To think most people don't believe their diet will have an impact on their health

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This is just something I have been thinking about recently. There has been so much in the news about the damage sugar is doing to us, the number of people with type 2 diabetes is rising at a huge rate, more and more kids are becoming fat and having their teeth pulled out, etc.

And yet - I get the feeling most people think it's "nanny state rubbish". On mumsnet threads people always say "children need treats". I was talking to a work colleague about sugary drinks and her view was that water is too boring so she was quite happy for her kids to have juice and cordial with every meal and snack.

I am not sure what the solution is - maybe proper food and health education at schools.

Buckim where was thay reported? I'm not aware of any such trend.

Sorry I mean your comment about the babies of today having lower rates of obesity in the future.

It comes back to education time and time again.

Why isn't there a class in all schools called life skills? It could cover, budgeting, shopping, cooking, housework, basic first aid, childcare, cv writing, organising your time etc.
It covers all the points that some parents aren't teaching their children.

I used to yeah a similar class in our sure start centre until the funding for cut and I genuinely believe people took something away from it.

If you're not taught to look at your finances and determine a sensible amount for food and then know how to use that amount to shop sensibly and then cook it, how will you ever know?

I definitely agree with the poverty aspect. For me, it's about having something I enjoy. I only enjoy Granny Smith apples. When I'm a bit richer, I might buy some of those and have them with some cheese. Or some pricey medjul dates. Or I'll make a batch of avacado/banana/cacao brownies.

When I'm poor, packs of biscuits for £1 start looking a lot more tempting. And it's almost impossible to stop at a few because of how compelling the sugar is.

I saw it on the bbc morning news- I'll see if I can find it.

There is, tits, it's called PSHE.

Interesting thread. We are a family of skinnies, always have been, very active, eat a good, well balanced diet. Yes, education and choice play a part, but so does gut fauna. This paper www.nature.com/ajgsup/journal/v1/n1/full/ajgsup20125a.html is worth a read.

Thabks. I work in that area and am not aware of it.

This looks like it as I remember it being a few months ago- it actually says plateau or fall slightly and the ages are above and below 10 with the obses generation being 11-15

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31041864

I have no idea why my phone is correctly obsese to obses

Yes mrsDV! My pet hate is share bags of Minsterals etc. They know no one is going to share them, and they get to sell a bigger bag

I don't think it covers all areas though although I'm going by what my niece says and she's in her last year of high school, she says it covered sex ed, drugs, alcohol, some cv stuff.
I think it needs to be rejigged to actually teach people about real life.

We're a family of skinnies. I don't eat a particularly good diet. I only ate fruit and veg a couple of times a month until late teens. I have never had any teeth out or been overweight or even in the high end of average.

I would be disapointed in myself if I was at the high end of average as I believe I wouldn't look good at all. I think the key is genes and exercise.

Just because you're slim is no guarantee that you're healthy. The new acronym is TOFI - thin on the outside fat on the inside. Visceral fat, the fat that surrounds your organs, is a real health problem.

I've thought about this a lot over the last few years as I've been losing weight and becoming an exercise fanatic, and I think there's a few factors to obesity:

• we are less time rich, because more of our time is spent outside the home. We went from one parent working 9-5, to one at 9-5 and the other 10-3, to current situation of 2 x 9 to 5. Normal (not rich) people have child minders and cleaners and dog walkers and all sorts. It's no wonder that the time we devote to movement, food and nutrition has reduced.

• cars. My personal fitness took a dramatic nosedive at 18 when I got my first car. Walking is incredibly underrated.

• government health focus on either fat or sugar as the "one true evil". I think it's the combination of the two that is the problem. You wouldn't eat a stick of butter by itself, and you wouldn't eat a jar of honey with a spoon, but for some reason the combination of refined carbs (sugar) and fat is seductive (crisps, cake, chocolate, sugary coffees, burgers etc).

• abundance. I can walk 200 yards and be within spitting distance of a shop selling pastries, a chippy, a Chinese and an Indian takeaway. I can be fed cheap, emotionally rewarding food within 10 minutes, or I can cook something that doesn't have the same effect on the reward centres in my brain.

• things marketed as healthy when they are not. "Nutella contains hazelnuts!" Well yeh but nuts are fatty, and you've blended them with an arse tonne of sugar. It's the sugarfat issue again! "Our cereal contains fortified iron"- well yeh, but it also contains an buttload of sugar, which you are mixing with a sugar/fat food (milk) and there are question marks over the bioavailability of fortified iron. "Drink our healthy fruitjuice! Only 10g of natural sugars per portion!", ok but that 200ml bottle has 5 portions soooo...

• dieting advice is, on the whole, a load of billy bullshit. Low calorie stops ruins your muscle mass and lowers your metabolism. Slimming world and WW are better, but don't teach proper nutrition "drink a mugshot! They're only 1 syn! Never mind they're packed full of salt and shit and have no nutritional or calorific value! It's low syn!" We think diets will only work if we drink meal replacements, only eat cabbage soup because that's what a fit chick in a magazine said. We are scared to exercise appropriately by lifting weights in case we "get too bulky", like any fucker has accidentally turned into Arnie. That takes time and effort, and probably eating around 3500cals a day! Go back a few decades and your granny was lifting twice what you do at the gym just doing her bleeding laundry.

It's just a perfect shitstorm of convenience, lifestyle factors and

Fuck me that was a long rant sorry!

TOFI

I think with attitudes such as an apple being worse (I'm paraphrasing) than a donut exists because it has more sugar, and being not being willing/able (delete as appropriate) make 'from scratch' we are going to be a fat nation.

I now live in Ireland, attitudes are similar; it is also a 'fat nation'. In fact I heard on the news the other day Irish men are well on their way to clinching first place in the fattest males in Europe (Irish women heading for second place, I think British women are going to beat them).

Sugar and convenience are the reason of obesity I think myself. (Sugar is in the ingredients lists of a lot crisps, whoever said they weren't overweight because of sugar but crisps.) Sugar causes 'fat round the middle' (it's an insulin thing). Certain carbohydrates cause insulin spikes too.

I've recently lost a good bit of weight. Realised I had to for health reasons (not looks; possibly important fact). I joined Slimming World and ignored anything that contained or required anything artificial. Vegetables and apparently sugar laden fruit feature a lot more in my life now.

Also I disagree with the idea that we are healthier these days because we're living longer. We are not healthier, medical assistance has massive extended life expectancy, and vaccination prevents use from dying young too.

I'm very, very healthy as had one of those all over checks. It's exercise that does it for me. People ask how I do it, as they all seem obsessed with food. Don't eat carbs with this, can't eat that, limiting this.

I just eat what I want, when I want. Foods not a big issue and I don't believe in rules personally.

I saw your link I would never let low fat or diet pass my lips, especially not marg. It's grey when they make it! I eat full fat everything.

Yeah madame i'm well aware what a healthy snack is!!! But I was throwing that out there because plenty don't!

thats another thing my DD was into, aged 12, huge bags of crisps.

She did sort herself out pretty quickly though

I really don't believe it's processed food, it's eating too much and not exercising. The diet industry is all gimmicks, even downing all these smoothies seems like eating for the sake of it imo.

I agree Donut "It's eating too much and not exercising". This has a lot more to do with it than some people think.

All the snacking between meals and the huge portion sizes that people see as standard, does catch up with them. Even a Starbucks coffee is more like a bowl of cream with a handle.

We are fatter because we don't smoke as older generations did.

I can't remember who said this ^^ but if it was just that alone, childhood obesity wouldn't be a problem.