Why are there so many overweight and obese British women?

[EvaHara]

Genuine post and I promise I am not a weight troll. Recently I was on a cruise and couldn't help but notice that many other British women onboard - especially younger women - were considerably overweight or obese. Some were in fact huge and easily as big as some women I saw in the US when there a few years ago.

What has caused this rise in overweight people, particularly younger women? I don't remember there being this many overweight/obese people even 10 years ago.

I am not judging, just curious.

I haven't RTFT, so this point has probably been made but I think there's a serious drinking culture amongst some women - especially young women - which didn't exist before.

Obesity is connected to poverty - chips are cheaper than salad - but unlikely to be the issue for women on a cruise.

Dear god, I struggled to get anything vegetarian, they looked at me like I was barmy and I couldn't find a salad! There were huge amounts of processed sausage and loads of heavy puddings like strudels (which I loved!). Always full fat milk in the coffee.
Also, I am not being rude when I say that a lot of Germans are overweight.

I’m not surprised you said Marks food hall as a majority of their food appears to be about not cooking or eating sweet stuff but Waitrose I don’t think this is the market their aiming for, maybe this is regional but I go their for discounted healthy stuff as they are the most likely to offer discounts on healthy stuff particularly organic food. If I want more junk style food for teenage son and friends, Tesco is the cheapest. If you want fairly cheap fruit and veg I find Sainsburys pretty good.

I agree, people in the UK have no idea what mastery of food they have.

UK traditional food and UK processed food are both so good!

It is so easy to resist temptation elsewhere because the local cuisine is nowhere near as nice.

Not solely.
And the Government is merely a product of the society.
Humans are animals and if zoo keepers set up a their animals in an environment where they grew this overweight, we would consider them terrible zoo keepers rather than blame the animals. Individuals of all species behave differently, but the zoo keepers are still responsible.
We are our own zoo keepers. We should be able to design a society that makes people healthy. If I can be day dreaming I would love to see:

• Remove social stigma for being fat. The stigma makes the problem worse.
• Ensure sport is less elitist. When we go for a walk, we do not care how well we do it, it is just nice to do. I wish it was the same with running, yoga, boxing and dancing.
• Remove stigma about not being able to cook. Women in Scandinavia who cannot cook say so. It is not a big deal, it also makes learning to cook less of a big deal.
• Culinary society. We do not have it and when we do it is often elitist and makes things worse. A well made cheddar cheese sandwich can be a joy.

I would say the processed meats are processed, but not ultra processed - ie they are made from actual food, and ws something Germansxwere eating 50 years ago. Not that great to eat all the time, but it's the chemicals in UPF that is triggering obesity. That's the main change.

Too much food, too much processed food, eating too often, eating too late at night, too much sugar, not enough physical activity, bad sleeping patterns.

They have loads of processed food in their supermarkets.

It is. I have been trying to get clean for years but have fallen off the wagon yet again. Damn Dairy Milk Smore Caramel Nut Crunch, damn it to hell 🤣

Yeah I've noticed this Tbf in English speaking countries it's considered really rude to mention someone's weight. I was shocked I gained like dead ass only about 7 pounds and an Indian guy at my work who I hadn't seen for a while told me to my face I was starting to get fat 😂 it was a wake up call to be fair

Booze culture has changed in my lifetime (I'm in my 50s) and we all drink a lot more.
Food has changed beyond all recognition, the availability of cheap snacks and fatty foods is astonishing compared to when I was a kid.
Instead of getting shit done, we are glued to our phones 90% of our leisure time.
The weather is shit and in combination with having phones in our hands, it's so much easier to not exercise.
We are far unhappier which makes initiating exercise harder.

However I don't really see why there should be a gender difference there. IME there isn't, anyway, we are just a much fatter nation (ps I am fat).

Definitely something wrong with my hormones - thyroid hormone to be exact.

@SuziQuinto there is junk food here of course, but it doesn't look that yummy to me. It's all stuff like a family sized bag of paprika chips or the saddest chocolate of all time (apart from the cornflake one), Ritter Sport. They also don't really have chocolate as a 'grabbable' portion you eat all at once, so things like a meal deal in the UK where you get a small packet of crisps and a small chocolate bar, doesn't really happen. It doesn't feel like there is the same level of food innovation like the UK, where they keep developing new tempting stuff. Maybe it's just nostalgia when I come back that makes it seem like people are eating more crap in the UK - and I'm one of them for however long I'm here! @Teateaandmoretea , I do agree with you about them loving their processed meat, but I feel like they've eaten that since time immemorial. Trying to put my finger on what it is that is different, I feel like there are fewer younger people overweight in Germany, and that there are more stringy healthy looking middle aged women in Germany, and that is rarer here for it to start so young. This is not statistical or anything, it's just what I see going round the fairly biggish city and suburbs where I live.

ii can categorically say i do not have fat fingers

It’s goes far deeper and more sinister than that.
What if foods were being pushed on the population to line someone else’s pockets? Being made deliberately addictive by adding stuff. By bringing the price right down so it’s easy to keep on buying. By increasing the price of healthier food stuffs to make those more inaccessible.
Then offer out a token ‘sugar tax’ to make it look like something is being done.

Essentially, not moving enough and eating too much. That’s the bread and butter of it - pun intended.

also think the desire to be “thick” now and “body positivity” has a lot to do with it. People will be fat and call themselves thick or curvy

In my personal case, it's a combination of being careless when I was young and slim and eating/drinking what I wanted, when I wanted because I was fit and exercised a lot - then suddenly I began gaining weight and no matter what I did, it didn't come off and I was diagnosed with a severely underactive thyroid plus a brain tumour and then I got more and more illnesses including a blood cancer which thankfully I'm in remission from and also degenerative cervical stenosis which means my mobility has lessened dramatically and I'm currently at the heaviest I've ever been and don't like to go out at all because I feel so disgusted with how I look.

I live in Canada and we have a growing obesity problem as well.

I think it's so multifaceted but I will say we live in a world of instant gratification. Amazon arrives the next day. Every food craving we have can be satisfied especially things with sugar that are addicting.

I think being hungry at points during the day used to be seen as normal. Now when kids or adults are hungry they eat. Food is everywhere and shitty food is cheap food and that's what we crave. Most people don't crave celery which is cheaper than a chocolate bar but doesn't satisfy a craving.

I think food has become therapy and comfort. Much like reality TV. It's a dopamine hit. A quick and easy one.

I think shopping, eating, social media, porn, all of it is connected in ways through instant feel good brain chemicals.

I made a list in my bedroom of healthy things to do when I'm stressed because I gravitate towards those quick hits.

It's harder to convince myself to workout, do yoga, clean, sing, make art when I'm stressed. I have this framed in my wall because otherwise I'll continue to feed unhealthy habits. And no, the list doesn't always work. Lol

When I lived in France, I (and all of my French student friends) lived on baguettes, chocolate, cheese, red wine and cigarettes. We may have been thin, but healthy we were not.

Male obesity is a growing problem in the UK, with 67% of men in the UK overweight or obese, compared with 62% of women.

Wow that's really shocking. That's a huge percentage.

And must be part of the problem. I remember reading about how people tend to put weight on around bigger people and lose weight among slimmer, unconsciously, if those are the people they spend a lot of time with.

WFH and cheap, moreish UPFs have definitely contributed to me putting weight on.

scoff a pizza and worry?

This is an excellent post

Writing from Denmark, I would say most men can cook a basic meal from scratch, like in the UK. I think it is the case that almost every woman can, whereas that would be substantially less.
Netiher Denmark, UK nor Germany are big culinary nations.

I expect it's because cruises are usually all inclusive, so they can stuff their faces to their hearts content at no extra cost.

To be honest, it's probably a good idea. I once went on holiday with an obese friend, and the biggest mistake was that we didn't go all inclusive, as all she wanted to do was eat, and split the split the bill equally. Cost me a fortune, and I really felt taken advantage of. We don't speak now.

An addition to that, Proctor and Gamble had figures on this and the UK was the nation in Europe that eats the most ready-meals.
I can see a difference in the marketing.
In Denmark the ad is "Are you a sad pathetic lonely man who cannot look after himself? Have a ready meal"
In the UK it seems to be "Are you a high achieving professional career woman who is far too sophisticated for boring food? Have a ready meal"

I do not want to exaggerate, I am pretty sure the most common meal eaten for tea in this Danish town is pre-made pizza. But it is less extreme.