Obesity

[Sandydragon]

From the chorus of wails and moans yesterday at the Government's 'failure' to prevent obesity in children, you would have thought that Theresa May was force feeding McDonalds Happy Meals to poor children.

Do we really need to educate grown people that eating fast food every day will turn them into fat bastards? Are they that terminally stupid that they don't realize doing the same to their children will turn them into fat people with all the associated health hazards?

At what point we we acknowledge personal responsibility?

[Which Tyler]

Yeah, it's the government's fault: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sout ... 349392.stm

So Jamie Oliver launches a massive compaign, and gets things changed - there's then a massive backlash from parents who want their kids to eat McDonalds / Fish and Chips / Chocolate, and smuggle these things into school - but it's the school's fault their kids are fat?

So school meals are improved (to mass protest) and foot labels now have a traffic light scheme so that even an idiot knows how shit the food they're buying is - and yet the parents are doing all they can and it's all someone else's fault!


Full disclosure - I loathe Jamie Oliver, and am no fan of any government we've had during my lifetime (breguding partial exception for Blair's early years before going presidential war-criminal) - it hurts to defend them in any way, shape or form.

[OptimisticJock]

From the chorus of wails and moans yesterday at the Government's 'failure' to prevent obesity in children, you would have thought that Theresa May was force feeding McDonalds Happy Meals to poor children.

Do we really need to educate grown people that eating fast food every day will turn them into fat bastards? Are they that terminally stupid that they don't realize doing the same to their children will turn them into fat people with all the associated health hazards?

At what point we we acknowledge personal responsibility?

Yes. I've had a debate with a patient that because they're on metformin they can't just eat what they like and need to improve their diet to control their diabetes and weight. They were adamant they could because the GP gave them the pills.

[fivepointer]

It wont be long before Government realises that it simply has to do something about the obesity problem. It will have to take on corporate interests, will have to curtail certain advertising, will have to limit availability of certain items and will have to ban outright things that contain a high level of fat/salt/sugar. It will be failing in its responsibility to public health not to do so.

The way Govts have legislated against tobacco products signals the way this will go.

[Mikey Brown]

From the chorus of wails and moans yesterday at the Government's 'failure' to prevent obesity in children, you would have thought that Theresa May was force feeding McDonalds Happy Meals to poor children.

Do we really need to educate grown people that eating fast food every day will turn them into fat bastards? Are they that terminally stupid that they don't realize doing the same to their children will turn them into fat people with all the associated health hazards?

At what point we we acknowledge personal responsibility?

Yes. Enough people do seem to be that stupid. I was just on the tube watching an enormous woman giving her enormous little kid a mars bar because it was disturbing whatever interesting stuff was going on on her phone. I've had to reaasure myself that slapping a complete stranger wouldn't be helpful.

As a kid at school it seemed most people I knew thought it was really odd I didn't have a MacDonald's or pizza hut (or whatever) every week. People are just fucking lazy and fucking stupid.

[Sandydragon]

It wont be long before Government realises that it simply has to do something about the obesity problem. It will have to take on corporate interests, will have to curtail certain advertising, will have to limit availability of certain items and will have to ban outright things that contain a high level of fat/salt/sugar. It will be failing in its responsibility to public health not to do so.

The way Govts have legislated against tobacco products signals the way this will go.

I understand your point, but there is a key difference here in that smoking affects third parties. A fat person in a confined space doesn't affect my health whereas a smoker does.

There are corporate interests of course, but equally no one is forcing people to eat crap.

[Sandydragon]

From the chorus of wails and moans yesterday at the Government's 'failure' to prevent obesity in children, you would have thought that Theresa May was force feeding McDonalds Happy Meals to poor children.

Do we really need to educate grown people that eating fast food every day will turn them into fat bastards? Are they that terminally stupid that they don't realize doing the same to their children will turn them into fat people with all the associated health hazards?

At what point we we acknowledge personal responsibility?

Yes. Enough people do seem to be that stupid. I was just on the tube watching an enormous woman giving her enormous little kid a mars bar because it was disturbing whatever interesting stuff was going on on her phone. I've had to reaasure myself that slapping a complete stranger wouldn't be helpful.

As a kid at school it seemed most people I knew thought it was really odd I didn't have a MacDonald's or pizza hut (or whatever) every week. People are just fucking lazy and fucking stupid.

I seem to attract fat people on planes. I was flying short haul not too long ago and in the set of 3 seats were myself next to the window and a slightly older woman in the aisle seat. Middle seat for some time was empty. Literally just before the doors closed some f*cking huge fat sweaty b*stard gets on the plane and of course occupies the middle seat. He must have been under the weight limit for requiring 2 seats but spending 90 odd minutes crushed against the side of the aircraft by this monstrosity, when then decided to snore for the entire flight did not make for a fun journey.

There are very few cases where being obese is the result of anything other than eating too much. Get some discipline and take a bit of exercise. East fruit and veg instead of sweet stuff. It took me seconds t write that for free, yet apparently we need to spend millions on education.

[OptimisticJock]

It wont be long before Government realises that it simply has to do something about the obesity problem. It will have to take on corporate interests, will have to curtail certain advertising, will have to limit availability of certain items and will have to ban outright things that contain a high level of fat/salt/sugar. It will be failing in its responsibility to public health not to do so.

The way Govts have legislated against tobacco products signals the way this will go.

I understand your point, but there is a key difference here in that smoking affects third parties. A fat person in a confined space doesn't affect my health whereas a smoker does.

There are corporate interests of course, but equally no one is forcing people to eat crap.

Whilst I don't like the idea of being told I can't eat sugar etc when I want or have to pay through the nose when I do the govt needs to do something like this purely for the fact the NHS is crippled by obesity and related illnesses. Something like 40% of the budget is spent on that area.

Plus I've got 30 years to go picking up fat cunts.

[Digby]

Clearly with the rise in incomes, the rise of cheap (and mostly unhealthy) foods, people living more sedentary lifestyles, and just about everyone living with central heating we've a problem. And I don't think there are any easy or quick solutions, people will need to be engaged over and over on the matter.

It's be a good starting point though to get serious about making sport cheaper and more available, and to stop selling off playing fields and the like to property developers. Access to and choice of foods is much more complex than raising exercise rates, and I wouldn't want to ban unhealthy foods, but down the line we should perhaps be considering if so many unhealthy options should be available

[fivepointer]

It wont be long before Government realises that it simply has to do something about the obesity problem. It will have to take on corporate interests, will have to curtail certain advertising, will have to limit availability of certain items and will have to ban outright things that contain a high level of fat/salt/sugar. It will be failing in its responsibility to public health not to do so.

The way Govts have legislated against tobacco products signals the way this will go.

I understand your point, but there is a key difference here in that smoking affects third parties. A fat person in a confined space doesn't affect my health whereas a smoker does.

There are corporate interests of course, but equally no one is forcing people to eat crap.

Jaques Poretti fronted some very interesting programmes on the food industry a year or two back. The men who made us fat was the title I think. Might be available on youtube or possibly BBC iplayer.

There's a reason the corporates spend so much on advertising, get their products in prime places, have fast food outlets everywhere and lobby so hard to keep Govt from legislating.

But that will change. It will have to. The pressure on our health service will become intolerable unless steps are taken to halt the rise in obesity.

[Mikey Brown]

Don't worry. All the kids have "hoverboards" now.

[Mikey Brown]

From the chorus of wails and moans yesterday at the Government's 'failure' to prevent obesity in children, you would have thought that Theresa May was force feeding McDonalds Happy Meals to poor children.

Do we really need to educate grown people that eating fast food every day will turn them into fat bastards? Are they that terminally stupid that they don't realize doing the same to their children will turn them into fat people with all the associated health hazards?

At what point we we acknowledge personal responsibility?

Yes. Enough people do seem to be that stupid. I was just on the tube watching an enormous woman giving her enormous little kid a mars bar because it was disturbing whatever interesting stuff was going on on her phone. I've had to reaasure myself that slapping a complete stranger wouldn't be helpful.

As a kid at school it seemed most people I knew thought it was really odd I didn't have a MacDonald's or pizza hut (or whatever) every week. People are just fucking lazy and fucking stupid.

I seem to attract fat people on planes. I was flying short haul not too long ago and in the set of 3 seats were myself next to the window and a slightly older woman in the aisle seat. Middle seat for some time was empty. Literally just before the doors closed some f*cking huge fat sweaty b*stard gets on the plane and of course occupies the middle seat. He must have been under the weight limit for requiring 2 seats but spending 90 odd minutes crushed against the side of the aircraft by this monstrosity, when then decided to snore for the entire flight did not make for a fun journey.

There are very few cases where being obese is the result of anything other than eating too much. Get some discipline and take a bit of exercise. East fruit and veg instead of sweet stuff. It took me seconds t write that for free, yet apparently we need to spend millions on education.

I dont envy that. I once had a guy sat in my seat (the aisle seat I had booked intentionally because I'm stupidly tall) who seemed genuinely pissed off that I made him move back to his middle seat, just because he was a massive fat bastard. I still can't fathom his logic that I was less deserving of being comfortable.

I think a big hurdle is getting people to realise fast/processed food isn't really that cheap, though I think it could be made a lot easier for people to find/afford easy, healthy food.

[Stones of granite]

From the chorus of wails and moans yesterday at the Government's 'failure' to prevent obesity in children, you would have thought that Theresa May was force feeding McDonalds Happy Meals to poor children.

Do we really need to educate grown people that eating fast food every day will turn them into fat bastards? Are they that terminally stupid that they don't realize doing the same to their children will turn them into fat people with all the associated health hazards?

At what point we we acknowledge personal responsibility?

Yes. Enough people do seem to be that stupid. I was just on the tube watching an enormous woman giving her enormous little kid a mars bar because it was disturbing whatever interesting stuff was going on on her phone. I've had to reaasure myself that slapping a complete stranger wouldn't be helpful.

As a kid at school it seemed most people I knew thought it was really odd I didn't have a MacDonald's or pizza hut (or whatever) every week. People are just fucking lazy and fucking stupid.

I seem to attract fat people on planes. I was flying short haul not too long ago and in the set of 3 seats were myself next to the window and a slightly older woman in the aisle seat. Middle seat for some time was empty. Literally just before the doors closed some f*cking huge fat sweaty b*stard gets on the plane and of course occupies the middle seat. He must have been under the weight limit for requiring 2 seats but spending 90 odd minutes crushed against the side of the aircraft by this monstrosity, when then decided to snore for the entire flight did not make for a fun journey.

There are very few cases where being obese is the result of anything other than eating too much. Get some discipline and take a bit of exercise. East fruit and veg instead of sweet stuff. It took me seconds t write that for free, yet apparently we need to spend millions on education.

Exactly this happened to me recently as well, and I am an extremely smug bastard about my weight having lost 27Kg over the last two years, causing me to have extreme prejudice against the greedy fat twat.

[Sandydragon]

It wont be long before Government realises that it simply has to do something about the obesity problem. It will have to take on corporate interests, will have to curtail certain advertising, will have to limit availability of certain items and will have to ban outright things that contain a high level of fat/salt/sugar. It will be failing in its responsibility to public health not to do so.

The way Govts have legislated against tobacco products signals the way this will go.

I understand your point, but there is a key difference here in that smoking affects third parties. A fat person in a confined space doesn't affect my health whereas a smoker does.

There are corporate interests of course, but equally no one is forcing people to eat crap.

Whilst I don't like the idea of being told I can't eat sugar etc when I want or have to pay through the nose when I do the govt needs to do something like this purely for the fact the NHS is crippled by obesity and related illnesses. Something like 40% of the budget is spent on that area.

Plus I've got 30 years to go picking up fat cunts.

Exactly, you need your calories intake!

[Sandydragon]

Yes. Enough people do seem to be that stupid. I was just on the tube watching an enormous woman giving her enormous little kid a mars bar because it was disturbing whatever interesting stuff was going on on her phone. I've had to reaasure myself that slapping a complete stranger wouldn't be helpful.

As a kid at school it seemed most people I knew thought it was really odd I didn't have a MacDonald's or pizza hut (or whatever) every week. People are just fucking lazy and fucking stupid.

I seem to attract fat people on planes. I was flying short haul not too long ago and in the set of 3 seats were myself next to the window and a slightly older woman in the aisle seat. Middle seat for some time was empty. Literally just before the doors closed some f*cking huge fat sweaty b*stard gets on the plane and of course occupies the middle seat. He must have been under the weight limit for requiring 2 seats but spending 90 odd minutes crushed against the side of the aircraft by this monstrosity, when then decided to snore for the entire flight did not make for a fun journey.

There are very few cases where being obese is the result of anything other than eating too much. Get some discipline and take a bit of exercise. East fruit and veg instead of sweet stuff. It took me seconds t write that for free, yet apparently we need to spend millions on education.

I dont envy that. I once had a guy sat in my seat (the aisle seat I had booked intentionally because I'm stupidly tall) who seemed genuinely pissed off that I made him move back to his middle seat, just because he was a massive fat bastard. I still can't fathom his logic that I was less deserving of being comfortable.

I think a big hurdle is getting people to realise fast/processed food isn't really that cheap, though I think it could be made a lot easier for people to find/afford easy, healthy food.

Exactly this. I can knock up a curry or chinese that is totally healthy for less than a takeaway. If feeding a family of 4, its almost as easy to cook in larger quantities and put some i the freezer. It is possible to be healthy on a tight budget.

[gthedog]

I'm not sure what Diane Abbott's statement for Labour was but I think she finished off with a small buffet

[Donny osmond]

I think its a combination of laziness, genuine lack of intelligence and not an inconsiderable amount of wilful ignorance.

My better half is a paediatric anaesthetist who regularly (every week) does lists for kids age 4+ who come in to get all their teeth taken out due to decay. Every week she will have to explain to parents after surgery that giving their little cherub a treat of irn-bru and mars bars, IMMEDIATELY AFTER THEY WAKE UP FROM TOOTH REMOVAL SURGERY, isn't a good idea. Every week, some parents will ignore her and give their kids fizzy drinks and sweets because, you know, they've just had all their teeth taken out, so they need a treat.

This is the mentality the govt have to deal with. Sure, there's plenty the govt could and should do better to help people make better choices. But bottom line is if someone is enough of a narcissist to eat themselves to an early grave, they're pretty much going to do that anyway.

[morepork]

Modern processed food is such utter shit that is bad for you in every way. It totally fucks with your body and your brain. People have been turned into cattle that know nothing about how bad the junk that gets pushed in their faces every day is. We missed the boat with reigning in the advertising, lobbying, and squashing academic input into the health question some time ago.

[onlynameleft]

I emailed Jeremy Oliver with a great idea for getting kids to eat their greens. One of his minions came back and said they were thinking about it. I didn't even tell them what it was! Tw&t.

[Sandydragon]

I have some sympathy with parents wh both work. Processed food is the easier option. But for the sake of a little planning it doesn't need to be that way.

And for parents who don't work, at least not both of them, there is no excuse.

[canta_brian]

Modern processed food is such utter shit that is bad for you in every way. It totally fucks with your body and your brain. People have been turned into cattle that know nothing about how bad the junk that gets pushed in their faces every day is. We missed the boat with reigning in the advertising, lobbying, and squashing academic input into the health question some time ago.

Mp. What's you thoughts on the basque country diet that seems to consist almost entirely of saturated fat but has the population having low rates of heart disease and cholesterol?

[Eugene Wrayburn]

It wont be long before Government realises that it simply has to do something about the obesity problem. It will have to take on corporate interests, will have to curtail certain advertising, will have to limit availability of certain items and will have to ban outright things that contain a high level of fat/salt/sugar. It will be failing in its responsibility to public health not to do so.

The way Govts have legislated against tobacco products signals the way this will go.

Draft me a law that bans something on the basis of fat content, but doesn't ban cheese or butter or lard or rapeseed oil. Draft me a law that bans something on sugar content but doesn't ban honey or sugar or dried fruit.

This is really about education. People don't realise that it's cheaper to cook and lack the skills to do so. People don't realise how important even a moderate amount of exercise can be. The long and short of it though is that we eat far too many calories.

[morepork]

Modern processed food is such utter shit that is bad for you in every way. It totally fucks with your body and your brain. People have been turned into cattle that know nothing about how bad the junk that gets pushed in their faces every day is. We missed the boat with reigning in the advertising, lobbying, and squashing academic input into the health question some time ago.

Mp. What's you thoughts on the basque country diet that seems to consist almost entirely of saturated fat but has the population having low rates of heart disease and cholesterol?

I think it validates the processed foods are shit argument. The whole Mediterranean is onto the right thing, from food through to lifestyle. I've got family in the Med, and everyone knows what proper food is, no matter how toothless and illiterate. Diet and lifestyle changes for the rest of us are difficult in the face of property speculation and KFCs shunting out every local green grocer, butcher, fish monger, and baker in the hood. We've had generations primed for fast food through rose-tinted advertising. It's going to take a lot to turn that around, and honestly, I don't know if you can. MacDonalds has "restaurants" in virtually every pediatric facility on the planet because they fund operations. Try publishing a study that quantitatively assesses the long term health effects of eating that shit regularly in children and adolescents however, and see how far you get. NZ has seriously clamped down on academic input in this area, and all of the old Crown Research Institutes (old DSIR) are now devoted to marketing food for sale (mainly milk) under the blanket of corporatised "science". It's fucking grim. How do you get an informed message out to people in the face of that? Take home message: Kids. Get the fuck out if you can.

[Len]

The girlfriends brother in law in a copper. Hes always telling me about how he'll kick the door in to a council house for a drugs bust and the kids will be settling down to a nice dinner of pringles and red bull

I did laugh at the NHS is fucked because of immigrants crowd during the Brexit campaign but completely ignore things like obesity.

[Mellsblue]

I vividly remember an obese co-worker complaining that they were eating healthily but weren't losing any weight. I asked them what they'd eaten the previous day. It was as follows:
Two weetabix with semi-skimmed milk and a sprinkle of sugar for breakfast, two lettuce and tomato sandwiches (further enquires revealed they were made with cheap white bread) for lunch and a pasta bake, no veg, for dinner. No exercise was taken. She was stunned when I explained that this wasn't even remotely healthy - "I thought pasta was meant to be good for you". Truly unbelievable, though I will grant her that it was more healthy than her previous diet. I also vividly remember looking around the pool at Centre Parcs, as it was this morning, and watching the mountains of wobbling flesh waddle past me, turning to my wife and saying "this place is a ticking time bomb for the NHS".

There are virtually no reasons to be fat. Ten mins on the Internet will give you a basic understanding of which foods are healthy, whilst cooking from fresh is no more expensive than grabbing a takeaway or a microwave meal. It does take a lot longer which is the crux of the matter - those too lazy to exercise are too lazy to cook. The selling off school playing fields etc, although I wholly disagree with it, is a red herring. Kids have plenty of time for sport outside of school. The lazy feckers finish at 3ish on weekdays, and have weekends and months of holidays in which to exercise. As for adults, buy a pair of effing trainers and go walking for 45 mins each day. Yes, even if it is raining.