, and institutional food.

But things like poor housing, and household incomes near impossible to live on are also in there too.

You need some facilities, time and a budget to create healthy and tasty meals.

Not everyone has those, sadly.

I'm very pleased to see you've mentioned this because I feel it's at least an equal part of the issue and quite possibly the key point.

I'm 66 and as a child I don't think we ever ate processed food or ready meals. We lived rurally and my mother walked to the shops several times a week. My mother worked as well. The nearest supermarket was literally an hour by bus in the town where I went to school. I can remember being envious of friends who lived in the town and whose mothers could shop at J.Sainsbury.

My mother was an excellent cook but interestingly she allowed me to leave home with no culinary skills whatsoever. I was a man, I'd find a wife.

My wife and I are good cooks and would always try to ensure the kids had freshly prepared food. We both worked full time earning decent salaries, there was always "a well stocked food cupboard." We had three children in seven years and there was often no time to cook at night especially when we had all those wonderfully middle-class after school activities, homework, swimming, etc. etc. to see to. We ate processed foods and ready meals often.

I can fully understand why harassed parents working full time on minimum wage find the solutions open to them are ready meals, KFC, fish 'n' chips. These are households which don't have, possibly don't understand, the magical well-stocked food cupboard. Such a thing is s luxury.

I'm confident my wife and I could eat for a month from our freezers and cupboards. How lucky we are when so many households are not.

Obesity is a significant and increasing problem which is storing up huge long-term health issues. Until we begin to address the many inequalities which exist in our society the possibilities of successfully changing this are very limited.

 

[mudsticks]

I'm very pleased to see you've mentioned this because I feel it's at least an equal part of the issue and quite possibly the key point.

I'm 66 and as a child I don't think we ever ate processed food or ready meals. We lived rurally and my mother walked to the shops several times a week. My mother worked as well. The nearest supermarket was literally an hour by bus in the town where I went to school. I can remember being envious of friends who lived in the town and whose mothers could shop at J.Sainsbury.

My mother was an excellent cook but interestingly she allowed me to leave home with no culinary skills whatsoever. I was a man, I'd find a wife.

My wife and I are good cooks and would always try to ensure the kids had freshly prepared food. We both worked full time earning decent salaries, there was always "a well stocked food cupboard." We had three children in seven years and there was often no time to cook at night especially when we had all those wonderfully middle-class after school activities, homework, swimming, etc. etc. to see to. We ate processed foods and ready meals often.

I can fully understand why harassed parents working full time on minimum wage find the solutions open to them are ready meals, KFC, fish 'n' chips. These are households which don't have, possibly don't understand, the magical well-stocked food cupboard. Such a thing is s luxury.

I'm confident my wife and I could eat for a month from our freezers and cupboards. How lucky we are when so many households are not.

Obesity is a significant and increasing problem which is storing up huge long-term health issues. Until we begin to address the many inequalities which exist in our society the possibilities of successfully changing this are very limited.

Yup , deprivation of many sorts can lead to poor diets, malnutrition, and conversely at the same time obesity.

I

Yet we don't even have a right to good food, it's not regarded as a 'public good' in the same way as healthcare and education are.

Better diets could even save a lot on healthcare.

Tackling poverty, and making good food available to everyone, should be key areas of governments duties .

Its vital to a populations wellbeing.

But it's just mostly left to campaigning groups to push for change.

There's a Liverpool MP trying to get an early day motion through about the right to food at the moment.
https://agroecology.eaction.online/right-to-food

 

[Rocky]

I’ve just had 4 bits of KFC original chicken a bag of fries and a Tropicana juice...just sayin’....

Wot no chicken nuggets?

If you are not eating them, how do you expect the rest of us to?

 

[Fab Foodie]

Wot no chicken nuggets?

If you are not eating them, how do you expect the rest of us to?

Man cannot live by nugget alone....as any fule kno....

 

[Fab Foodie]

Yup , deprivation of many sorts can lead to poor diets, malnutrition, and conversely at the same time obesity.

I

Yet we don't even have a right to good food, it's not regarded as a 'public good' in the same way as healthcare and education are.

Better diets could even save a lot on healthcare.

Tackling poverty, and making good food available to everyone, should be key areas of governments duties .

Its vital to a populations wellbeing.

But it's just mostly left to campaigning groups to push for change.

There's a Liverpool MP trying to get an early day motion through about the right to food at the moment.
https://agroecology.eaction.online/right-to-food

Judging by the rise in food banks the govt. doesn’t even care if people have food let alone the quality of it....
We have so far to go....

 

[mudsticks]

Judging by the rise in food banks the govt. doesn’t even care if people have food let alone the quality of it....
We have so far to go....

Sadly I fear you're correct.

All part of the "Keep em hungry and desperate, so they haven't got the energy to start a revolution" policy..

Oh well , I'd better get back to my radical roots now..

Last of the aubergines to plant

Too hot to work in the tunnels much after 10 am right now.

 

[mustang1]

An app? Bugger off! I use an A5 notepad and a pen. An app. I ask you.

What he said. I've used app in the past but too much hassle. I've used a e-diary (notepad.exe, google keeps, ipad Notes, whatever). But I find those electronic notes get lost among all my other notes. Although I do not any more, when I did take notes, I found a pen and physical diary was the best. I used to carry a small rucksack with me (instead of bulging pockets to carry wallet, phone, several bunches of keys) so popped the diary/pen in there.

Someone further up the thread mentioned moods during binging sessions and that's a good thing to take note of along with your food intake. But I no longer need to keep a diary as I know what the problem is (I think): a stressful job means whenever I'm working, I'm eating junk. On Friday evenings and weekends (well, until sunday evening), I eat very little junk food but still more than I think (it's usually milkshakes with the kids of if (well, every weekend) my SO has made a delicious desert.

During work hours, the only way I know to avoid eating junk is to be so busy that I have no time to eat anything but that's unsustainable. Therefore I have (have?) to eat junk up to a certain point where I think "bloody heck mate you've gotta back off now!"

There's this film I watch frequently: LBS. It's about this guy who just cannot stop eating but there is a way he finds to get around his eating habit (I won't spoil it for you) and certainly worth watching as it may help you. The solution is difficult to implement in our daily lives though...

 

[Lookrider]

Is it will power and the corporates food industry that are the factors in this?
My own personal experience is that good food is cheaper than shelf food and easy to follow menus are widely available on everyone's telephone
A lot of these websites actually show a price comparison as too how much it costs

I have fortunately always been relatively slim so maybe I suffer a bit of " it's easy for me too say that "

28 years ago i would not have ever thanked you for a cake/sweets ..and like others said...if I went out for a meal I would rather have a larger starter than a cake at the end
Then I was really poorly fir almost a year eventually hospitalised
I was diagnosed with coealics disease and told I would have to go on a gluten free diet ..I had not heard if this nor had a lot if the hospital staff
So overnight my own diet changed dramatically. Out went all the things we like . A lot of my basic foods were now made at home as the supermarket had nothing advertised gluten free and looking at every label was extremely time taking
Most nights out were restricted to the very limited places that knew about gluten in foods
But my will power had to prevail and it still does ...I know not everyone has will power but if your health at risk you must try harder somehow
The downside of my illness meant I lost lot if weight and started to eat cake chocolate etc to put weight on
This worked obviously but that addiction us still with me now although it is not extreme ..but it does show that you can get " addicted " as I never ate such things in tbe past
But also I was doing tbe fred whitton challenge 2 years back ..to loose weight I again went on a diet and out went all the cakes etc ..it was hard for around 2 weeks then them endorphins ir whatever it is make you eat crap was filtered out and I totally lost the feeling to eat such things
I went back on them to gain weight again after tbe race
Now fast frd to the last 5 years and the supermarkets have seen the gap in the GF market and again the GF shelves are awash with all the rubbish I dont really want .pizza pies cakes pastry biscuits

I guess the moral of my own story is that

Will power is very important and stay focused and you will stick to your diet

The food industy are very good at providing an easy fix .as they did with the GF shelves appearing ..so the earlier reports about them "corrupting " us in the 50/60s may well be true ..

My wife is a health nurse and tries to get people to loose weight
They routinely come to her saying they try this n that diet and that they have been good..when in fact the list of foods that they ate in the week before is beyond reason for some one claiming to be trying
A lot of her patients are regulay asking for pills etc and now theres even injections available ...so no chance really of anyone testing there will power when they " think" these pills and injections are there

As a footnote..now that a GF diet is fashionable please do not think that it is a way to loose weight
I am slim as I have a food disease that effects my weight . Even though I happen to have a great appetite itd the disease that keeps me slim

I heard many times over the years famy/friends saying there going on a GF diet to.look like me ?
Unfirtunaltly that's not the case .so please do not think you will loose weight on a GF diet

 

[mustang1]

Let us take a 20 year old through the next 30 years. At that age they haven’t yet bought a car, they are fairly active most days. The balance between what they eat and drink and activity levels is fairly balanced and weight stable. Then they settle into a full time job, buy a car, maybe get married. Activity levels decline, but food intake doesn’t. They put on 2.5 lbs a year, barely noticable. Sure there’s a bit more body fat but they look not a lot different to the year before. Roll on 30 years and they’ve put on 75 lbs. That is 5 stone 5 lbs they’ve put on over 30 years.

Lets go back to a single year. Assume it’s 365 days. So daily intake x 365 = 2500 x 365 = 912,500 calories over the year. Now they have put 2.5 lbs on. So the excess is 2.5 * 3,500 = 8750 calories over a year. That translates to (8750 / 365) 24 calories per day, just under 1% of daily intake.

It doesn’t take much for weight to build up over the years given a small imbalance.

I've been giving this some thought over the years. When at school, we were there for 6 or 7 hours a day. We took regular breaks for plytime and lunchtime and we were always active playing various games. We had to go to different classrooms for each less which meant we had to walk or climb stairs every 1.5 hours. We had scheduled PE classes twice a week, about 3 hours. Due to those short hours, and the fact we were kids with little responsibilities, after school we met with other friends and went on the bike or played football or whatever. I even used to go out running just for the heck of it, most days. If I wanted to get somewhere, I went on the bus (which meant a walk, or run, to the bus stop). Or I went on the train, another walk to the train station. Or I simply got my bike out.

Now, many years later, it's no longer a 6 or 7 hour day "at the office", it's more like "at least 10". That's 5 days a week. Outside of office hours there is on-call. Then on weekends there's more work. While you're still on-call. You have to lookafter house stuff, car stuff, paperwork, deal with unforeseen things. You're happy when you take 2 or 3 weeks holiday out of the 52 weeks you have. You have more money than when you was a kid so to the heck with making dinner, I'll just get something from outside, just this once. You could walk to the shops which is a 20 minute round-trip, or take the car which is 4 minutes. I could spend money to goto the gym but at the end of the day, who wants that long slog - gyms are for fashionable types anyway.

The only training I get is bike-commuting to work. Leisure/athletic cycling is seen as being selfish and not contributing to housework (that's changed now since I got my SO a bike).

I'm not entirely complaining. LIfe is like that. It's the societal norm. Most people want a bigger house, a bigger car or two, all while denying they want to be part of the rat-race. And by "bigger", of course they really mean "more expensive to show off". And when one confronts such a lifestyle, the response is along the lines of "well you dont want to live like a tramp" as if those are the only two options.

So then, it's society that has got a lot to answer for, and society is made up of people like us, including me, and I am part of the problem. Thankfully, I have told my kids to always make exercise a part of their life, even when they're older and they think they have no time. Hopefully they won't fall into the same trap I did.

 

[Low Gear Guy]

There are a lot of people that drive to their office job or work from home and do not get any exercise during the working day. When this is combined with unhealthy ready meals or takeaways the result is weight gain. The situation is getting worse due to food delivery services and longer working hours.