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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

So apparently, 80% of Australians are going to be obese by 2025

76 replies

AjasLipstick · 30/04/2018 11:40

Shock I live in Australia by the way. I'm British though. The reasearch was done by the World Health Organisation apparently.

Here's a slightly shitty link to an article

www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/obesity-can-lead-you-on-a-dangerous-path-to-ill-he/2590837/

That is absolutely worrying isn't it? I feel quite shocked really. When we moved here three years ago, I was nervous as I was convinced it was a very sporty country...full of fit people!

There are, it seems to me, a lot of very big young people though. And I now see more overweight OLDER people than ever. When I was younger, (I am 44) old people were bird-like...tiny and thin...they'd seen wars etc.

Now they're all the baby boomers and a lot of them are very large.

It worries me...my DC are both slim but what if that changes? We do eat well and exercise....but EIGHTY percent!??? It seems so many!

OP posts:
AhoyDelBoy · 30/04/2018 12:08

@AjasLipstick does the UK size the same way as the US? I thought AU/UK sizing was the same for some reason
@NightCzar I think we live in the same place Grin

AhoyDelBoy · 30/04/2018 12:09

That's my ultimate aim too. Home grown vege and chickens Smile

Ozgirl75 · 30/04/2018 12:10

I try to grow stuff too but the bloody cockatoos and possums eat it all before I can get to it Grin

StealthPolarBear · 30/04/2018 12:12

Ah overweight or obese does not sound that unlikely. I think we're at about 60% here now.

Original poster
AjasLipstick · 30/04/2018 12:13

Oz we've got a massive maremma who guards the broccoli like it's his children! Grin

OP posts:
Original poster
AjasLipstick · 30/04/2018 12:14

DelBoy do you have a decent bit of garden? We put our veg in raised beds which DH made out of corrugated sheets and scrap wood. Nice organic muck and off you go!

Sick of bloody egg plant though...they grow like weeds! The kale's not as good and I love kale!

OP posts:
HoppingPavlova · 30/04/2018 12:14

Well I’m part of the figure that’s currently creeping up to 80%.

We don’t eat any processed food, have only lean meat, lots of legumes, veg etc. Kids are super skinny. I’m obese. Not enough hours in the day to exercise and decades of working long hours with absolutely no food all day then having a huge meal late (healthy as it may be) has completely stuffed the metabolism. Have super low cholesterol, excellent blood sugar levels, no issues with liver function, perfectly healthy except I am obese which obviously isn’t healthy.

QuiteLikely5 · 30/04/2018 12:17

I think food is the biggest threat to the nations health right now.

We are eating manmade chemicals and it is playing havoc with our health both physical and mental.

Real food is expensive to buy (unless you just live off vegetables all week) and the majority of us can not afford to buy meat, fish, fruit, veg, nuts, seeds etc

QuiteLikely5 · 30/04/2018 12:18

Hopping polova

How obese can you be if you only eat one meal per day and it’s unprocessed

FiveShelties · 30/04/2018 12:19

I live in NZ and it is the same here. I have only been here for 15 years but the change has been amazing. It is not unusual to see really big people here - many of them young, very sad. We have many fast food outlets and portions in cafes are huge.

MarshaBradyo · 30/04/2018 12:21

Cripes that is high. US will be higher unless Aus is getter bigger faster. Wonder what U.K. is

AhoyDelBoy · 30/04/2018 12:22

Unfortunately not, but we should do before long Smile it's only me, DP and our 7 month old but still! Sick of the cost of food life

MarshaBradyo · 30/04/2018 12:22

Oh overweight makes more sense

MarshaBradyo · 30/04/2018 12:23

It’s around 30% obese now. US is higher than Aus and U.K. a few % lower

DairyisClosed · 30/04/2018 12:26

Unlikely. The younger generation is incredibly vain. 70% of my year at school was underweight with eating disorders. I think it is mostly people over 50 and poor people who are obese in Australia down to a lack of knowledge. Of all the australians that I know who are my age the only noticing overweight ones as have health conditions that cause it bar one.

HoppingPavlova · 30/04/2018 12:27

QuiteLikely - considerably obese. Think 5’ and 100kg. And yes, it’s a mystery, has been put down to stuffed metabolism. Have even had severe food poisoning (hospitalised), didn’t shift a gram.

Elementtree · 30/04/2018 12:31

I suppose in a life before supermarkets and easy access to food, being able to hold your weight in the face of starvation would have been a brilliant advantage over other mere mortals hopping

ButchyRestingFace · 30/04/2018 12:31

Not in Western Australia, they won't! I was there for a couple of months a few years ago and by God, they were whippet thin. It was during their summer.

I couldn't understand it because their portion sizes were humungous.

StealthPolarBear · 30/04/2018 12:32

Latest figures in England come from the quality and outcomes framework so it is based on people visitong the GP.

Original poster
AjasLipstick · 30/04/2018 12:33

Butchy here in Adelaide there is a contingent of people who are fit as hell but I notice more and more larger people.

OP posts:
MarshaBradyo · 30/04/2018 12:35

When I go back to Aus I am often struck by how big people are. Not fat necessarily but tall and well built. The men usually. It could be easy to be overweight like this but still active etc

ppeatfruit · 30/04/2018 12:37

Well it's country where everyone has a telly and the advertising is the same\similar as here; the manufacturers wanting get rich pushing and ,pushing sugar and sweetener laden fizzy soft drinks, breakfast cereals, fast food outlets, etc etc. It's not surprising is it?

Oddly people seem to believe if it's advertised on telly it can't give you diabetes, or make you fat.

Original poster
AjasLipstick · 30/04/2018 12:40

Marsha I agree with that! I'm 5.6 but I'm way shorted than a lot of people here. Women my age can be 5.10 quite commonly....kids of 13 are head and shoulders above me.

OP posts:
ohfortuna · 30/04/2018 12:51

Moved back to Sydney and lost 2 stone pretty sharpish as I felt bigger than average
I think what you say there is very interesting, I wonder just how significant this effect is?
Ie if most people are overweight then it seems like an ok and normal thing so others are less likely to do anything about it?
It also seems to me that in situations where most people are overweight then if you are slim there's quite a lot of social pressure to put on weight, for example constant comments about how thin you are, that you look anorexic, constant pressure to eat fattening food etc

Ozgirl75 · 30/04/2018 12:56

Agree with how well built Aussies are. The older girls at my sons’ school in year 10-12 are tall and strapping. Even the slim ones are pretty well covered and muscled whereas when I was at school the girls all tended to be skinny. You don’t see many skinny older kids any more.