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.

There is other type of pressures too when it comes to weight loss. There's definitely an attitude of other people secretly taking offence in others losing a few pounds. I experienced this in recent months as did my sister too when she was losing weight. People who's not obese or overweight, they nearly see it as a threat and use any excuse to shove biscuits and cakes into your face.

I live at home with my mother. She's not shoving cake and rubbish in my face. She's taking offence to my clean eating and she's claiming my cooking is giving her migraines. First of all, I know what a migraine is. It's enough to floor you and put you to bed until it's over. Whatever she has, it's not a migraine. It's more than likely a tension headaches. I don't use garlic or seasonings in my cooking. I'm looking at poached eggs with some mushrooms or courgettes. The other morning I made a broccoli soup. I used no onions or garlic and just a stock cube. Anyways the mother is claiming that she's getting migraines from my cooking.

The real kicker is I have a brother at home who has chosen to use a deep fat fryer as a method of cooking. He cooks chips, nuggets, chicken wings, other stuff, regularly and that causes much more of a smell. A greasy smell that lingers for hours and my mother doesn't say anything to him. He also smokes in his room and there's something much more than cigarettes being smoked and its stinking up the whole hall but my mother doesn't say anything. It's just my clean eating that's causing her offence.

A few weeks ago my boss was trying to get me to eat some party food stuff like chips, pizza, cake and I was genuinely not hungry and she said something and I didn't like her tone -' oh I forgot you are on a diet'. First of all I don't consider what I'm doing a diet. It's a change of ways and a change of life - eating better.

My sister when she was losing weight found the same issues in her work place with colleagues using any excuse to shoove cakes and biscuits under her face. My sister had incredible willpower to resist but it never stopped them. It was a regular thing in her work.

It's almost as if some people feel threatened at another persons weight loss.

Yellowwave that sounds really difficult to live with.

I had some of that attitude from my mum years ago (minus the migraines.)

Once I'd moved out I had a phase of buying organic veg and she caught me at it one day and started off on one. I was able to point out that when she was growing up everything was pretty much organic which she had to agree with!

I think it's lucky she is of pre war vintage so although she loves convenience food she has other reference points. A pan of soup is fine by her though it would be better with a piece of bacon in. After years she has come round to saying that my cooking is good and I have come back round to eating bacon, egg and black pudding sometimes! We agree to love well seasoned cabbage.

Favouritism is bloody annoying but you sound like you are going your own way. Keep at it.

Intrigued by the PP comparing it to crack, surely the most logical addiction to compare it to would be alcoholism- where it is always available, heavily marketed, some social events revolve around it and you need to drink fluids to survive; but I guess that doesn't sound as dramatic as crack

I don't use garlic or seasonings in my cooking.

I'm intrigued - is there a specific reason for this? A stock cube (which will contain salt and a small amount of fat) is likely to be less 'clean' than some herbs and garlic. Unless you just don't like the taste of garlic/onions etc, in which case it makes sense!

I'm not a fan of the term 'clean eating', as it implies certain foods are 'dirty', which isn't the case. I think the more we try to take the emotive language out of conversations about food, the better. Food is fuel. We need to eat the right amount of it, and we need to eat the right nutrients for our bodies, but it shouldn't be a source of shame or a replacement for love. As a society we are a long way away from that though.

I took it that leaving out garlic was to avoid more conflict.

It is strongly linked to deprivation. What food is available locally, takeaways, restaurants, urban/rural, parental mental health, whether your parents had time to cook, buy cookbooks, internet access, co-existing health conditions, isolation, bullying.

Modern life is incredibly disconnecting, we are disconnected from origin of food, our appetites, and there is a prevalence of micro addictions. I think the problem is with us until climate change takes over and we have to rethink, it's embedded in the fabric of modern society.

As individuals, I think the most powerful thing we can do is truly wake up to to the truth that it doesn't have to be this way, educate ourselves about nutrition, and go for the 80/20 principle...eat 80% well. Everyone needs to be taught how to meal plan. Draw a circle of a plate, divide it into half, divide one half into quarters. In the half section goes veggies and in the quarter sections goes carb and protein. That's your meal. Eat according to those three sections and you can't go wrong. Education and common sense is the answer, stopping relying on medical science for answers, we have been eating for thousands of years, we know how to do it.

Yes I love garlic and seasoning but I'm not allowed that and as another poster said, it's to avoid conflict from the mother. She's not targeting steamed veg that realistically has little to no smells. I like to get up hours earlier and focus on a clean nutritious breakfast and my mother has learned my new tricks of getting up earlier (I'm doing it to avoid her) and she's now taking to get up earlier too. Before I used to get til about 9 or 10am before she would get up. She loves turning my breakfast into a fcuking sh1t show. I suppose if I was to throw some veg into the deep fat fryer she would probably welcome that. She's doing it because she's jealous I might lose some pounds.

@EvaHoffman Spot on analysis.

Often doing things differently is taken as an affront.

There can also be a weird, sneery attitude towards healthy eating. When I see my sister, who is obese, I avoid talking about food because her and bil make it seem like I'm a food snob just because me and dc are healthy weights. If you're not seen to be eating junk food on a daily basis you're obviously full of yourself! It makes me feel self conscious about it. Now that can't be right?!

I get so fed up hearing that it's mainly to do with being poor / deprivation.

As kids we were skint, like debt collectors knocking at the door hard up, my mum came from a very working class family. One of 7 and none of the family were overweight.

Kids were out playing more, helping with household chores, cooking etc and mealtimes they all ate together. All this constant snacking now is insane, it never stops.

There has been so much emphasis on healthy eating healthy in the last few decades
There is simply no excuse (bar medical reasons) why people, especially kids are fat other than they eat too much and don't move enough. All the government campaigns over the years like live well , guidance on portion control, Jamie Oliver tackling school dinners, the government busy bees activity programs for fat kids, there are lots of resources which are totally feee people can access but they choose not to.

A friend of mine feeds her kid nothing but freezer foods, packets of noodles, burgers etc and she's highly intelligent and not on the breadline but wonders why her kid is getting bigger, adult size portions, snacks etc are the reason why.

Rant over

@EvaHoffman

It really isn't to do with countries developing. There are many richer countries than the U.K. which don't have such problems with obesity.

The problem is inequality. The food industries have flooded the market with poor quality food. If you are poor and working all hours and don't have time to cook it inevitable that's what you'll choose. This has now become a cultural issue because several generations have lived in this way and it has ceased to be about individual choice but more about what is 'normal' because everybody else does it.

It's really easy to see this. Go to Norway or Finland. Easier than that, go to a rich neighbourhood anywhere near you and notice how people look.

This is definitely true. In my region, the people in affluent towns and areas are thinner than the people in more deprived towns. It's not a subtle difference either - it's very visible when you visit different areas.

I don't use garlic or seasonings in my cooking.

That's sad.

@losenotloose

There can also be a weird, sneery attitude towards healthy eating. When I see my sister, who is obese, I avoid talking about food because her and bil make it seem like I'm a food snob just because me and dc are healthy weights. If you're not seen to be eating junk food on a daily basis you're obviously full of yourself! It makes me feel self conscious about it. Now that can't be right?!

I think when people do this, it's a defence mechanism. They almost certainly know they are overweight and feel inadequate and insecure about what they eat. It's easier to go on the offensive to make yourself feel better.

It's the equivalent of teasing the brainy/nerdy kid at school. In reality, those doing the teasing would love to be getting top marks as well.

I do think a lot of it comes down to the way we project morality/judgement and emotion onto food. If the emotion was taken out of it, people wouldn't feel the need to be defensive and would probably have a healthier relationship with their bodies.

Also, when it's your mum - she was probably the one who cooked for you and chose your diet when you were growing up. Changing your diet as an adult will represent a rejection of her influence and a criticism of her parenting.

That's not to say that she's right to criticise your food choices (obviously not!), but I think that feeling of rejection will be where it's be coming from. She may even feel that she's being blamed for what she fed you.

There can also be a weird, sneery attitude towards healthy eating

It's kind of like the BF and FF discussions. Someone who has the downright nerve to BF is often told that they are being nasty, judgemental to the FFer, even though they haven't actually said anything about it, or claimed BF is superior. If you dare to say you choose to eat healthy meals, you're called smug, or any other sort of odd word. It's why it is hard to talk about it and most people avoid it, and as a society the weight creeps on and overweight becomes a new social norm.

I love garlic. Garlic is very good I find. Whenever I feel a cold come on, I love taking garlic. I chop it into pieces. I think something I do whether it's garlic or loads of vitamin c stops a cold on its tracks.

It's my mother who's claiming she can't stand the smell of it and she's claiming migraines. To be degree, especially now, I'm somewhat questioning it. Not out loud to her because she will have a fit. She can't tolerate the smell of garlic or onions so I cut them out. Now she's targeting other foods like steamed carrots, broccoli, courgettes, other veg while she doesn't say anything about my brothers cooking which is deep fat fryer cooking and his smoking weed habit stinking up the whole house. It's just me and my cooking she can't tolerate. She can tolerate the deep fat fryer and the weed but steamed veg gives her migraines. I also notice she's not going to the doctor with her migraines. I think all she's doing is trying to control what I eat and she's indirectly telling me to go fcuk myself with my clean eating.

Yellow wave, why are continuing to live with your mum? It sounds like a miserable existence, especially when you factor in the pot smoking brother.

There is other type of pressures too when it comes to weight loss. There's definitely an attitude of other people secretly taking offence in others losing a few pounds. I experienced this in recent months as did my sister too when she was losing weight. People who's not obese or overweight, they nearly see it as a threat and use any excuse to shove biscuits and cakes into your face.

I have seen this on many an office that I have worked in. It is mostly from other women from my observations too. It's not very nice to witness.

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1214748585541838&id=859784451038255

I thought this was an excellent post about obesity and food poverty.

Look at the numerous threads on MN around food. The pages long debates about what should be included in a roast/ Christmas Dinner, whether people should plate up or allow guests to self serve, fussy eaters, what should be included in a buffet and portion sizes. Huge amount of emotion in all these subjects.

I don't doubt there are people from working class backgrounds who grew up eating healthily and I'm sure there are middle class people on who are obese. The thing is though, the statistics do overwhelmingly point to obesity being connected to poverty. To be specific though, inequality. It's really clear.

Saying that working class people are more likely to be obese is absolutely not a judgment of individuals. The reasons are historical, economic, social and cultural. Systemic.

My grandmother is an amazing woman. Smart, on the ball and not in the least bit stupid or lazy. She was brought up to cook well economically from scratch. So why doesn't she cook us the vegetable soup she was brought up with? Why doesn't she give us left over bread and milk for breakfast? Why does she buy Frosties instead?

She started buying frozen curries, chips and beef burgers and Frosties when she began working in the 1970s. Working class women have always worked and as the cost of living has gone up (especially housing costs) she began to have to work 3 jobs a day. She had been brought up in an era when people actually went hungry, when food was really scarce at times so when cheap convenience foods came in they not only made life easier but must have made her feel she'd made progress in her life to be able to fill the fridge and freezer with food advertised on the telly. I know she was proud to put Frosties on the table when her grandkids came to visit. She was 'treating' us. People who grew up poor in the 50s and 60s needed to (deserved to) treat themselves when food became affordable.

So many people of her generation have had this history with food. Now it has become normal in her world to buy convenience foods. It's not stupidity or laziness, it's just what everyone does and doing differently would not only take up her time and cost more but she'd stick out among her friends.

Telling my grandmother to cook vegetable soup like her mother used to make or asking her why she doesn't buy porridge oats instead of Frosties just signifies that I'm puritanical, don't know how to treat myself, 'posh', different from her and probably think I'm better than her. None of her friends or neighbours eat organic vegetables. If she started doing that she'd worry they were thinking 'who does she think she is?'

Educating people about healthy eating is really not enough.

@Emmie12345

Gummy bears is the term locals use for the obese beachgoers in the SW...

The last few months have really put me off the SW. Or at least the inhabitants. If they're not calling the rest of us Emmets for the crime of not being local born and bred, they're slagging off people as gummy bears. Lovely warm welcoming lot...

exercise burn dissapointingly little extra calories.
but my half hour run means that for 3 hours or so I can't eat. (a couple of hours before running or I get stiches/feel sick)

Eating badly is just a habit, and it can be broken. I used to eat a lot of chocolate, and drink full sugar coke etc. 4 years ago I went on a health kick and gave up eating chocolate, temporarily I thought, but I have not eaten it since. The thought of eating it is not appealing. My desire for sugar has gone, I have the occasional ice cream on a hot day or a slice of cake every now and then, but not often. Lots of things taste too sweet now. I am not somebody with a great deal of willpower so I am surprised I lasted long enough to break the habit. I lost 2 stone very slowly since then, and it has stayed off. I wasn't dieting just eating better.