This is partly inspired by watching Jamie Oliver's programme tonight and also the fact that I've recently read Dr John Briffa's 'Escape The Diet Trap'.
I'll hold my hands up to having been overweight all of my adult life and at one stage having been obese, I'm now comfortably losing weight and feel very healthy (better skin, hair and nails than ever before). I've read so much and tried different things over the years but I honestly feel that there is no consensus as to what constitutes a healthy diet.
My mum recently went to the doctor and was told she has a high bmi, borderline cholesterol and raised blood pressure. The diet advise she was given was imo a load of outdated crap that would probably cause her to gain weight (porridge with dried fruit for breakfast, sweetener in tea, jacket potato with beans for lunch, low fat meat and 2 veg type dinner/stir fry/pasta, snack on fruit).
No one can deny that we have a problem with obesity in this country but the solution I've heard most often is to put a tax on 'unhealthy food' passing on the punishment to the consumer. Now we all need to take personal responsibility and some foods are obviously bad for us such as crisps, milk chocolate and fizzy drinks, but there are so many things that are a grey area such as salted nuts, fatty meats, cheese, cream-many doctors or experts would say we should't eat these, yet others say they are fine. If the 'experts' can't agree then how are the public expected to make correct choices? And if we don't have the correct information then how is it ethical to charge people extra for what there's no consensus on?
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To think that we need a consensus on healthy food before we can have a 'fat tax'?
56 replies
whitershadeofpale · 03/09/2015 22:58
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