To have come back from Lanzarote feeling geuinely shocked at how fat the British tourists were?

[Illgetmycoat]

I'm not talking slightly plump, I mean seriously, morbidly obese. A whole different race to the German, French and Spanish tourists.

What is going on? When did our country become like this? Whenever you heard a british accent, it would be accompanied by a 3ft wide backside. And whole families, too, all swollen to gargantuan size, with the poor kids unable to put their feet together because of the rolls of fat on their legs.

How has this happened? What the heck are the Brits feeding their children to get them so large? How can you feed an eight year old you love so much food that they become morbidly obese?

It can't just be blamed on poverty, because it's not cheap going to Lanzarote.

I was shocked.

maybe one every other week sometimes once a week sometimes not for weeks at a time

Ds would eat McDonald's for lunch and salmon for dinner every day if he was allowed. he has McDonald's every few weeks (with his dad that is there meal together) I do not give him salmon every day as it is too expensive but I cook something fresh for him and he does not eat that many sweets he does love crips though he has a few from a packet (ones without salt or a little salt) with a little cheese and a few tomatoes for a snack if he is hungry. If I gave him the whole pack he would eat it

That's true MrsMelons, but I wouldnt buy chix breasts at all. It is far too expensive. I buy thighs. The dark meat is tastier anyway.
I agree that fruit is expensive though.

We do buy apples and bananas too for that reason but they are also creeping up price-wise all the time. I feel I should be able to buy fruit for the DCs as obviously I want them to eat healthily but have heard parents telling their children that there is no way they are buying them blueberries for £3 but have a trolly full of multipack crisps and chocolate/biscuits.

It is rare that truly healthy food is actually cheaper than the junk food equivalent.

Mrs Melons, strawberries can be bought dirt cheap for about 2 weeks in May / June if you hang around the market and buy up the slightly soft punnets they need to shift. Useless for keeping but that's ok as they won't last 5 minutes in your family (wouldn't in mine either)

Fruit is expensive, but it is not the cornerstone of a healthy diet. It is a snack food or a pudding food that is preferable to some other snack foods or pudding foods.

I don't know why I am arguing this as I agree that it is too hard to eat well and too easy to eat badly. But I think you are manifesting signs of mistaken attitudes: that we deserve treats, that treats are normal, and that nice things should be provided for snacking and grazing

I wasn't being rude, or at least I had no intention of being. I was pointing out that in this country a lot of the problem about food comes from a lack of awareness about where it comes from. The "no offence" implied I didn't mean you necessarily. Sorry that you did take offence after all.

British strawberries can be bought for £1.99 a punnet in tesco's in the summer months, which is still a lot more expensive than say bananas which are flown in all year round at the same price, as far as I'm aware.I guess there's fruit and there's fruit - by its nature it is seasonal and therefore subject to limited supply at certain times of year and gluts at other times. Remember the autumn of 2011 when the price of British apples went down because of the brilliant apple harvest? Straying from the topic a little, I admit...

Yes, berries are expensive. I guess that's because they are labour intensive to pick. I rarely eat them unless I go to the market.

Beetroot on the other hand generally comes in at around 40p for 4, can be stored for a long time, can be made into a delicious juice (with ginger), used in soups, used in salads.

Carrots - also cheap. Soup, casseroles, for dipping, coleslaw.

Bananas are almost always cheap, as are plums and apples.

I think people get a bit focussed on "but I want STRAWBERRIES and if I can't have them, I'll have digestives."

Don't get me wrong, I think it's shit that food is getting expensive. But I also think people sometimes make excuses rather than making alternative, but still healthy, choices.

@mrsmelons strawbeeries ahve always been a luxury food

tinned tuna mixed with peppers and peas and a side of mash or boiled potatoes or pasta would be a much better balanced meal less salt which we often overlook, less fat, no other crap additives and the costs are the same if not cheaper

Tuna mixed with peppers and peas! Is it just me or is that a bizarre combination of foods?

I love tuna salad with beetroot but there is no way my dcs would eat it, i wouldn't have as a child either, and there is no way they would eat your combination!

Ps. Tuna is extremely expensive, i doubt very much that enough tinned tuna to feed a family would be cheaper than a box of fish fingers.

I can't believe there is such an outcry over fish fingers! Good foods, bad foods - they all make you fat if you eat too much of them. My obese nieces have probably never had a fish finger in their lives - they are fat because their plates are piled high with healthy, home cooked stuff and they are encouraged to clear their plates. Then they can't order off the children's menu because the portions are too small! My point is, it's no good smugly congratulating yourself that your dcs won't get fat if everything is lovingly prepared by hand - a calorie is a calorie. In fact I sometimes think the problem starts with lots of lovingly prepared baby and toddler meals that you can't bear to tip in the bin because you've invested so much time and love in then - just one more spoon, one more spoon, oh well done you've cleared your plate - look she's such a good eater. Actually she's had enough, but she'll never learn that because the praise and reward comes from eating too much.

we can have what we want when we want now and have been spoilt of course out of season fruit is going to be more expensive. nothing will happen to you if you do not eat strawberries for 6 months

it is too easy and too cheap to have a diet that is not that good for you but it isn't that more expensive to have a balanced healthy diet it takes more effort and thought

when eating meat it doe not have to be a 1/3 of your meal bulk meL up by adding veg or use it more as a flavouring and use different cuts of meat

get veg at a market much better quality no frozen before tomatoes and you get far more for your money

Sorry I think I didn't really make my point that well.

We buy all the cheaper stuff ie bags of carrots etc, also cheaper fruits as my parents educated us well about healthy eating and economic shopping. I am happy with what we eat and none of us are overweight.

I think I was just trying to defend why people make the wrong choices. It is just easier (albeit) lazy to eat crap and people use this as an excuse, I agree.

I do think it is nice to be able to provide nice stuff for snacking but I guess I was trying to say why people may choose junk food over more healthy stuff - I just didn't do it very well. Sorry.

curryeater Fri 11-Jan-13 13:04:49
I think is about norms changing and that is about capitalism.

1974 - cup of tea and a digestive - about 100 cals and 10p (in today's money)
2012 - cappuccino and a muffin - about 600 cals and £5

I went to California on holiday a couple of years ago, and was quite worried about portion sizes since on previous occasions when I've visited I've managed to put on a huge amount of weight (and couldn't actually get into my jeans by the end of 10 days!).

So I was pleased that they had introduced laws in fast food places which mean that calories have to be displayed very clearly.

It was alarming.

One coffee place had muffins that were 750 calories EACH. I am teeny and only need in the region of 1300 per day.

It took quite a lot of effort to actually stick to a sensible amount of food; and I know I still overate by my own standards. I simply could not live there and stay slim without going utterly crazy. On more than one occasion I got comments (not just looks) for ordering small portions designed for children - possibly because they are supposed to up-sell more aggressively than they do in the UK - but this is not something I've come across anywhere else. Usually people don't bat an eyelid at ordering smaller options here or in Europe.

Also worth bearing in mind this which i just found . . .

Tuna only counts as an oily fish when it is fresh. This is because when it is canned the omega 3 oil levels are reduced to similar levels to that of white fish, so although canned tuna is a healthy option it doesn?t have the same health benefits as fresh oily fish.

There is generally just a lot of fuss made about food. The women I live with, about twice or three times a week, gather in one or the other's rooms to eat crisps, sweeties, biscuits, tins of coke. They do not get it when I say I don't want any, they think I'm on some sort of mad diet and that I really strive to be super thin. They say "but you've been working so hard, have a treat".

It's not that. I just literally don't want a treat, in the form of a biscuit, for working hard. I feel horrible when I eat loads of junk food.

They also think that if you eat healthily all week and then pig out at the weekend, it won't affect you. This is utter balls.

There was never any fuss made about food in my house. We didn't have treats for having worked hard or whatever and there was never any emotional attachment to food. There was never any value placed on being thin either, we just ate what we ate. Nothing super healthy, mostly freezer stuff. But I think I grew up with a healthier attitude because I wasn't trying not to eat biscuits and berating myself if I cracked.

I also just don't have any snacks in the house except fruit and nuts.

Beetroot wedges (like potato wedges) are YUMMY!

Freudian you make the point perfectly and are actually articulating exactly what I think the problem is really well.

It takes thought and effort to eat properly but unfortunately supermarket advertising does not promote this at all and many people get sucked in. Too many convenience options which aren't that healthy.

Tuna is a far easier option for most people than buying fresh fish though. It's versatile and it keeps for a long time.

This is the sort of faff about food that I think puts people off. Tuna is healthy...oh no it's not healthy...oh it is healthy but not as healthy as other fish. Well, you know, it is healthy. It's fish. Why do we have to make such a huge fuss.

You dissing my concoctions :o I cook a paprika chicken with peppers and peas that ds loves changed it to tuna he loves that too

do they not like tuna? ds loves it is a healthy alternative to fish fingers and mash that is cheap and easy to make

I know ds would prefer fish fingers......

I agree lillian.

Justaholyfool. I didn't know you could get coke in tins

Ah but the you have the conundrum of not wanting to eat an engangered species

It never ends!

I had fishfingers, chips and beans probably twice a week while growing up. And a Wimpy after swimming every friday.

We played out all the time.

It upsets me to read something like this as a mother of an overweight daughter who hardly eats and is looked at by adults, NOT children, as some type of horrid disease. I am tall and overweight and always have been although my family have always ate home grown and home cooked food and i was the only one who was ever fat. I have passed this on to my daughter unfortunately. Doctors were not interested in my daughter and always patronised her by saying don't eat chocolate bars when she doesn't like anything sweet. Please don't look at every big person and think that they gorge themselves because take it from me, we don't.

Another contributing factor which has only been touched on, although it has some relevance to the discussions about shift work is sleep. Lack of sleep is now known to affect the way your body metabolises food and lack of sleep is a factor in weight gain. There is a statistic which I am trying to remember off the top of my head which says that something like you are 60 to 80% more likely to be overweight if you get less than 6 hours sleep a night. It is not surprising shift workers are more likely to be overweight than non-shift workers, probably due to sleep as well as food choices.

So along with all the other causes, the fact that we live in a 24/7 culture, where the TV doesn't end at midnight any more, that you can go on the internet, play games, chat, shop etc any time you want and not go to bed, all has an impact. There are even more places to go - later cinema screening, longer pub/club opening hours, late night shopping and all that. 15+ years ago all we had to do late at night most nights of the week was sleep. Now with these other options when added to our long working hours and lack of free time during the day, people are sleeping less.

I am obese, I don't hide from that but when I look at how much I eat I shouldn't really be as obese as I am. And the knock on effect of lack of sleep is not just poor food choices but also lack of energy to do anything involves exercise. It becomes a vicious circle. I really don't think it is just a case of eat less, move more. There is so much more to it than that.

BTW, is nobody else as astonished as me that Britian is only 26th on the list of obese countries but more that Australia and New Zealand are several places above us?

well according to the above the fish fingers have more omega oils than the tin of tuna...

JustAHolyFool the reward or treat culture around junk food is really significant. I knmow loads of people who reward themselves with chocolate, crisps, takeaways or wine. They reward themselves far too often!