To wonder why we are getting so fat in this country

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I know it's been done before but lately I am really struggling to come to terms with the amount of overweight people there are. I have been really observant of late and can honestly say that even in the last 4 or 5 years people seem to be getting bigger and bigger. Why is this?

I have been to two different European cities in the last few weeks and can honestly say I struggled to find an overweight person walking about, I stayed in both cities for 3 days and got around a fair bit and really kept my eyes peeled and bar the odd person who might also have been travelling, I just couldn't see what I see in this country.

One interesting thing I noticed was the supermarkets and how different they are to ours. The fruit and vegetable sections are double in size in a supermarket smaller than ours over here. There are massive sections on fresh meat, fish, cheese etc and I couldn't find a "ready meal" or pre-packed sandwich anywhere. Crisps, biscuits are all very limited with limited flavours and styles and when you stand behind people in queues and observe their trolleys it's a completely different scenario to what you see in a local supermarket here.

I know a lot of people will come on and say there are plenty of overweight French, Italians, Spanish etc but I think this is delusional. I spent two weeks in Spain in the summer and was about 11 stone at 5' 7" so not exactly twiggy but felt huge in comparison to the European women and both myself and my friends really noticed that if there was an overweight woman/man/family about they were generally English.

I personally find it quite worrying.

Froggies

The dcs clear up after dinner

Also, eating processed food makes you feel rubbish, then you feel less like cooking or exercising, it's a vicious circle.

It surprises me even at DS1's primary school, how many mothers let their children have a hot lunch - I'm talking about SAHMs - and they don't cook from scratch at home. I am a SAHM, before I get flamed! UK supermarkets always price unhealthy food really cheaply and as someone else said, everyone uses their cars. I walk DS1, 4YO, to school in all weathers and the number of people that live a5-10min walk, but drive is shocking.

I should add it is a 30minute walk for us.

'Cooking need not be a chore, if you listen to the radio/tv or have someone to chat to or help you'...actually after a full bloody day's work I frequently find cooking bloody choresome.

I do cook, incidentally. And my day job is as a health journalist. But I also disagree with the blanket statement that 'eating processed food makes you feel like rubbish, then you feel less like cooking or exercising'. Sometimes the sheer bloody slog of producing another bloody meal is what puts me off the prospect of the next day's 6.30am swim.

11 stone at 5'7" is borderline overweight, so maybe you should maybe lose a few pounds yourself before criticising other people

Heathrow injection = totally true.

Great post froggies. Having a quick look online at iceland prices, it would be hard to do homecooked food as cheap. But I think it's easy to get pretty close (frozen chips 55p a kilo, sack of spuds 66p a kilo). And snacky things like biscuits and cakes, no question they are cheaper to make....just not easier. Therein lies the problem. People justify poor diets because of the price - this is not true!

I think it's because the weather is shit.

dinkypinky I think maybe you've grabbed the wrong end of the stick. Sugar-free sweets use maltitols which are alcohol based sugars and these are metabolised in a completely different way to what we know as "normal" sugars - therefore they are OK for diabetics.

I have lived overseas for 13 years and I am shocked when I return to the UK. In rural areas where 15 years ago you'd have been hard-pressed to see one single fat person, I was left open-mouthed this year to see an enormous man drive from shop to shop next door to each other in the same street.

I agree with AlanMore in that the "shape" of obesity has changed too - apple-shaped women are a sure sign of Syndrome X diseases - i.e., too many carbs!

Refined carbs are a problem I think.

When you looks at cheap food such as take aways all you see is refined carbs. Milk shake, white bread, processed potaoe in the fries, sugar in the beans. Carbs are hidden every where, in the fruit juices we give our kids cos they are 'health', in the bread crumb on chicken dippers etc etc.
We have focused on the effects of fat and calories too much in recent years.
We need fat to survive and it keeps us feeling full up! We have been been mis informed.
We allow products such as sugar covered weetabix and nesquik milkshake and nutella to be advertised to kids and adults as healthy foods!
People don't get the fact that these foods are full of sugar.
I think the government needs to put a stop to this!

Topsi, someone mentioned up thread about a series of documentaries about the food industries and the pressure they have exerted on the way healthy eating has been promoted. I watched them, it was very interesting.

Sorry if i have an details wrong, but from what i remember, the way it was presented In that documentary, is that the effects of sugar (and fined carbs in general) on obesity was identified decades ago (70's, 80's?? Can't remember which) BUT the economic effect on the big food companies of telling people not to eat all of the lovely sweets/chocolates/snacks etc was too great, and FAT was made into the baddy instead.

This opened up new marketing opportunities of 'low fat' ranges, so the food giants made more money, in many of these ranges fat was replaced with sugar, which just compounded the problem.

This misinformation combined with increased snacking between meals (which actually doesn't put you off dinner as much as you would think), increased portion sizes and reduced activity levels has contributed to the levels of obesity seen.

Today's average American consumer ingests 2 to 3 pounds of sugar a week! We say "ingest" because in many of the cases, we're not even aware we're "eating" sugar. This is a dramatic increase even in the last two decades. In the 1980s, we, as a nation consumed some 26 pounds to 135 pounds per person in a year! Now compare this to the late nineteenth century ? specifically the years from 1887 to 1890 ? when the average American ate only five pounds of sugar in an entire year! It comes as no surprise then that cancer and heart disease were virtually unknown back then!

It makes me so cross when I see advert after advert on TV (take a look this evening and you will see what I mean) chocolate, Mc Donalds, Burger King, KFC, biscuits, sports drinks, alcohol,coke honestly its non stop brain washing . It has to stop. Our children are going to be one of the unhealthiest generations there is.
I have just made butternut squash soup it cost me £ 3.00. Cut the squash in half, drissle with oil, sprinkle a few chilli flakes on top, put in the oven for 40 mins, fry 1 onion and 1 clove of garlic, take out the butternut squash from the skin, put it in the pot with water and a stock cube then blend. Its so easy to make health good food when you get used to it it takes more effort to cook chicken nuggets than my soup.

The programme mentioned above, "The Men Who Made Us Fat" was excellent, a real eye-opener. The enemy, as others have stated, is sugar. I have stopped taking sugar in my hot drinks (after a lifetime of doing so) and cut back on refined carbs. Lo and behold, the weight is coming off. Slowly and surely, which is the best way.

HerbigchanceThat is exactly what happened to me. I drank soda for 20 years, I had 3 sugars in my coffee one day I just woke up and stopped. I have suffered with migraines for 5 years I have not had one since I stopped having sugar. I have lost 2 stone in 4 months without exercising or trying to lose weight, it just came off. I feel so much better now, no more mood swings, I sleep better, wake up feeling fresh at 6am every day. My skin glows as does my hair, I could go on and on. Please ladies if you do one thing for yourself make sure its giving up sugar, I promise you will feel and look a million times better

Soverylucky Autolyzed yeast extract (which contain free glutamate, similar to MSG),
Sodium phosphates and
Sodium aluminum phosphate.
But that's not the freaky part. According to McDonald's own website, Chicken McNuggets are also made with:
"hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and
citric acid added to preserve freshness" and
"Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent."

At least two of these ingredients are artificially synthesized industrial chemicals. TBHQ, a petroleum derivative, is used as a stabilizer in perfumes, resins, varnishes and oil field chemicals. Laboratory studies have linked it to stomach tumors. "At higher doses, it has negative health effects on lab animals, such as producing precursors to stomach tumors and damage to DNA. A number of studies have shown that prolonged exposure to high doses of TBHQ may be carcinogenic, especially for stomach tumors."

foodmatters.tv/articles-1/whats-really-in-chicken-mcnuggets-scary

dinkybiny - congratulations! I have to say, my energy levels have gone up and people are commenting on how well I look.

Yes, for 30 odd years the food industry has been conning us to think fat makes us fat. Nope, we need a decent level of protein and good fats to feel full and for our bodies to work properly, burning our glycogen stores correctly.

Instead, carbs and sugar have been sold to us as better than fat, or replacing fat, (most low fat diet foods have sugar in one form or another to replace the fat) this leads to insulin resistance and people's bodies storing more, instead of burning it. High levels of white, processed carbs and sugar (fructose, corn syrup etc) in our diets make us fat, not fat.

Read "the men who made us fat" or dr John briffa for more info if you are interested. The high carb high sugar food industry is a massive con.

Well done you too. I hope others try it out too.

A few months ago I did something I very rarely do, I took a jar of ready made curry sauce (Tesco jalfrezi) from the cupboard and threw it on to some chicken. When I tasted it I was shocked by how sweet it was, when I checked the label it had as much sugar in it as a can of coke!

I pin the biggest portion of blame on portion sizes, too.

but cooking from scratch isnt more expensive. as an example i have just done a quick virtual shop online at waitrose. based on having 4 children (as a poster mentioned) and 2 adults in household.

evening meal for 3 days for 6 people (with leftovers for lunch for a few):

day 1- mixed veg couscous (pepper, courgette, red onion, tomato, peas), with feta, and corn on the cob

day 2 - chicken and mushroom and pea risotto

day 3 - vegetable pasta bake

total:£10.47.

thats £3.49 per evening (or 58p per person)

it actually works out even cheaper, as for example the bag of couscous will last for many more meals, as will the risotto rice, and 1kg bag of peas etc.. and some might be leftover for a few at lunch the following day

so based on this, a weeks worth of main meals for 6 is £24.43. adding another £20 at guess for breakfast and lunch you should be able to get a weekly shop for less than £45 for 6. (£7.50 each)

if anyone can feed fastfood/ readymeals for a week for less than £7.50 per person then i would be shocked