To think most people don’t care about healthy eating, exercise, etc

[Notcontent]

We keep hearing about rising obesity levels, diabetes, and how sugary/processed good is responsible for a lot of it, etc.

But it seems to me that most people are completely ignoring those messages - either because they think it’s all nonsense or because they think “oh well, I want to enjoy my food and drink and I don’t really care what happens when I get to 50”.

I completely agree that we need to have treats and enjoy food because that’s what life is all about. But a lot of it is just simple stuff, like having water instead or sugary drinks. Why is that? Yes, I know some people can’t afford healthy food, but most of us do have some choice about what we feed ourselves and our families.

I have a small appetite and won't waste it on things I don't like just cos they healthy
I'd rather sit down to a bowl of creamy pasta with bacon over a bowl of salad and steamed chicken
I drink water, in my coffee, coke is made with water. Plain water is bland and tasteless. Blergh
I'd rather sit in front of my fire watching Netflix over going for a run
I'd rather spend $100 on a night out for the family over a gym membership
I hate cooking, quick, easy, tasty and cheap are the motivations for food here.

4 packets of seeds and nuts and 5 packets of dried fruit

Pass, gimme a nice chocolate, good latte or cheese and bacon balls please
Nuts, seeds and dried fruit. Boring, I'd go crazy after 1 day of that

Time to get me a buttery crumpet with jam and refill my coffee for the 4th time

I honestly didn't know. I was brought up in a lower middle class household (in the West of Scotland mind you!), went to Uni, moved into a flat and had a decent office job, but I'd just never really fully understood nutrition. I was overweight, about 16 stone (6'2). A normal week would be:

M-F (Toast with butter and tea for BF, 2 Sandwiches with cheese, ham and mayo for lunch with crisps, cook from frozen oven meal for dinner that would also consist of chips and plenty of mayo, oh and two slices of toast with it.)

So straight off the bat I was eating 8 slices of bread a day! Seems absolutely mental now. Weekend would involve shit loads of pints, two takeaways, two fry ups and a pub lunch. I just thought that's what "everyone" did.

Moved away in '09 and saw a different way to eat, but didn't make big changes yet, started gradual changes in '11 and never looked back. Have eaten healthily ever since to the point that what some people consider "healthy" I just consider normal.

Something children aren't learning in school is seasonality of produce.

I was on my allotment a few weeks ago when a group of early teens started asking what I grow. When I pointed out our grape vines there was genuine surprise that I couldn't give them grapes right there and then!

Many people have lost contact with how food is produced and as a result have lost confidence in their ability to produce it themselves.

Both parents at work and therefore not having family meals means it's easier to use processed food to feed different people at different times.

I think it’s the overwhelming abundance of cheap crap food. Never before have humans been surrounded by stuff that we are biologically designed to crave. We’ve never had to exercise willpower when it comes to food and we are just unprepared for it.

Something needs to be done at a government level because individually we are just not equipped to cope and we are killing ourselves.

"There isn’t a mixed message with exercise- we should do 30 minutes per day ever day and some of that should be resistance training"

There are definitely mixed messages about what constitutes exercise though. Some people say walking is enough, others don't. The NHS guidelines aren't clear to me. I definitely don't have time to do 30 minutes a day of something requiring two changes of clothes and a shower.

I don’t believe children’s education is a problem. Healthy eating starts from EYFS (which didn’t even exist when I was younger) and healthy living features throughout the school curriculum now.

When I was at school we did nothing- cookery classes to make scones/ pizza/ rock cakes

My parents had domestic science classes- them, the baby boomers who enthusiastically embraced convenience / microwave food, fed it to the next generation and hugely influenced the state of people’s health today. So that didn’t work either.

Blaming schools/ the education system is just another lazy way of trying to explain away a very complex situation

Some people claim not to care but it’s usually a mask for their insecurities. I was like this a few years ago when I was hugely overweight and struggling with my MH. I tried to claim I was happy that way because I could eat what I wanted etc but nah, I was miserable.

Gwen - the schools that have implemented the daily mile have had improved level of concentration in their classes. The reality is most kids are not getting enough exercise outside of school - recommended is 1hour per day of movement- so why shouldn’t the school build it into their day? It is meant to be a mile of running not walking. Of course it’s fine to start with walking but the aim is running.

Yes, it is up to them whether they run or walk (DC tell me) and is not a race. I like it, it started in Scotland I think to get the kids a bit fitter (move a mile) it is good for the ones who aren't that sporty and do lots of clubs (the ones who need it I guess).

It my DCs primary school playground they climb trees and get muddy, have a play pod full of random stuff to pull each other around on, more than the piece of tarmac I had growing up in the 1980s. Food also terrible then (burgers in batter for example). I don't think it is so true this is a new thing. Not in all places anyway.

I wonder if the people who struggle to eat healthily and exercise are those with huge pressures at work and home and simply dont have time or headspace.

This, 100%

allworthwhile has it right. Huge pressures in the family/home mean healthy eating and living falls to the wayside. When I went through awful family court proceedings, I just wanted to hide in the house and I gained 1.5 stone. It just added to the misery.

There are so many mixed messages. My youngest dd marries soon and her weight has plummeted. Her GP has told her to cut back on the exercising, gym etc because he feels she is overdoing it. Yet she eats well.

Best mixed message ever was Matt Hancock Health Minister on GMTV this morning. When asked what he had for breakfast he responded a banana ,began to admit to something else when filming of him prior to interview showed him really happily tucking into a large caramel waffle (that came in a two pack). When asked to explain himself he recovered enough to say that caramel waffles were okay in moderation. So there you are.

I think that’s another problem Elsie. Lives are long and people don’t stick to eating regimes their whole lives. Eating a banana for breakfast some days, or most days, for a period of time doesn’t mean you never tuck into a caramel waffle

The issue is as others have said, food is such a massive focus of our life when it shouldn't really be, yes, it is there to enjoy, but largely it is our fuel and keeps us healthy and alive. We are constantly being inundated with shit like vegan eating, organic, paleo, keto, low carb etc etc. There is so much choice and so many mixed messages.

I could start my morning off well with a low carb nut butter energy ball and kale smoothie, loaded with fruit sugars, fat and calories, in its own right, and end the day because I'm feeling tired and fed up with a fully loaded pizza or Chinese takeaway. It really can be all too much and too confusing for someone who is unsure how to approach a healthy diet and wants to lose some weight.

Personally though, I know better than to listen to the new fads, and as a serious runner I like to follow a largely healthy lifestyle and make choices that work for me and my family. I cook everything for the family from scratch, do a lot of low sugar baking, but we all still have chocolate and crisps occasionally. It works for us.

And the constant snacking message hasn't helped. DC get told no snack, let's wait for dinner. We simply do not need to snack at all if we are eating three times a day unless there is more than 6 hours between meals perhaps and it has been a very active day. Commercially available snacks by their nature are not usually healthy.

Kids are brought up now to expect snacks. And kids activities and clubs reinforce this.

Kids are brought up now to expect snacks. And kids activities and clubs reinforce this.

Yes totally agree. With mine it started in Reception when parents come brandishing the donuts and biscuits/chocolate at pickup time. Each to their own of course, but it is difficult for a child not to want the same.

I think there was a study a few years ago, which stated that 75% of the items being sold in supermarkets are medium-highly processed. This reinforces the notion that 75% of our diet should be from processed foods.
...And if you combine that idea with the relentless marketing from big companies, and the time it saves to cook processed foods - no wonder people don't care that much.

Also, I guess the processed foods and low exercise diets have been normalised in today's society - so there's no real motivation for people to change.

Thing is, depends what you mean by processed. For dinner tonight I’m having lamb meatball pasta bake (lamb meatballs are probably processed right?) and a bagged ceaser salad. The ceaser salad is def processed but it’s just a bag of lettuce, croutons, cheese and dressing. Makes my life easier, I like it and what harm does it do to my body to consume pre chopped lettuce rather than chop myself? None! So processed doesn’t equal bad....

Kids are brought up now to expect snacks. And kids activities and clubs reinforce this

Nothing wrong with snacking, per se. Depends on what the snack is! For a growing child, cheese or unsweetened yoghurt or fruit or a slice of peanut butter on toast won’t hurt. I’ve always snacked in between meals and am a healthy weight.

The problem is that the healthy choice is the more difficult one.
I remember going to a hippy festival years ago. Vegan food was included in the ticket price. You went to a tent and got a plate full, it was tasty and very healthy. The easy choice was to have the provided for vegan food. Some people also cooked for themselves, burgers, processed stuff. But this was the more difficult choice and required effort.
Similarly there was a small minibus running about the large site. You could wait for it. But it was actually easier just to walk, rather than wait for the minibus. So again the healthier choice was the easier one.
In a truly healthy society, the healthy choices would be the easy ones. Instead the unhealthy choices are the easy ones.

ethelfleda Most snacks are not healthy. Even ones that some people perceive as healthy like fruit yoghurts. Sure there are always outliers like yourself, but although I see some carrot sticks and apple slices being eaten as snacks, most snacks eaten are not healthy.

@Pass - I agree - I'm not sure how thorough the study was, and I can't remember what it was on... However, I did think at the time, that it neatly explained why today's society is less healthy than that of the 30's-50's, where processed foods made up a small percentage of the diet.

I think the issue with processed foods is when people are so disconnected with their foods that they don't understand what they are, or where they have come from.
So, your lamb meatballs could be fine - if it's a chunk of lamb meat, which has been minced and then shaped into balls - perhaps with some egg to bind it together and some herbs, then that's fine. But as soon as you start adding preservatives and flavourings, corn syrup and cheap saturated fat to bulk them out; that's when the process of modifying the food removes the nutrition to make them cheaper, less filling and more addictive to the consumer.