to think some people struggle to lose weight because food is no longer seen as fuel?

[Hiptobe]

I am not talking about people with any medical conditions which makes it complex.

People eat for other reasons other than to fuel their bodies. Maybe it is comfort, they are upset and a whole slew of other reasons.

Food is not seen as fuel but filling a gap in some way emotionally and mentally.

Of course there is nothing wrong with food being pleasurable and going out for dinners etc. But I am talking about people who are regularly eating more than their bodies need.

Whilst I don't think food has in my time ( and I'm 63) be seen just as fuel, I certainly can't remember it being so constantly ' in our face' as it has been in the last 20 years- but that's partly due to social media ( constant recipes/rate my plate ) type stuff, retail taken up far more with cafes, coffee shops, McDs , Greggs , burger stands, street food, etc , TV full of cook type stuff . I think the constant temptation these days is 'far higher'

In the past I've done a sport very seriously and it was primarily and endurance sport so fuelling was very important. I am forever more grateful that I see food as a way to fuel my body as oppose to cheer myself etc. I enjoy food a lot, enjoy nice restaurants, cakes, sweets, you name it, but I also know I need less if I do less.

Food has never been about fuel in the modern age where food became plentifully available. It's about family and community and society.

But it's still fuel, we eat because we're hungry, whether that's at the family table, celebrating a special occasion or by yourself. I mean, when you're refueled/full, you're full!

Yes, I would hate to not enjoy food.

Humans bond over food more than anything else. So in taking away enjoyment of food, you're taking away part of our humanity.

But why are they mutually exclusive?

Why can food not be both fuel and enjoyable at the same time?

You can enjoy food and the experiences it brings at the same time as viewing it as fuel. The enjoyment of food doesn’t come only from consuming a lot of it.

I don't think there are many people who view food as just fuel.

I do see your point though. I think many people inc me have got used to eating empty calories for enjoyment. It's a very hard thing to break I'm finding

Even the wealthy Romans used food for pleasure entertainment and to climb up the social ladder. It hasn't just been fuel to keep you alive for centuries.

Crikey, what a revelation.

Also, not sure whether you're aware yet - but the sky is blue.

Agree - I eat for pleasure in the evening. Breakfast and lunch is fuel but I don't need fuel at 8pm!

I don't think food has ever been seen as "just" fuel. I think it has always been seen as a source of pleasure, tradition, ritual, community, caring...

It’s always been more than fuel. The problem is UPF and the quantity and quality of the stuff.

I'm also thinking of the cultures that tend to be the healthiest - Mediterranean, Japanese. Neither see food as fuel.

Food as fuel is big in Western diet/exercise culture. Not an area id particularly associate with health, or long term weight management.

Many of us, including the Mediterranean cultures, who see food as 'fuel' also enjoy food! Again, the two are not mutually exclusive. Food should be enjoyed whilst refuelling us!

Yes, there are multipacks of everything now in superarkets, whereas when I was a kid you might go and spend your pocket money on a chocolate bar once a week at the local newsagent as they weren't always available to the same extent in supermarkets as they are now. Sharing bags of crisps are another problem. It's far too easy to eat way more than one person's portion once a bag of those is open andd there aren't multiple people sharing.

The multiplex cinemas arriving in the UK also have contributed. Really pushing the food element of going to the cinema with huge portions of popcorn with loads of calories. It just wasn't like that in the 80s when I'd go most weeks to my local town's cinema (for very cheap entrance too).

Also when I was a kid in the late 70s it was only kids who ate ice cream regularly, often from the ice cream man.. Adults would only have an ice cream cone on a day out. Then the likes of Haagen Dasz arrived, pushing ice cream for adults as a "you're worth it" kind of decadent thing, always paired up with ordinary home activities like watching telly.

All you can eat buffets weren't really a thing years ago. Neither were all inclusives where people feel they have to get their money's worth in both food and drink.

Super sizing has been a problem for years now. It's changed the UK's health for the worse. It's pushed as another "you're worth it" kind of thing. And who wants to think that they AREN'T worth it - it's an easy win for the likes of McDonalds.

Some motorway services are crap - not much choice between the likes of KFC and Maccies. Some are starting to improve and offer healthier types of fast food. But a lot of people see the logos and make a beeline straight for the Big Mac. I mean, you have to eat when you're on a long journey. That's when food IS just fuel. But often you're a captive audience at a motorway services and having junk food thrust in your face as the quickest solution is a surefire way for a nation to get

I did a Tesco shop yesterday. There was so much processed and packaged stuff. More and more of it than there ever used to be. Aisle up on aisle of biscuits, snacks, crisps.

This is true. It is said we live in a obesogenic society

I haven't read to the end so I might be ahead of myself here!

I know what you are saying about the communal pleasure of food and culture and community. However, I'm not sure how that translates in a cold wet dreary country in Winter when most people's day and evening is taken up with school runs, going to work, getting back from work, doing chores, putting on something to eat, sitting down, eating it and going to bed!

Meal planning is total fkn drudgery for many as is the cooking of it, day after day after day on top of a busy day. No wonder take aways and fast food are everywhere.

We don't get three hours to eat a long leisurely lunch like in the Med Region. So it's fuel to me. Pleasurable eating is when someone else cooks it for me!

You're so right, OP. I just had an enormous salad. Three lettuce leaves. Two tomatoes. I am replete. The fatties need to stop being so greedy.

Food being pleasurable to eat is hardwired into evolution.

It's why fruit is sweet; a greater proportion of sugars in them meant that animals (not just humans) were more likely to choose that plant and spread that particular plant's seeds. Instead of just eating one and moving on, the pleasure from eating the fruit maximised the opportunities for that plant's seeds to grow.

Flowers don't produce nectar for shits and giggles; it's there to attract pollinators. The larger quantity and prolonged availability of nectar maximised the opportunities for pollination. And some insects evolved the ability to get hold of it without doing the pollinating, so it's been around for even longer than you might think for them to evolve that on top.

We're talking millions, not thousands or hundreds of years, of planetary evolutionary influences, not ways to berate the less aesthetically pleasing to those in an extremely wealthy Western country where outside of religious fasting and rejection of earthly pleasures in the last 1500 years, it's been a dream of people to have plump, healthy families because that meant they were not likely to starve to death after a couple of poor harvests or another war.

Pretty much most people past the medieval period dont see food as ONLY fuel

The very very poor will not have had a choice a lot of the time, but for those that had a smidgen more than subsistence will have eaten for enjoyment, as does any animal given the choice.

Why do you think that all cultures have celebratory foods, usually sweet things, usually rich things, usually vast spreads of inviting high flavoured foods.

The only difference is that food is simply more available now for the majority of the world, hence obesity issues. But people have always enjoyed food and ate when they werent strictly hungry.

Clearly as a society we no longer see food as fuel for the most part.

Food is a hobby, a status symbol, something to spend load of £££ on, its desire, its aspirational, its cheap, its pleasurable, its often highly addictive.

Food is a social marker, is your food clean? local? organic? from the butcher? from the market? absolutely delicious?

Look at any TV show, any food advertisement - unrealistic images about food & food consumption are coming at us all day every day.

99% of people are on the other side of the universe from seeing "food as fuel".

Going back not that long ago, most of the food we eat would have had a high chance of being off. Humans have a well developed drive to eat to overcome having to eat partially rotten/off food. We don't have to run around and catch it, we no longer have to fight off competitors for the food. We can sit on our sofas and order in food - we don't even have to move. The food we eat is often so highly palatible and nutritional poor, it is extremely easy to overeat.

Yes, me. I struggle