To resent people who use the "she's thin because she's rich" fallacy?

[GinDaddy]

I recently read an article on Carole Middleton, mother of the Duchess of Cambridge. It was one of the creepy DM ones that highlighted her "trim figure" in a bikini or whatever nonsense they wrote, at her age of 60-something.

What struck me were the comments underneath the article. Hundreds of them saying the same thing:

"She's only thin because she's rich and has the time to be thin".

AIBU to think this is a slightly silly fallacy, a nonsense argument used by people who potentially resent their own weight and situation?

ok YES I agree that if you have staff, you have a business and/or are retired and therefore can control your hours and schedule, that automatically opens up huge swathes of time for the gym, and home cooking.

However how does that account for Oprah, Rebel Wilson, Gemma Collins, etc etc? These are well off (rich in Oprah's case) powerful women whose weight has fluctuated a lot. I'm not criticising them whatsoever. I'm just suggesting that surely there's more to it than just "she's rich therefore she will be thin?"

Carole Middleton has good genetics sure, but it's clearly more than that. She has had a life of self discipline, perhaps borne out of her initial job in the skies, and a slightly old fashioned sense of weight and "keeping one's figure" that has clearly been transmitted down to her daughters. I think her approach pre-dates the money, it's clearly simply a life choice - one no better than anyone else's, but a choice nonetheless.

AIBU here to think the "she's rich, therefore she's lucky and can be thin" is a bit of a straw argument, when I can see plenty of folk around me who don't have such resources but perhaps share Carole's ethos and therefore have prioritised the things that make them a certain way?

Fully prepared to be stamped on as is the AIBU ritual but it's an argument I see time and time again

The nous to self educate tends to come from some kind of privilege in itself, in my experience.

Oh please

That's a massive insult to parents everywhere from all walks of life and backgrounds, who have kids and just get on with learning to feed them properly.

Bingo! A MN weight/eating thread can never be without the ubiquitous 'people stuffing themselves'. Now we need chomping, gulping, slurping,

Don't forget: "We've lost sight of what a normal weight is."

It's a click of a few buttons on the internet. Not trekking across town to find cookery books in the local library and lug them home on the bus.

There's also the memory of being hungry that some people carry with them. I remember a time when I was so skint after rent, travel to work and electricity/gas that I largely lived on coffee made with milk and sugar stolen from the work kitchen so I could afford good food for DD1, supplemented by seeing a shit boyfriend who made my skin crawl with his racism, womanising and general misogyny because his Mum would feed me on Sundays and send me back home with a carrier bag of snacks and stale bread.

I got quickly used to scarfing down anything that wasn't nailed down, no matter how fucking revolting it was, just so I had some calories in me - which wasn't exactly an approved method of recovering from an ED.

I had all the self discipline in the world. But actually being that poor completely changed my attitude towards food forever.

Just as knowing that your children are likely to survive to adulthood makes having fewer babies a viable choice for people in the developing world, knowing that there will always be food makes eating less of it overall an appealing prospect.

Whenever we have gone to a restaurant in the UK, even a supposedly good one, there seems to be an inordinate amount of food cooked in batter or smothered in rich sauces. It is virtually impossible to get a simple freshly grilled piece of fish with a salad and I think this is appalling considering that we are an island nation.

Where abouts in the U.K.? Because that's certainly not my experience. Unless you're frequneting kfc.

Has anyone read the Road To Wigan Pier by George Orwell? It covers poverty and healthy eating and is very applicable to the present day like much of his writing.

it is a very complicated problem with a variety of causes, and has very little to do with moral failings and virtues
Yes it is complicated. Though I think people are very aware if this, to the point if you discuss obesity you are fat shaming, it is a very much stick your head in the sand subject. Unfortunately as it impacts on health services and young DC it needs to be discussed.
Worraliberty is right about simple cooking tutorials online. Most home's rich and poor have access to wifi.

Well there you go Loomed, you can't help some people and some people just will not help themselves or their kids.

There are many many reasons some people can't cook a basic meal at home....lack of cooking facilities/gas/electric etc but 'I wasn't taught to cook at school' is simply not a 'reason' anymore.

Well if I was a millionaire I can honestly say I wouldn’t be any slimmer! I’d probably be fatter as I would justify spending £10 in an M&S pudding.... because I was rich enough!

I’d eat out more and enjoy the finer things in life. So definitely wouldn’t be slimmer!!

Don't get me wrong, I know the link between poverty and obesity etc etc.

However, it still kind of surprises me that poorer people are generally fatter/bigger/overweight/obese. Surely with less money then there'd be less money for food, either healthy or unhealthy? When I was really poor and eked everything out to the penny (literally) I was thin because I ate only the basics and certainly never fast food, takeaways etc - I couldn't afford it. I ate something like two slices of toast with peanut butter/jam for breakfast, a cheese sandwich, an apple and a packet of crisps for lunch and baked potatoes/pasta with sauce/mash and sausages and carrots and peas for dinner. My food bill was very low. I didn't eat much meat except maybe ham or chicken every now and then. On that kind of diet you could not be overweight. To be overweight you'd have to be spending a fair bit on food, junk or otherwise.

Bingo! A MN weight/eating thread can never be without the ubiquitous 'people stuffing themselves'. Now we need chomping, gulping, slurping,

This thread gets double bash points, for also managing to be spiteful to both fat and poor people. Well done!

I don't believe learning to feed yourself and your kids comes from any form of privilege. It's just part of being an adult.

I believe when a man doesn't learn this, the favoured MN phrase is 'Manchild', not 'lack of privilege'.

It's a fact that rich peopleare more likely to be able to afford personal trainers, chefs, weight loss consultants etc. It's also a fact that on average poor people eat less well. Oprah and others are comparatively rare compared to rich people who are on top of their weight.

This is why I don't get why Donald Trump doesn't do more about his appearance, when he can afford all the plastic surgery and liposuction or help with his diet that money could buy, and more. The only answer is maybe he thinks he's gorgeous.

Another example is Gina Rinehart. A billionaire, she was morbidly obese up until a couple of years ago. It seems now she's lost the weight. She probably had paid help with that of course.

I hear what you are all saying, but walk around Knightsbridge and see how many fat peoples you see.

The thing that annoys me here (apart from the outright smugness and superiority) is that obesity is hugely trivialised and smirked at.

I am obese. As a child I was rail thin and barely ate. Upon hitting puberty I started to gain weight quickly yet not from eating excessively. It took me decades to be diagnosed with pcos. Having seen multiple specialists they have decided my only option is bariatric surgery yet I’m not entitled to it on the NHS as I’m not obese enough.

I have tried every diet, fitness plan, medication etc possible even my endocrinologist has told me I’m simply unlucky. The only way I lose weight is by starving myself (literally) and even then it’s only temporary.

As a parent two of my children are very thin and one is slightly overweight. All three have the same diet and activity levels and I am extremely conscious of making sure they eat well as I desperately don’t want them to end up like me.

So yes if I was rich I would pay for the appropriate surgery and would be able to afford gym membership etc to keep it maintained, but as it happens I can’t afford that so I’ll have to just stay subject to everyone’s condemnation I guess

Ohyesiam how would we know who actually lived there and who was just walking around?

I'd say that's the key. Not 'pure genetics and nothing else

If you saw my diet you wouldnt say that
I can literally count the veg ive eaten this week. 2 tomatoes. a few potatos. Fruit? 3 cherries.
The rest is carbs, cheese, sweets, some ham and chicken from a store bought roast chook and buckets of coffee with minimum 5 sugars in each. Ive had 3 mac and cheese meals this week, with extra cheese.
Even not eating past full with my diet, most gain weight. Not all but most would especially including my lack of exercise. I do none

I dont deny my diet is bad but without good genetics, id be huge, especially for my height.

I'm always thinner when I don't have the time to eat/snack/think about food. Richness doesn't come into it (although my pocket was slightly better off due to not spending as much on food)
So all the weight I lost before Christmas when hellishly busy at work/with other things has just gone straight back on this week.

Anon7728

Reading a lot of the comments on here, a lot of people saying the link between poverty and obesity is proven

It is proven though. There is a very clear link. It doesn't mean that everyone who is from a particular socio economic group will be thin or fat.

To be thin I’d need
-A nanny and housekeeper to give me free time and energy to exercise
-A nutritionist or at the very least a meal delivery service
-Exercise equipment at home (and room to store it) to make it easier to exercise
-A personal trainer would be a massive help

But I’m exhausted from doing housework and childcare, being woken at night then getting up and working for a living. I have no energy to exercise and I crave carbs for energy. If I do find the strength to exercise I have to find a babysitter and drive to the gym, which obviously costs money. Of course if you’re rich you still have to make an effort to be thin, but money gives you the freedom to make that effort.

It’s education not money