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.

"Were duvets even invented in the 60's?"

I don't know, but I remember getting my first duvet in the early 1970s.

The point i made about meat and potatoes was after someone suggested potatoes were evil yucky refined carbonhydrate poison.

I pointed out that a lot of people are veggie the world over.

Realise I am straying off the butter-paleo track but can't help myself coming on here after today at work.. I am a medical doctor and today saw three women in forties and early fifties - one with a stroke and two with heart attacks. All three were overweight, but otherwise had few risk factors. And all three identified their weight as a possible contributory factor, but said [and i paraphrase slightly] "but I'm not fat enough to have had a heart attack..I am not really that fat"..But there they were. Having their heart attacks.
I would say maybe 60-70% of our emergency medical admissions are overweight and of these probably half have weight issues contributing or directly causing either their admission problem or an incidental health problem; blood pressure, stroke, knee pain, back pain, fatigue, gallstones, skin problems, liver problems, kidney problems etc etc
And it makes me want to weep. Or possibly scream.
So if you are in the "its OK to be fat if I'm happy" brigade, then crack on. But truly you are kidding yourself.

met a friend for soft play today. This friend is trying to loose weight before a major operation.

It was a pay-in soft play £4 each per kid so we'd paid £12 between us already, it wasn't a cafe that happens to have a soft play so you have to purchase coffee/food to sit there IYKWIM

as soon as we sat down:
friend put coat down and got up again to go to the counter: "right! what do you want?"
me: "oh nothing I had lunch before we came"
her: "Oh! a coffee then?"
me: "no not right now, I had one with lunch, I'm fine for now"
her: "..... are you SURE you don't want anything?"
me: nods
her: goes to counter, gets a very large coffee and a cake

• she seemed to think me very odd and perhaps a little antisocial for sitting in a place that serves cakes and not buying one!

we resume talking about major upcomming operation and her exercise plans

it was 3pm, not near lunch time or dinner time!

you CANNOT go shopping with some people without stopping for coffee twice and not just having a coffee each time, but also having a panini and cake - and that's not even lunch or dinner!

Thunder I applaud your eating habits and tend to eat all fresh 'unmessedwith' food myself (as a vegan). I have a rule that if it has ingredients I avoid buying it - especially so if I can't even pronounce them.

I am rather surprised though that you do all of this but then say that you eat Mars bars - completely full of crap and disgusting too!

Flambemoi - that is a scary post and should make us all think long and hard.

I should say a 'list of ingredients' if you see what I mean - I wasn't very clear there!

Flambemoi-well thats it really. The issue is with health, nothing else. it may look unnapealing to some to be overweight, although not all people who are overweight look bad. But the point is, it is unhealthy longterm.
Having said that, my doctor is really quite fat..

Flambemoi - I'm sure you're a lot more sensible than the doctors & specialists I'm about to mention. When my nearest and dearest have had serious health problems - including stroke, heart attack and death - they've been misdiagnosed (repeatedly, in the one who died) because they were just so slim, fit, beautiful and sorted. While it's silly to ignore the health implications of extreme obesity, it's also pretty stupid - and a sad indictment of our societies' values - to assume slim & toned = invincible.

I'm curious to know how fat those women were. I'm obese (ban on the line between overweight & obese) and my GP said it's not a problem as long as I stay there.

Would you say genetics or overweight was the main risk factor for each of those women?

The olive oil thing confuses people because whilst it is a healthier fat, it has exactly the same number of calories, gram for gram as any other fat- butter, lard etc. Therefore whilst it might not clog your arteries as much, eating it instead of butter is not going to help you get thin.

But you know the thing that I think most represents how fucked up our attitudes to food are these days? Sugar free jelly, which is essentially calorie free. Yes, that's right. A calorie free, nutrition free "food". Why? Well, say the diet gurus, because if you want something to eat you can eat this and you wont put on weight. Well, yeah, but either you're hungry, in which case eat something that has calories in it to fill you up, or you're not, in which case step away from the jelly.

oldebaglady I am a bit like your friend- not re. the cake, but with the coffee. I am a compulsive skinny latte buyer. Had c. 2 a day. Went cold turkey Jan 1. Haven't missed it and have saved ££££

breakfast break at work (odd hours):
the ones who are always slim: scrambled egg on toast and maybe a sausage, or perhaps porridge. Some sort of "real" food anyway then nothing till lunch.
the ones who are always fat: a muller light eaten miserably.... then loads of sugary drinks and whatever sweets/cakes are lying around between then and lunch

fat ones to skinny ones: oooh its not fair that you can eat like that and stay so skinny

NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!!! they're FULL after their meals!

Oldebag. So true.

Oldebag is right. I always eat a proper breakfast and then don't eat anything until lunchtime.

I agree that we have lost sight of what a normal portion size is. I am often overfaced with food when eating out and rarely finish my plate of food. Serving chips or garlic bread with lasagne in pubs is considered normal these days, which IMO is far too much stodge- I would prefer a salad.

ethelb - sorry but I am lost on that, not sure what you mean?

And whenever people who have made it to 100 are interviewed they always say they had porridge for breakfast every day!
Which is why I am eating it now, although not sure it offests the 2/3 of a bottle of red I consumed last night...

garlic - have a watch of the video I linked to as he mentions genetics and health problems, might help answer your question

If we weren't a nation of fat people and obesity becomong a serious problem, the government wouldn't be weighing children in primary school, spending ridiculous amounts of money telling people to eat 5 a day, have constant adverts for weightwatchers, Special K, and so forth.

Obesity is a problem in the Uk.

Thunder - I don't think it's paleo eating itself that keeps you thin, I think it's that your calorie and fat intake is naturally low on that diet.

I did paleo for about 6 months and it made me feel amazing. I definitely agree it is the right way to eat. But I am a single parent and work 70-90 hours a week so, eventually, I just found I couldn't cope with it anymore and started going back to relying on cereal bars etc as 'meals'.

But I always stick to 1200 calories a day, low fat and exercise every day.

So, before I started eating paleo I was 6st, while I was eating paleo I was 6 stone and after I stopped it I am still 6st (I know that's not healthy btw but it is what it is). So, to me, the method of eating is irrelevant to my weight, it's the calorie and fat content of the food that matters.

For mental and other physical health benefits though - love paleo!

I always stick to 1200 calories a day ... I am still 6st (I know that's not healthy btw)

Add a bit more fat to your diet? It's good for your skin, bones, mood and connective tissues.

RichManPoorMan - re sugar free jelly and anything with artificial sweetners - it is worse than eating a zero cal thing for the sake of eating. Artificial sweetners make you fat because they stimulate your brain to believe it is hungry. The brain is tricked into thinking it is going to get calories and then when it doesn't it craves them and you end up eating more than if you hadn't eaten the 'calorie free' thing in the first place. The diet food industry has a huge vested interest in keeping people fat and that is how they do it.

Link to article explaining it better than me!

Was sitting in the car around lunchtime yesterday and two women walked past. One was fat. She was carrying a large bag of crisps and a sandwich and looked uncomfortable and harassed. The lady behind her was slim, strolling along eating an apple. Said it all really.

HollyBerryBush the fact that people think Special K is healthy is what is wrong with this country's attitude to food.

Special K is full of sugar.

"The Men Who Made Us Fat" is a real eye-opening documentary. It's on youtube.

I am on day 3 of a total food change and am shocked at how little food I need to keep going. Last few days for brek have had bowl of porridge with fruit or small plate of scrambled eggs. Thats all. Then no snack or anything (previously would have had at least 2 biscuits) until my soup and ryvita lunch. I used to eat way more so much of it unnecessary.

Kerala it is frightening, isn't it? That's why I am counting every calorie that goes in my mouth on the Fitnesspal app. I just can't trust myself yet with portion sizes.

Also to be informed can help you make good choices. For example for every 1 tablespoon of butter, you could have 7 of chopped chicken breast for the same calories. So what's going to keep you fuller longer? I think people use butter and spread on bread without even really counting it.

Stealth calories cause a lot of damage.

Re special K, I have it in the cupbard, the one with dried rasberries as my 'treat' cereal. I was looking at a list of GI counts in different cereals on line yesterday and All Bran in America has a GI of 50 but our All Bran has a GI of 30. That made me feel sorry for the Americans, that they can't get All Bran that tastes as twig like as ours does! ha ha.

Interesting video, thanks Ivykaty. As one of the comments says, it's the first watchable pro-vegan film I've ever seen

While there's a lot to say about the differences between American food and European - there still is a chasm between them, especially when you look at things like the levels of 'chemicals' permissible in American meat - I'd like to lose some weight without trying! I'm not going to give up meat as I have CFS and anaemia, but will take Barnard's points on board anyway. My diet's usually quite heavy on veg and I'm thinking that maybe, if I step up the pulses, I'll feel fuller with less fat.

Bit of a nuisance as I decided to go overboard on the animal fats this winter! I might compromise - fry my beans in lard, heh