Surprised at numbers of overweight adults - surely more needs to be done?

[OrangeSunset]

Fully prepared for this to be fairly controversial but here goes.

We’re on holiday in the South West. I am honestly shocked at the numbers of overweight adults on the beach today. I’d say at least 50% were overweight, across all age ranges. Really it was more like 70%. DH and I are ok but being harsh I’d say we could/should each lose 5kg and be more lean. It’s just miserable and I was shocked - even more so when you see overweight kids too as we all know that sets them up for a lifetime of weight issues.

I’m not sure what my point is, other than to say that Boris cutting some adverts just isn’t good enough. The prevalence of shit food is condemning people to an unhealthy life with medical issues and challenges that us as humans just shouldn’t be subjecting ourselves to.

How do we break this cycle? Anyone who points it is out is seen as judgemental but it’s gone beyond the point of individual choice surely - it doesn’t work and is ruining people’s lives and perpetuating the cycle.

@justanotherneighinparadise

Avocado (a nature product) is both a fatty and a carby fruit.

Name me a natural piece of food that is high in refined sugar, high in carbs and high in fat. I’m happy to stand corrected.

As I said, an avocado. It's a natural fruit from south america.

You need to educate yourself on carbs if you're still making a difference between sugar and carbs. Sugar is a pure carb.

Avocado is not "carby", it's very low in carbohydrates/sugars.

Basic ignorance of food is clearly a problem

@gettingfedupagain

Avocado is not "carby", it's very low in carbohydrates/sugars.

Basic ignorance of food is clearly a problem

I agree that it's not a lot of carbs on the whole, but my post was in respons to a pp that claimed that nature doesn't produce anything with both fat and carbs. Which is not true, it does. As my avocado shows. Do you disagree on any of this?

I can’t find the post, but somebody upthread actually said that calories in v calories out “had no scientific basis”.

Eh?? Ever heard that energy cannot be created or destroyed? It’s the first law of thermodynamics. Asleep in physics, were we?

We all know, deep down, that this is about self control. Of course it’s difficult. It’s more difficult for people with underlying health conditions, or people without proper cooking facilities, or people who have had difficult childhoods that have left them with unhealthy attitudes to food, but we all know what we need to do. The difficulty is making yourself do it. Of course it’s hard, but you have to make yourself eat sensibly and exercise.

I went for a hilly 5k run this morning. Did I want to do it? No! I would have been delighted to sit on the sofa with a family pack of kettle chips and a tin of Quality Street watching a box set.

I’ve put on a bit of weight working from home (I can’t believe that a poster upthread suggested that working from home would help people to lose weight...recent evidence suggests the opposite). Not much, but my jeans got tight and I decided to reverse the bad habits I’d got into.

I was eating a chocolate bar mid morning, which just made me want more sweet stuff (but crikey it was delicious! Whoever said that that stuff feels like a drug was bang on) and doing less exercise because on a normal day pre-lockdown I’d be walking a brisk mile and a half each day to the station and the office at the other end, and the same on the way home except the last mile was up a steep hill. So combined with not doing that, plus more snacking and more wine in the evening, because we couldn’t go out and felt we deserved it somehow, there was only going to be one outcome.

Would I have liked to carry on as I was? You bet! It was fantastic. But you have to get a grip and realise that it’s down to you to control what you eat and your activity level.

My heart sinks when I see young women in their late teens and early twenties who are enormous, heading into town for a bottomless brunch, where they will sink Prosecco at 500 calories a bottle, then more drinks, then a KFC on the train home that evening. That’s normal to them. It makes me sad to see their faces distorted by fat. They are on the fast track to type 2 diabetes and a lifetime of health problems.

I’m overweight and it’s shit. I know it’s shit and I know I’m fat I’m not in denial about it. I’ve gone from having a sedentary office job to having a much more active job. The difference to my mental health has been staggering and I’ve probably lost a bit of weight along the way. I certainly feel fitter. I’m not genetically blessed when it comes to my weight. I have to be very very careful about food and exercise and there is a correlation with my mental health. Obesity is really rather complex. I don’t believe it’s just a case of people gorging themselves there’s normally a trigger.

but my post was in respons to a pp that claimed that nature doesn't produce anything with both fat and carbs

What she was trying to say, I think, is that in nature you don’t often get this combination of high sugar and high fat that makes chocolate, ice cream, cake etc. so delicious.

And it is. Resisting it is hard. My husband bought a new (to us) type of Haagen Dazs a few weeks ago, peanut butter crunch or something? By that time I’d decided to get a grip of myself and eat less crap but I tasted a bit of it. Christ! Fireworks going off. It was gorgeous. I could happily sit and scoff the entire tub. But I won’t, because I know what the consequences will be.

The total carbs in avocado is mostly fibre. You need to subtract the fibre from the total carbs, that only leaves 2 g per 100 g.

HermioneWeasley

I’m overweight because I’m greedy

I don’t think there’s much the government or NHS can do about that

justanotherneighinparadise ...... You're not greedy. You're hungry.

Are you seriously telling HermioneWeasley that despite (presumably) not knowing her from Adam, you know her better than she knows herself?

Or does greed not exist in the world anymore?

The main sugar found in avocado is a unique form known as D-mannopheptulose which does not act like a conventional sugar. It helps to satisfy sensations of hunger and supports improved blood glucose control and weight management.

The composition of avocado is 23% fat and 3% carbohydrate, 28% of which of dietary fibre. So I don’t think anyone could accuse it of being high in processed sugar and high in fat. Nuts also have some naturally occurring sucrose but when you look at the ratios they are around 2-6g per 100g.

Chestnuts are high on carbs but relatively low fat. Pistachios and cashews are also quite high in carbs and where they are high in carbs they tend to be the lower end on fats. As I said nature balances this stuff out naturally. If the fruit is very sweet it is likely to be no fat or low fat, conversely if a fruit or vegetable is high in fat, it will be low in carbs.

You’re not greedy. You’re hungry.

@justanotherneighinparadise What qualifies you to make this comment? To tell someone that their own statement about their own situation is wrong?

When I was fat I was fat because I was greedy. I, like many people, ate for the sake of eating. I ate when I was hungry and I ate when I wasn't hungry and I did that because I was greedy and I knew it. I'm not saying that's the case for everyone, but if someone had tried to tell me differently I would have been pretty pissed off. Fat people aren't automatically stupid too.

@WorraLiberty

HermioneWeasley

I’m overweight because I’m greedy

I don’t think there’s much the government or NHS can do about that

justanotherneighinparadise ...... You're not greedy. You're hungry.

Are you seriously telling HermioneWeasley that despite (presumably) not knowing her from Adam, you know her better than she knows herself?

Or does greed not exist in the world anymore?

Her body is sending her intense hunger signals. That’s not the same as someone being greedy or gluttonous.

I saw that TV show.

It's the highly palatable foods that are "bingeable". High fat / high sugar like cheesecake was really bad for lab mice.

Oh and the mice eat more blended chow than lumpy so put away the smoothie maker!

@WhatamessIgotinto

You’re not greedy. You’re hungry.

@justanotherneighinparadise What qualifies you to make this comment? To tell someone that their own statement about their own situation is wrong?

When I was fat I was fat because I was greedy. I, like many people, ate for the sake of eating. I ate when I was hungry and I ate when I wasn't hungry and I did that because I was greedy and I knew it. I'm not saying that's the case for everyone, but if someone had tried to tell me differently I would have been pretty pissed off. Fat people aren't automatically stupid too.

Ah that’s really interesting. You ate because you were hungry. You ate when you wasn’t hungry. We can both eat for physiological reasons and emotional reasons. Many of us eat to celebrate or commiserate. None of that makes you greedy.

@justanotherneighinparadise. I ate too much for many reasons. One of those reasons was greed. Please, at least, respect other people's experiences even if you don't agree with them. Don't assume you know better.

@WhatamessIgotinto you seem very keen to give yourself that label. I too thrive on self loathing, so I understand the emotion well.

The out of control feeling that constant hunger gives us can absolutely make us feel greedy, the pleasure that hyper palatable food gives us certainly makes us feel gluttonous and I would equally have given myself both of those terms in the past. But nowadays I get no hunger signals, I sail through the day with no emotional highs and lows and can happily fast for 24 hours no problem. So I realise I was never greedy, I was hungry and the reason I was hungry was that I was eating foods that made me hungry abs when I stopped doing that I was fine.

It is not quite as simple as calories in and calories out. Fructose for example, seems to be converted pretty much straight into fat while other sugar are more likely to be converted into short-term or long-term energy sources. That is why corn syrup is considered to be much unhealthier than other sources of sweetness.

That being said, I have been both heavily overweight and super fit in my life. At the end of the day, you cannot outrun an unhealthy diet and sticking to some basic rules (don't weat more than you eat + no processed food, no alcohol, no treat-like food) isn't rocket science. And I do say this as someone with a genetic condition that means I get fat really easily and find it difficult to get off. It is not easy to stick to a healthy life style but it is not complicated either.

I am from mainland Europe and some British habits - e.g. crisps as a normal everyday food - still seem really strange to me. I mean, I would happily wolf down a full 'sharing bag' a day but I don't, because I grew up always seeing them as a special treat to be had maybe once a month. I mostly read the Brexit and Prepper threads on here and the crisp thing really only hit me when people kept mentioning they would have to stock up on crisps, as they were their children's favourite treat and they would have 1-2 wee bags daily as a snack. I am not trying to shame or blame anyone here, just trying to give an example of something that is normal for the British diet but would not be entertained elsewhere. I mean, in my birth country, we eat raw minced meat with onions and eggs on bread rolls, so we have our weird food habits, too, they just tend to be less 'artificially processed.'

*don't eat more than you use...

Her body is sending her intense hunger signals. That’s not the same as someone being greedy or gluttonous.

And how in the name of goodness do you know that?

She didn't even mention hunger, did she?

You do realise people also eat when they're not hungry don't you?

Take Christmas for an example. Do you honestly think all the people who say they had a huge Christmas dinner and then ate their way through a tin of Quality Street, cakes, cheese, crackers and all the other things we all tend to overindulge ourselves with, only did it because they're being sent 'Intense hunger signals'?

Blimey

@WorraLiberty

Her body is sending her intense hunger signals. That’s not the same as someone being greedy or gluttonous.

And how in the name of goodness do you know that?

She didn't even mention hunger, did she?

You do realise people also eat when they're not hungry don't you?

Take Christmas for an example. Do you honestly think all the people who say they had a huge Christmas dinner and then ate their way through a tin of Quality Street, cakes, cheese, crackers and all the other things we all tend to overindulge ourselves with, only did it because they're being sent 'Intense hunger signals'?

Blimey

Worra I seem to have offended you. I normally enjoy your posts so I shall apologise.

Plentiful food, lack of willpower, and I do what I want attitude, only a few have medical issues/ medication.

@justanotherneighinparadise
*you seem very keen to give yourself that label. I too thrive on self loathing, so I understand the emotion well

You're making yourself look a bit silly now. You're assuming, again, that your situation and your experience is the only one. That everyone must be the same as you because that's what you felt. I'm sorry you understand self loathing so well, that's not my experience at all, now or previously. You can only speak of your experience and I can only speak of mine. I wouldn't dream of telling you that you are wrong about your feelings or what you know about yourself. That would be quite wrong.

Actually before I leave the thread I will just reiterate my opinion on greed over gluttony. Your Christmas paragraph is the perfect example of gluttony. A time of celebration to indulge in all the foods you might try to avoid during the rest of the year.

Greed is described as ‘intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food‘. So we can feel greedy because we are always hungry without realising there’s a chemical reaction taking place making us hungry. So it’s not a psychological failing, it’s an intense drive being created by powerful hormones.

Why would anyone's heart sink to see people out enjoying themselves 🤔

more fun PE lessons in school in every year group

Is PE better than it was when I was a child? It used to be horrendous.

@justanotherneighinparadise you know it's ok to admit that you understand that other people are different to you, right? That they have different experiences and they should not be trodden on because your own are different?