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Normalising Obesity


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I read this article this morning on “fat” being a neutral word and it fits in with the rest of the agenda to de-stigmatise obesity.  Idiot people.  Being fat is NOT healthy and it should have a negative impression.  I’m overweight, pushing 30 on the BMI scale and I know that it’s causing me health issues, especially on my already knackered knees.

I won’t make fun of people who have obvious illnesses, I include being obese in that, but I’m certainly not going to suddenly pretend that it’s fine to be fat.  Would we be telling people walking around with open sores that it’s fine and they should love them?

The best thing an obese person can do to improve their health is lose weight, anyone encouraging an obese person to stay obese is effectively encouraging them to die younger.

Childhood obesity is soaring, especially in deprived areas, I see the NHS health stats on this and it’s truly shocking.  Obesity has become normalised and many parents simply don’t see what’s wrong with their kids being overweight any longer.  Substantially more children are getting to adulthood in shocking health because of this with all the life-long health consequences that come with it.

So, you can take your “love your fat” message and ram it up your backside.

"When in deadly danger, when beset by doubt; run in little circles, wave your arms and shout"

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Couldn’t agree more . It must be the biggest social problem now , with knock on effects like strain on the NHS . And when it gets warmer it’s all around you . The number of kids and young adults , and more n more young women , who are fat or obese is staggering . When we were at school the fat kid got picked on , now they’d have lots of company . Being PC doesn’t help . As in many cases if you don’t talk about a problem and face it you don’t solve it . A much more sedantry and unhealthy lifestyle is one big factor . When I’m in hospital the number of people I hear get told lose weight is numerous 

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Agree entirely. During the whole of my recent cardiac problems, I only had the mildest of indications from the medics  that I should lose weight. There is more of an emphasis on it in the cardiac Rehab programme. But you know what? Being overweight has plagued me all my 72 11/12 years. I've lost a decent amout of weight on numerous occasions but keeping it down has been problematical. Yes, I know it is my fault. Yes, I know the solution lies in my own hand, and yes, I know exactly what I should do about it. Doing it, though, that is the issue.

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19 minutes ago, DavidM said:

When we were at school the fat kid got picked on , now they’d have lots of company . Being PC doesn’t help . 

I think there is limited evidence that bullying people helps them make better lifestyle choices.

I can confirm 30+ less sales for Scotland vs Italy at Workington, after this afternoons test purchase for the Tonga match, £7.50 is extremely reasonable, however a £2.50 'delivery' fee for a walk in purchase is beyond taking the mickey, good luck with that, it's cheaper on the telly.

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6 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

I think there is limited evidence that bullying people helps them make better lifestyle choices.

Err , I wouldn’t say it did ! Or I would do it . But it was the reality of being at school . 

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Food is more calorie dense than it used to be.  Its cheap.  It's designed to make you want more.  

With the best, thats a good bit of PR, though I would say the Bedford team, theres, like, you know, 13 blokes who can get together at the weekend to have a game together, which doesnt point to expansion of the game. Point, yeah go on!

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Despite all the claims that people are skint, have no money etc there is now generally far more disposable income than say 30 years ago. This means people eat far more than they did previously.

I clearly remember things from my youth in the 80s, like my parents not having a TV for months and saving up for one, which is practically unthinkable now. That extends to food. I remember getting a chocolate bar after school was a real treat and luxury, now a child can have 4 in a day and think nothing of it. Similarly fast food like McDonalds was a rare treat, now they are practically on every street corner and some can afford to go several times a week.

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Certainly hidden calories are a big problem. I think this should be addressed either by better labelling on packages or better education in school, or both to be fair. I've really noticed this in the last few years since a medical diagnosis that means I have to really watch sugar, alcohol and caffeine consumption. It is shocking how much sugar is in the most random of foods. For example in a loaf of bread you can have up to 2g in each slice. Before that I just never thought of bread having so much sugar in it since its a savoury food. That's just one example of course.

If you take energy drinks, which the government has now brought in an age restriction for, I worked out that one particular one that I used to drink in abundance, if you extracted the sugar, approximately half the can would be pure sugar. Similarly a bottle of coke is something like a third sugar, if my pretty poor maths was correct anyway! Anyway, point I'm making there is even things that you know have sugar in have a hell of a lot more in than you might expect.

Packets do display this information of course but they have a way or making it sound better than it is a lot of the time. They will write, 'per 100g' for example when the thing you are eating is 500g or something, a figure which applies to fat content as well. So in big writing it will say something like 3g which sounds pretty good and then you read the small print and realise the product actually has 15g in it. The bread I mentioned is a perfect example of this. It says 2g in big writing and per slice in miniscule writing above. As I say, the industry certainly needs to be regulated and information on packets needs to be standardised and made a lot clearer but much more needs to be done to educate children on health and diet. I don't remember it being something i was taught in school. 

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3 hours ago, Damien said:

Despite all the claims that people are skint, have no money etc there is now generally far more disposable income than say 30 years ago. This means people eat far more than they did previously.

I clearly remember things from my youth in the 80s, like my parents not having a TV for months and saving up for one, which is practically unthinkable now. That extends to food. I remember getting a chocolate bar after school was a real treat and luxury, now a child can have 4 in a day and think nothing of it. Similarly fast food like McDonalds was a rare treat, now they are practically on every street corner and some can afford to go several times a week.

You mention McDonald's there which is a good example of how food companies are marketing to children a lot more these days. Companies are using fun cartoons and bright colours as mascots and advertising which entices children in. A child would rather get a fat saturated, heart attack inducing big mac from there because Ronald says its tasty than get a healthy and equally as tasty sandwich from the shop next door because the facade of the building is plain. What I will say as well is the price of big name fast food places tends to be more than lesser known independents. Perhaps amongst children it is 'cooler' to go somewhere famous than somewhere their friends have never heard of, I don't know that of course. 

I saw a thing once where something like 10 different kinds of cereals were taken and ordered. They ordered them by how fun children thought the boxes were, the ones with funny, cartoon characters being first of course and more boring characters being lower down. It was found that the further up the list you went the more sugar was in each type of cereal. These kind of sinister marketing tactics really have to be addressed by the government I think. I'm not saying stop advertising the products with cartoon characters because companies have the freedom to market their products how they want but it needs to be made very clear exactly what is in these products. 

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14 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

You mention McDonald's there which is a good example of how food companies are marketing to children a lot more these days. Companies are using fun cartoons and bright colours as mascots and advertising which entices children in. A child would rather get a fat saturated, heart attack inducing big mac from there because Ronald says its tasty than get a healthy and equally as tasty sandwich from the shop next door because the facade of the building is plain. What I will say as well is the price of big name fast food places tends to be more than lesser known independents. Perhaps amongst children it is 'cooler' to go somewhere famous than somewhere their friends have never heard of, I don't know that of course. 

I saw a thing once where something like 10 different kinds of cereals were taken and ordered. They ordered them by how fun children thought the boxes were, the ones with funny, cartoon characters being first of course and more boring characters being lower down. It was found that the further up the list you went the more sugar was in each type of cereal. These kind of sinister marketing tactics really have to be addressed by the government I think. I'm not saying stop advertising the products with cartoon characters because companies have the freedom to market their products how they want but it needs to be made very clear exactly what is in these products. 

It's not really any different to the 80s though and certainly McDonalds had all of what it has now and more. The likes of cereal's certainly targeted to children a lot more with toys etc than they do now, which has stopped. Like I said for me the main difference is that now people have the disposable income to waste on needless food and needless amounts of food.

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4 hours ago, Damien said:

Despite all the claims that people are skint, have no money etc there is now generally far more disposable income than say 30 years ago. This means people eat far more than they did previously.

I clearly remember things from my youth in the 80s, like my parents not having a TV for months and saving up for one, which is practically unthinkable now. That extends to food. I remember getting a chocolate bar after school was a real treat and luxury, now a child can have 4 in a day and think nothing of it. Similarly fast food like McDonalds was a rare treat, now they are practically on every street corner and some can afford to go several times a week.

There is also the reticence of parents to allow their children to play outdoors and/or children not wanting to play outdoors because they prefer sitting on their backsides all day with their latest gadget at their fingertips.  

People like to blame food because that means the big, bad companies can be blamed for people being fat but the responsibility ultimately lies with adults themselves, both on their own behalf and on behalf of their children.  

 

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5 minutes ago, Saintslass said:

There is also the reticence of parents to allow their children to play outdoors and/or children not wanting to play outdoors because they prefer sitting on their backsides all day with their latest gadget at their fingertips.  

People like to blame food because that means the big, bad companies can be blamed for people being fat but the responsibility ultimately lies with adults themselves, both on their own behalf and on behalf of their children.  

 

I’d agree . There’s a lot of deflection of responsibility now in society , someone to blame , but ultimately it’s individual and parental responsibility . I’m not one for blanket restriction or edict from above as a panacea , everyone makes their own choices .It’s also often an easy or lazier option to have a takeaway rather than make something . 

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13 minutes ago, Saintslass said:

There is also the reticence of parents to allow their children to play outdoors and/or children not wanting to play outdoors because they prefer sitting on their backsides all day with their latest gadget at their fingertips.  

People like to blame food because that means the big, bad companies can be blamed for people being fat but the responsibility ultimately lies with adults themselves, both on their own behalf and on behalf of their children.  

 

That is also undoubtedly true too and a huge factor.

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24 minutes ago, DavidM said:

I’d agree . There’s a lot of deflection of responsibility now in society , someone to blame , but ultimately it’s individual and parental responsibility . I’m not one for blanket restriction or edict from above as a panacea , everyone makes their own choices .It’s also often an easy or lazier option to have a takeaway rather than make something . 

I used to play outside a lot when I was a kid. There weren't a huge number of cars and all the drivers knew that if they hit me it would be their fault, no question.

Now there are lots of cars and motorists get away with hitting people and driving off every day.

Still, must keep blaming the parents. There can't be anything structural that needs fixing.

Oh, and how many schools still have playing fields? How many Sure Starts are still open? How many free youth clubs are still out there?

Nah. It's the parents' fault. Nasty fat kids. It's a punishment.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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1 hour ago, Damien said:

the main difference is that now people have the disposable income

And yet 2017 saw households spend more than they earned. For the first time in 30 years.

And the ONS reports: "Household budgets are under increasing strain. Rising prices have led to increased spending in recent years, while disposable income has risen only modestly."

But it's all the fault of the lazy and the indolent.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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8 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

I used to play outside a lot when I was a kid. There weren't a huge number of cars and all the drivers knew that if they hit me it would be their fault, no question.

Now there are lots of cars and motorists get away with hitting people and driving off every day.

Still, must keep blaming the parents. There can't be anything structural that needs fixing.

Oh, and how many schools still have playing fields? How many Sure Starts are still open? How many free youth clubs are still out there?

Nah. It's the parents' fault. Nasty fat kids. It's a punishment.

If you don’t think parents are responsible for kids that would be mental 

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1 hour ago, Damien said:

It's not really any different to the 80s though and certainly McDonalds had all of what it has now and more. The likes of cereal's certainly targeted to children a lot more with toys etc than they do now, which has stopped. Like I said for me the main difference is that now people have the disposable income to waste on needless food and needless amounts of food.

There is also the fact that it does taste better. We can all pretend that it doesn't but it does. 

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14 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

I used to play outside a lot when I was a kid. There weren't a huge number of cars and all the drivers knew that if they hit me it would be their fault, no question.

Now there are lots of cars and motorists get away with hitting people and driving off every day.

Still, must keep blaming the parents. There can't be anything structural that needs fixing.

Oh, and how many schools still have playing fields? How many Sure Starts are still open? How many free youth clubs are still out there?

Nah. It's the parents' fault. Nasty fat kids. It's a punishment.

Children are the responsibility of their parents.  That isn't just an every day fact; it is also the law.  Hence if children are obese then the responsibility lies with their parents.  

At no time did I mention children playing in the roads so I have no idea what you are going on about with that business about cars.  Playing fields are irrelevant as children do outdoor sports on the playground and all schools have playgrounds.  No idea what Sure Start has to do with obesity but there you go.

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7 minutes ago, DavidM said:

If you don’t think parents are responsible for kids that would be mental 

I think most kids, even parents of fat kids, are trying their best.

Anyone thinking there's nothing structural that needs to change is ... wrong. Simple as that.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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2 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Certainly hidden calories are a big problem. I think this should be addressed either by better labelling on packages or better education in school, or both to be fair. I've really noticed this in the last few years since a medical diagnosis that means I have to really watch sugar, alcohol and caffeine consumption. It is shocking how much sugar is in the most random of foods. For example in a loaf of bread you can have up to 2g in each slice. Before that I just never thought of bread having so much sugar in it since its a savoury food. That's just one example of course.

If you take energy drinks, which the government has now brought in an age restriction for, I worked out that one particular one that I used to drink in abundance, if you extracted the sugar, approximately half the can would be pure sugar. Similarly a bottle of coke is something like a third sugar, if my pretty poor maths was correct anyway! Anyway, point I'm making there is even things that you know have sugar in have a hell of a lot more in than you might expect.

Packets do display this information of course but they have a way or making it sound better than it is a lot of the time. They will write, 'per 100g' for example when the thing you are eating is 500g or something, a figure which applies to fat content as well. So in big writing it will say something like 3g which sounds pretty good and then you read the small print and realise the product actually has 15g in it. The bread I mentioned is a perfect example of this. It says 2g in big writing and per slice in miniscule writing above. As I say, the industry certainly needs to be regulated and information on packets needs to be standardised and made a lot clearer but much more needs to be done to educate children on health and diet. I don't remember it being something i was taught in school. 

Kids are taught all the time about healthy eating. There's only so many times you can be shown what is healthy and what isn't.

Look at us on here, we all know about healthy foods but how many of us are overweight?

There are all sorts of problems associated with the rise of obesity and none of them are easily fixed if at all. Are we really going to drag people away from incredibly addictive technology to go and do some exercise not just for a week but for life? Are we really going to be able to stop people wanting to eat more enjoyable food?

If we've learnt one thing about food it should be that willpower isn't going to answer the problems.

That said I completely agree with the OP: normalising obesity is only going to make things worse. 

 

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6 hours ago, ckn said:

I read this article this morning on “fat” being a neutral word and it fits in with the rest of the agenda to de-stigmatise obesity.  Idiot people.  Being fat is NOT healthy and it should have a negative impression.  I’m overweight, pushing 30 on the BMI scale and I know that it’s causing me health issues, especially on my already knackered knees.

I won’t make fun of people who have obvious illnesses, I include being obese in that, but I’m certainly not going to suddenly pretend that it’s fine to be fat.  Would we be telling people walking around with open sores that it’s fine and they should love them?

The best thing an obese person can do to improve their health is lose weight, anyone encouraging an obese person to stay obese is effectively encouraging them to die younger.

Childhood obesity is soaring, especially in deprived areas, I see the NHS health stats on this and it’s truly shocking.  Obesity has become normalised and many parents simply don’t see what’s wrong with their kids being overweight any longer.  Substantially more children are getting to adulthood in shocking health because of this with all the life-long health consequences that come with it.

So, you can take your “love your fat” message and ram it up your backside.

Incidentally, despite being thoroughly fed up of the 'it's all the fault of lazy, thick people' on this thread, I agree with all of this.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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1 minute ago, Maximus Decimus said:

Kids are taught all the time about healthy eating. There's only so many times you can be shown what is healthy and what isn't.

Look at us on here, we all know about healthy foods but how many of us are overweight?

There are all sorts of problems associated with the rise of obesity and none of them are easily fixed if at all. Are we really going to drag people away from incredibly addictive technology to go and do some exercise not just for a week but for life? Are we really going to be able to stop people wanting to eat more enjoyable food?

If we've learnt one thing about food it should be that willpower isn't going to answer the problems.

That said I completely agree with the OP: normalising obesity is only going to make things worse. 

 

It'll all be easier once we lower our food standards to get that trade deal with the USA.

Very healthy country that.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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4 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Incidentally, despite being thoroughly fed up of the 'it's all the fault of lazy, thick people' on this thread, I agree with all of this.

Who has said all that?

You had a go at me but all I said was that adults are responsible for their own weight and that parents are responsible for the weight of their children.  There is nothing controversial in either of those statements and nothing in my post even implied 'lazy, thick people'.

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14 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

And yet 2017 saw households spend more than they earned. For the first time in 30 years.

And the ONS reports: "Household budgets are under increasing strain. Rising prices have led to increased spending in recent years, while disposable income has risen only modestly."

But it's all the fault of the lazy and the indolent.

Well you know the old saying, lies, damned lies and statistics. I've seen enough spin to suit any agenda. Maybe people are spending more than they earn on things that are not necessarily essential. Again all I can equate this to from what I remember from the 80s and early 90s. 2 cars is now the norm, most households have a number of widescreen TVs, microwaves etc are taken for granted, fast food is no longer an expensive treat and is now the norm etc. You obviously disagree and that's fine.

As for the last paragraph, not sure of the relevance to what I wrote to be honest. You seem to be looking for an argument against something I haven't even argued.

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