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.

Why, why do we feel the urge to binge so much though? Is it because everybody else does it? Do we need more lessons when young (from parents or even from school) to reinforce that little voice in our head that tells us "enough is enough"?

FWIW it took me years to learn how to drink in moderation- until my mid 30s. Prior to that I just could not make myself stop in time to not get a hangover in the morning (as well as frequently getting quite messy).

But things are changing in Europe, too, in that respect- last time I went to Paris- about 3/4 years ago- I noticed there were loads of French teens congregated around Sacre Coeur getting wasted on bottles of wine- something I'd never seen before.

I was about to make that point dreamingbohemian about city dwellers - New Yorkers are generally slimmer than the average, even though in general the US has more of an obesity problem than the UK. There are far fewer obese people in London (where I live) and when I go and visit my parents in the Midlands or my DH's family in Wales I notice a big difference. A member of my family moved down to London to live with us recently and she's lost nearly a stone in the past 6 months - she said she 'felt big' amongst her London friends, which she didn't amongst her peers outside of London - she's a healthy weight now.

I think it's partly exercise (we can't afford to own a car - most Londoners can't). But as the saying goes 'you can't outrun your fork'. My London colleagues and friends just eat smaller portions and less often.

One big difference is that the food in the Uk is very poor quality, did anyone see that programme about the fat content of a typical British chicken. Cheap meat is full of water, sugar and hormones, and the vegetables we eat would get thrown back by a French housewife. The snacks and crap aisles are much smaller abroad. In my husband's country, the basic food is much better quality and so cooking from scratch actually results in nice nutritionally valuable food whereas cooking from scratch here often doesn't. I am amazed that people think that cooking from scratch is some type of salvation and then see the things list as their dinners- if you eat lasagne, toad in the hole and lots of pasta here made with cheap meat and lots of white carbs, you will be overweight even if you made it all yourself. Good quality not fatty hormone laden meat, plus lots and lots of veggies is best but it is not cheap.

FFS! YANBU.

I cannot believe some posters are calling you 'sizeist' or 'fattist' ? the problems have to be addressed.

I wsa inching towards obesity when I was a teenager and, at the time, thought it was just puppy fat. I was utterly blind to what I really looked like. Parents, siblings, aunts and uncles etc would point out that this was not normal and that I was the dreaded F-word. Frankly, I am so glad they did.

I used to weigh 82kgs and now I weigh 56. I am 5'7".

Stop with the BMI rubbish. If you can pinch more than an inch on your stomach, you're on the express route to all kinds of problems.

Unless you have a genuine thyroid problem or cannot exercise for a physical/developmental etc reason, you should be shamed into losing weight. I managed to do it and I have the sweetest tooth you can imagine. I realised the excuse of 'Western genetics?I'm just big-boned' was a fallacy.

The only way to solve an addiction to food (which is really what this is) is to realise you have a problem ? which is NOT done by brushing things under the carpet.

stubborn watching it from the outside in, I would agree. Yet when I lived in the UK it was the norm. I never thought about it, and I liked the choice. Coming back there was too much choice for me. And I shop in some large supermarkets in Germany, but you just don't get all of these offers of BOGOF and 3 packs of fatty mince for £10 etc. I've never seen a box of crisps for sale.

The Olympics was a perfect example of this to us. We watch British TV here, and the lead up to the Olympics was just full of adverts about sitting at home, on the sofa, guzzling pork pies and pizzas on 3 for 2 at Morrisons, watching other people perform sports on the tv. Ad after ad about stuffing your face whilst watching the Olympics.

I'm sure here the ads would have been related to emulating the sport, or Olympians plugging sports brands or gyms and equipment so that you could be like them or perform like them.

I remember as a kid, Wimbledon would come on tv and we'd all get our old rackets out and play tennis all day. Not sit there with a jug of squash and strawberries and cream, or a celebratory Wimbledon pizza from Morrison's.

Eating healthily is cheaper than eating crap. Not only is the food itself, at face value, cheaper but healthy things will fill you up for longer.

I've recently started a paleo lifestyle and protein with some steamed veg or something is immensely filling and nutritious. I don't get blood sugar peaks and troughs.

Whacking some fish in a pan with some veg hardly takes culinary prowess either.

It's all too easy to make excuses these days.

I feel for those 'addicted' to bad foods - sugar is addictive and it's in everything. I try not to eat processed foods at all and avoid salt at all costs. When I was in the States, I realised they added salt to their milk! Even in London the other week, I ordered a caprese salad...they added sea salt to the mozzarella...

In Yorkshire I know maybe three obese people that I could definitely put a name to.
Now I'm in Surrey and I can't think of any.
Don't see English people as being fat at all!

Yes I once saw a documentary with a food scientist explaining that pure white flour, which before mass processing we would not really have been able to access freely, was more addictive than cocaine.

I think also with all this fast food around, people tend to eat the minute they feel hungry.

Hunger is not the enemy and if you're out shopping, it's quite likely you won't die before you get home...yet walk through the town center and you'll see so many people snacking as they walk around.

YANBU OP

When I've been on holiday recently it's pretty disgusting to see how many of the British tourists are a wobbling mass of fat.

But equally when walking down high streets in the UK it's like an attack of the blobs. Far too many people are too fat.

I do think there is a class/education divide with people in better jobs tending to be thinner.

Agree Jungletoes, celebrating being "curvy" is not something we should be doing to help people become healthier. Fair enough, ridiculing someone for their size is wrong, but it isn't something to be proud of.

Also agree about the snacking, when I was a child crisps came in single packets only and were something we had as a treat on a friday night. We watched family TV programmes without the need for a big bowl of crisps/dips/ etc on the coffee table. I am sooo guilty of indulging in this habit and intend to stop it.

I think the way we cook has changed though. My mum cooked balanced meals of meat and two veg with potatoes. Things like shepherds pie and veg, stew and dumplings, fish cips and peas, Meat pies and vegetables, etc. Although I still cook many of these some days, a lot of out meals are more carbohydrate based such as risottos, pasta dishes, curries with naan and rice, pizza etc. We also eat a lot more carb based snacks like breadsticks, crisps, crackers, cereal bars, ceareals, and toast between meals. As a child we were not allowed to snack like many kids do these days, we had to wait until meal time.

Freudian Slipper - I have family who are Chinese (my mother being the closest link). I recently visited aunts and uncles etc in Singapore. Usually, I like to exercise strenuously 6 times a week. I did no exercise there (2 week holiday) and lost 2kgs. They eat carbs and red meat etc etc. A very varied diet, but, crucially, no processed foods. I think that's the trick. Also, they obviously do have smaller frames.

As Western foods have become more and more popular there, you do see fatter people. It's really sad.

Binfull - I agree with the 'lack of self-control' thing. I feel there's too much entitlement - 'ohhh, I've been so good. I walked for 10 mins, I must reward myself.' No! A reward to your body for carry you for 10 mins is to give it nutrients. Society seems to have no self control when it comes to indulgence - shopping, clothes, alcohol, food, parking your arse and watching TV.

I think the sooner people stop getting offended and instead realising they are worth so much more than stuffing food into their mouths, the better.

Thunder-I'm sorry, I disagree, I also follow a high protein diet but won't eat cheap mass-produced meat a lot, and buying nice fish for four people, enough for them not to get hungary, costs a heck of a lot more than a cheap brand pasta plus ready-made sauce. Vegetables are cheap at markets and Lidl, but not in the regular supermarkets, my husband goes in and laughs at the prices, like £1.99 for four runner beans, stuff that is dirt cheap in his supposedly poor country. If we all ate paleo, as a family of four, using normal meal of the type my granny served up in the war (not full of hormones, water or sugar) we would be paying out a lot per week.

The nutritional value of food itself has changed, it's not just snacking (although I agree that's a big part of it).

"I think part of the problem, and I see this a lot on MN, is that its fine to harshly criticize people who smoke, drink, take recreational drugs, but people who poison their bodies with sugar are deemed to be suffering from an 'illness' and so feel free to carry on stuffing their face with sweets and cake. There is a lot of greed about and it shows in our weight"

I disagree - I find that people accept alcoholism and drug addiction as an illness - they'll also accept gambling addiction and anorexia as illnesses - and refuse to see food addiction in the same way.

Except for a drug user or alcoholic you can stay away from your poison with food - well a person can't stop eating for good can they - it's like telling an alcoholic that they can have 1 vodka with each meal!

Has no one mentioned fast food 'restaurants' yet? I do think they have a part to play along with the obvious sedentary lifestyles/over indulgence and lack of education as far as nutrition is concerned, not to mention binge drinking.

I take ds to mcdonalds maybe once every 2 months (he's slim, fit and active and eats 3 healthy meals a day), last time we went a couple of weeks ago i had my usual small cheeseburger and a coffee whilst the very obese couple at the next table had massive triple whatever they are, huge fizzy drinks etc.
It's not rocket science is it.

I'm a big believer in eating healthily during the week and having a little of what you fancy at the weekend. I used to be overweight (emotional eater), I then studied nutrition as part of my job, changed my eating habits, got rid of my car and have stayed a steady/healthy weight for the last 10 years.

I really do feel for very overweight children, they have no choice in what they're eating and even if they are taught about healthy eating at school it's not going to stop their parents giving them crap.

Yes when I was at school in the 1970s the poor fat kid was singled out, precisely because she was the only one ina school of 900 kids! Nowadays overweight kids are ten a penny.

I agree activity is one issue but also processed food being full of fat and salt.

YES!! Fat bashing thread. Awesome.

Fat people are so fat.

Where are all these fat people?! I can't see them. Yes, I might see unhealthy people (bad skin, hair, unfit etc, which might be caused by bad diet/laziness) but fat- not really.

Mumsy - I've taken to bulk-buying (£2 for 4kgs of red onions!!!), batches and freezing. I admit, fish is pricey. Chicken has proven to be my friend, however. Also, eggs can be lifesavers. I often buy produce from market stalls.

I do buy quite a bit of frozen and try to avoid unethical meat as much as possible. However, I would still rather spend £3 on two salmon fillets from Tesco than £3 on some Dairy Milk that'll render me starving in an hour anyway.

If you're interested, buy some kale or lightly cook any other kind of dark leafy green. The extra chomping that that kind of food requires should add to the sensation of being full.

BJunction - can I ask you to reconsider what you wrote?

"Fat bashing thread" - have you ever considered that fat people are bashing themselves? They aren't respecting their bodies enough to be healthy and take care of themselves.

The sooner the world wakes up, stops making excuses and playing the 'oooh, you bastard! How un-PC of you. I'm offended!' card, the better.

Cruel to be kind.

reconsidered, Maybe my opening line was harsh, but my second line was correct fat people are fat.

But completely agree with the rest of your post

Thnder I know what you are saying, the trouble is our local shop has 5 bars of branded Cadburys chocolate for £1! Crap snacks are dirt cheap which makes them all the more tempting.

Ps it's fine to discuss what is actually a problem but there are some offensive terms thrown around - eg british tourists are a wobbling mass of fat. Botn this thread and others - just some nasty imagery really that shows such a lack of respect.

Ps I am fat - size 18 - I have pcos - my hormones do work against me. I have to do a vast amount of excercise to lose any weight. I have a hard time excercising at the moment due to a hernia (from ds' birth) so I have 4 stone to get to pre pg weight (which wasn't thin ) a toddler and a hernia which pops out when I excercise (they've only just agreed to fix my hernia after 2 years) and I know that when I go past most people they are thinking such horrible things about me - it is painful enough without that.

Oh and I don't snack and I don't drink alcohol. I genuinely have a health problem that makes putting weight on v easy eating v little and needing to excercise to an extent that I can't at present ( I swim and walk but even walking can aggravate the hernia ) but you would only see a wobbling mass of fat and assume I stuff my face.