to still be annoyed with Edwina Currie regarding fat people on TV over a week later

[entropygirl]

She has pissed me right off!

What the fuck difference does having fat people on TV make? I want to lose weight because I want to live long enough to see my DD grow up, to achieve my ambitions and I don't want people judging me on my weight or any of the social embarrassment or day in day out indignities that being fat lands you with. Against that backdrop of motivation WTF does seeing people on TV have to do with it?

She can also stick the whole fat people are too stupid to understand that they need to eat less calories where the sun don't shine. I have a Phd in physics from Oxbridge so I think we can assume I get that (and of course so does everyone else).

Why aren't people interested in solving the real problem? That fat people with all the motivation in the world, who totally understand the concept of calorie balance are still struggling to lose weight?

Anyway it's nearly a week since she was on the radio ruining my day so hopefully a cathartic rant will get me over it...

yanbu

i recently read caitlin morans book

it was OK, but the one bit that stood out at me was her assertion that obesity is the "addiction" of carers

Now I am not saying that everyone thats overweight has an addiction

But it made me look very differently at the fat mums at the school gate, the fat lady oushing her dad in a wheelchair

I hate obesity bashing

If you let Edwina Currie ruin your day (for a week) you have more problems in your life than being fat.

I don't really understand why she wants fat people on tv?
However will agree that she is very annoying and looks like a turkey.

Oh am bit dim this morning. Been up for last two nights with poorly DS so excuse me being dim. Reread op now.

'obesity is the "addiction" of carers'
It's true, though, isn't it? Or increasingly so. Something to do with the emotional stress meaning people need to self-soothe by eating? Or because carers (employed carers, as opposed to people like my mum who cares for my father) are more likely to be paid less so can't afford healthier food? But I was watching people come and go in a hospital recently and was struck by this size point.

That fat people with all the motivation in the world, who totally understand the concept of calorie balance are still struggling to lose weight

Who says that they are trying to lose weight?

Being 'fat' doesn't shorten your life, being obese does, not having any exercise and so does yo-yo dieting (as well as a multitude of other activities).

The problem is that everyone is getting into the mindset that being overweight is the same as being obese and it isn't.

I'd like stupid people banned from television, but it isn't going to happen anytime soon.

I think that the research emerging that the use of plastics has a dramatic effect on some people's metabolic rate and how fat is stored needs further investigation.

Something to do with the emotional stress meaning people need to self-soothe by eating?

It isn't just the eating, but the effect of stress on fat storage, the body views it as a 'crisis' so does what it needs to for survival, but this varies in people.

The same applies with night shift workers, research shows that even when all other factors remain the same, fat storage increases.

Whenever I am tempted to be irritated by Edwina Curry (lots!), I remember my DH's wickedly funny impersonation of Edwina and John Major having a passionate moment

The "can't afford healthier food" isn't right though is it? There are plenty of reasonably priced fruits & vegetables, fresh, tinned or frozen available to cook with.

I am poor and I manage not to exist on frozen chips. Which are more expensive. Anyone who uses that as an excuse is just not putting the effort into meal planning and shopping properly.

TBH I think there should be more fat people on television if anything. Approaching half the adults in Britain are overweight or obese, I don't see why they shouldn't be represented on television.
I don't see why serious jobs such as newsreaders etc should only be filled by thin, pretty people (of both sexes). I remember being very impressed by a large female barrister who used her weight to give herself real dignity and stature in the courtroom.
Certainly a lot more dignity than Edwina Currie had, trying to explain why she dumped John Major in it 14 years after their affair ended.
Enjoy it here
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2291467.stm

hmmm apologies for mixing up over weight and obese...as I lie on the exact border between the two, I do that quite a lot.

but wtf with 'how do you know they are trying to lose weight? I have NEVER met anyone who was seriously over weight who did not a) desperately want to lose weight, b) understand that the problem lay in eating to many calories.

I think there should be more ugly people on television. Those of us who are below average in attractiveness have NO representation on TV AT ALL.

I think we have some representation in coronation street and maybe eastenders.

;)

hmmm haven't seen either of those recently (ever). But my guess would be they are ugly for celebrities rather than actually below average....

I have met plenty of people who think they eat normally and blame their genes on being fat so not everyone understands calorie counting. Or simply they don't calorie count and assume they don't eat much.

Why do people on TV have to represent society? I don't understand this at all?

but wtf with 'how do you know they are trying to lose weight? I have NEVER met anyone who was seriously over weight who did not a) desperately want to lose weight, b) understand that the problem lay in eating to many calories

You didn't say 'seriously overweight' in your opening post, though.

I am in my fourties, as are most of my friends and older, a lot are around 1/2 stone (or less) overweight, they cannot shift it, without dropping their working hours, to do more exsercise, or being constantly hungry.

But they don't want to do anything about it, because it isn't impacting on their health.

There is a big difference in 'seriously overweight' and just overweight.

I think that a lot of obese people kid themselves that they are 'just' fat, but obesity and really high BMI, is the dangerous range to be in, not carrying extra pounds but leading an active lifestyle, the two,like enjoying a drink and being an alcoholic for 20 years, are completely seperate..

hello because people watch TV and it influences how they think. If all ethnic minorities (or the disabled, or uglies, or gingers) that appear on TV are playing the bad guys then people will start to judge them differently when they meet them in RL.

birds fair enough. I forgot that nobody else had actually heard the interview that annoyed me so much

I have teenage DD's and i am just very aware that when teenage girls hear 'obese' they think that they, who have developing bodies, with some pubescent body fat, fall into that category.

For some women once they hit late fourties, they have a few pounds that they cannot shift.

There was a recent death of a women who lived on diet coke and cigarettes, because she didn't want to get fat, doctors in the US are seeing more and more women with malnourishment and dangerously low potassium levels.

There needs to be the distiction made between obeseity and just out of average weight range, in regards to health.

entropygirl I heard the her on Radio5 (if that's the interview you mean) and have also heard her several other times - I don't know whether she tries to intentionally be 'shocking' to get more air time, or whether the views she puts out are really what she thinks. Regardless, she comes across as an ill-informed bully, with a total lack of understanding, insight or compassion for anyone. I have given up now, and turn off whenever I hear she is going to be on - ditto Katie Hopkins. I hate that kind of lazy 'shock' broadcasting.

birds yes that was actually a point made by a caller that by banging on and vilifying the obese (when has that EVER helped with anything?) you are actually pushing people into unhealthy relationships with food at the other end.

If everyone on TV is skinny, and you still keep banging on about obesity it will seriously screw up what people think 'normal' looks like.

That is probably the best argument for having representative TV population going.

2ticks yes I suppose that must be it....and I should know better than to listen...

did you hear the bit where someone was pointing out that if visible people have a moral duty to not promote dangerous lifestyles then adultresses should consider if they should not look in the mirror first?

fecking hilarious!

I think the Tories genuinely see most of the country as the overweight, dullard unwashed masses who need some tough love/get on your bike policies. Politicians (Labour too) regard us as 'pondlife,' and therefore feel quite righteous in lecturing us all about our failings. The view us as a lumpen proletariat, watching Eastenders, stuffing chips and producing too many children. We do not even know what a 'kitchen supper' is FGS.

just remember, Edwina Currie is a woman who slept with a married man because he was powerful and it was an ego trip for her. At least you don't see that when you look in the mirror.

entropygirl Yes, I did hear that - it made me laugh!

She tends to pop up all over the place on Radio5, but is particularly bad on that particular late-night show, where it seems to have become part of the 'fun' of the show to get her on and give her a platform to express her vile views, in a "Oooh isn't she shocking" way. I miss the days of Richard Bacon on the night time show, and Simon Mayo in the afternoon - hopefully there will be another presenter juggle-around soon, and that show's format will move on - it just strikes me as formulaic and lazy, and I'm tired of it.