"Cake in the office is like passive smoking" - is there a thread on this yet?

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www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384

My initial instinct in response to this is WTAF, and to start making a big batch of brownies.

Having said that, I do think it's our culture making us (as a nation) fat, and that this isn't the responsibilities of individuals only.

But still - what is there to go to work for, if not the office cake?

I think it's just another Tory "dead cat" distraction from all the strikes, cost of living crisis, and purposeful dissolution of the NHS.

that this isn't the responsibilities of individuals only

give over. People need to take responsibility for their own actions and not blame others for what they eat.

if I stand next to cake but don’t eat any I don’t absorb the calories. It’s nothing like passive smoking! Our work kitchen is full of cakes and biscuits. I take a banana in each day for a snack.

Have realised another reason why this pisses me off.

It's the seemingly deliberate erosion of nice, wholesome means of social contact.

What makes people fat (I know it's complicated, but disproprtionately) are the over-processed, readily available foods (supermarket shite) which people eat predominantly non-socially.
With office cake, it's more likely (IME) to be home-made, is a shared experience, is a way for people to show generosity and affection for each other in what's often a soul-destroying environment.

So even if it might add a bit of sugar to people's diets, this is NOT the sugar to attack.

Leave us the fuck alone and go for the food companies and regulations, and the insane NHS-endorsed advice (low fat etc).

I work in an office of 1000+ people, it is literally someone’s birthday/project completion etc. every day.
Whilst I sympathise with those who can’t not eat the cake and I personally don’t think it should be ‘a thing’ (because I find it gross that it’s often just sat sweating and being picked over) - I don’t think it requires legislating against and it’s obviously not comparable to passive smoking unless, as some have said, you’re being force fed cancerous cake as you work.

People who bring cake into the workplace are disgusting. Grim. And it reeks.

What's next, getting rid of cake at kid's birthday parties? (I'm only half joking)

What kind of cake are people bringing into your workplace? Cabbage?

Classic MN 🤣

I agree with @JustMaggie When this kind of story makes the headlines it's a good idea to step back and look at what we're being distracted from!

I don't even like cake that much, however if it's there I will eat it if I'm hungry 🤷‍♀️. I have little will power though as do a lot of people

Just can't win.
If you WFH you're told to "get back in the office! Socialise with colleagues! Support your local Pret by buying lunch!"
But then also - "DON'T TAKE CAKE INTO THE OFFICE! You are killing your colleagues!!!"
🤣🤦🏻‍♀️🎂

I mean, it’s not.

I have utmost sympathy for those with truly disordered eating, but food is one of those things that does crop up in everyday life. I don’t think it’s reasonable to have to preemptively assume your coworkers have a compulsion to eat cake and therefore ban cake. Obviously no one should be pressured into eating anything (that whole “oh, go on” business gets on my nerves).

Being in the same room as a cake isn't going to give you lung cancer.

Homemade cake is delicious and I partake. I avoid the shop bought cake. Don't take away the cake we need something at work.
Let's get fat' die early and not take pensions.

Well me bringing cakes in doesn't mean I'm going to stuff one in your face as you walk past, so I think Susan should stop trying to suck the last bit of remaining joy out of the office

Mmm, so I think the sentiment is wrong but there’s a point and lesson in there somewhere! I think we’ve normalised eating unhealthily too much, everywhere. My youngest in primary is constantly being tempted by junk food, it’s not fun being the parent who is trying to limit the unhealthy foods for health reasons (I’m borderline diabetic and my daughter has a real sweet tooth). The school is like “Come to SATS club, we will bring in cakes and cookies!!”, so every Thursday she’s having that. Then Fridays they have football training after school, and now the new thing is if you score a goal you win a treat. And every Friday they also give out rewards for good behaviour in week - baking or cookie decorating. Everything seems to come down to sweet stuff. And when my husband is in the office and someone brings in homemade cake there is peer pressure to try. You’re not gonna try my cake?? I worked hard on it especially for you. Great!…. And before they’ve even finished someone goes “Ok my turn to bring something in tomorrow”.
It’s a nightmare for someone trying to be healthy and of course it’s tempting as well.

I don’t agree with the article but I understand the need to say it’s not a great culture we live in. And with kids in primary school it’s even harder with their fairs and cake stalls and competitions to win junk food. I wonder if it’s just my kid’s school, I look forward to her leaving this year as it’s never ending.

Let's get fat' die early and not take pensions

Now, there's a campaign slogan with legs.

It's not difficult. Eat it outside, well away from other people! And never around kids.

Lady Whiteadder, is that you?

Well it’s not like passive smoking is it? Stupid comparison.

BUT social norms and the fucked up relationship with food that a lot of people have mean that I can understand where she’s coming from.

Sugar and poor diets kill as many, if not more people than smoking and will continue to do so. I think making sugary food contraband is probably some way off yet but something needs to be done to stop us becoming a country of obese type 2 diabetics. Banning smoking in most places and restricting sales have cut down numbers significantly.

Are we alleging toddlers now ?
I am currently too fat. That is down to many things, grief eating mainly, but it was my choice to eat all that chocolate icecream, and not the fault of Tesco for seducing me in the aisles.

if I stand next to cake but don’t eat any I don’t absorb the calories

Ha ha, I think some people do :)

I think it is very different to passive smoking - as people say, you don't have a choice to breathe in second hand smoke, whereas you can exercise a choice about what you put in your mouth.

As for birthday parties, there are plenty of precious mothers out there who moan about the unhealthy party food because eating a few crisps and fondant fancies will make your child fat forever.

There are ways of stopping people from being obese, but people don't like them. Obvious one - walk/cycle more and drive less. Cyclists are not usually fat.

I don’t know where that “alleging” came from. Should read “all”

People bringing cake into work to share with others, is kind and considerate

Not all of them. In my last and final office job, the resident feeder definitely had ishoooooos. She would bring in lots of home baking and be quite insistent on bringing the plates round, watching people eat, never took a bite herself and would later be bitching in the staff room about people being fat and greedy.

One of the many reasons I'm delighted to be self employed now.

We never have cases Ì did think maybe I would bring one in for my birthday but I was being a miserable cow (as befits someone having a birthday just after Christmas) so I didn't. Sod it. I would have had to have got paper pates, a knife, cake etc.