Why can't we discuss how fat we've all become?

[Nodinnernogift]

Obesity is becoming the norm. Why aren't we allowed express concern or any views that are less than celebratory about this?

I mean seriously why?

If whole parts of your country were in the grip of a meth addiction we would be allowed have a discussion about it.

National campaigns to stop people smoking are applauded.

Look around you. Look in the mirror. We are all getting bigger and bigger. It reminds me of when people would visit the US in the 80s / 90s and come back with tales of huge people and massive portion sizes.

Does nobody care? It's like the Emperors New Clothes. I don't get why it's a sacrosanct topic.

Yabu - it's nobody's business
Yanbu - it's fine to address this as a societal problem

Well said...sorry that people can be so cruel. Your worth as a human being is entirely unrelated to your size

We eat too much and too many sugar and carbs. That’s it really, apart from those who have genuine reasons to be overweight, such as being on medication, genetic issues, etc…
Having had gestational diabetes which woke me up to carb issues, doing cycles of clean keto is the only way I’ve managed to maintain being a size 8-10 in my 40s. I’ve been up to a size 16 before and it was solely down to diet and how my body responds to carbs.
When I’m having to low-carb and deny myself bread, cake with coffee etc…. I do quietly judge the large numbers of overweight people who are sitting there munching cake. If you’re overweight, you need to do something about it for your own health and to not be a future drain on the NHS.
Personal responsibility should be encouraged.

What really bothers me is the justifications that people use for feeding their children absolutely appalling food. In no other context would doing something to your children which is likely to shorten their lives and give them life long medical issues be excused or justified.

I suspect that obese people dying at 70, maybe after a coronary and a couple of weeks in ICU, might actually consume fewer NHS and wider welfare state resources than lightweight older people who live to 90, with a TIA or two every year for the last 6 years, gradually using up more bed time and social care.

Not to mention that there are very few obese 85 year olds collecting a state pension. Put crudely, dying at 70 rather than 85 saves £200k.

I am a bit reluctant to mention this, since I think it might be the basis of an attractive conspiracy theory ("The government wants you to be obese and die young, thus saving taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds"), but I would like to see some data. (And of course, obesity has costs during people's working lives too.)

For the avoidance of doubt, I applaud all efforts to encourage people to eat healthily and exercise, and I do not endorse the idea that people dying young is good. Nor do I think that there are evil people in the government trying to promote the latter. But I think it is quite possible that if you reduced everything to economics — which, again, I do not advocate for — obesity might be less of a problem than we might think.

I don’t know…. What about our parents generation who smoked their hearts out at home with us or in the car with us? 🤔 not new, is it?

We’re all bigger than we were, it’s not just about obesity. Just watch any documentary from the 1970s or 1980s. People were rail thin. Portion sizes were a fraction of what they are now. I read on another thread how on cookery programmes of the past, an omelette would be cut into quarters and served to 4 people with a side of salad or potatoes. Now the whole omelette would count as one portion and would come with toast and fries.

I do quietly judge the large numbers of overweight people who are sitting there munching cake

Do you judge people in pubs drinking alcoholic drinks?

I think the whole thing depends of whether we are talking about health or appearance. Dress size is one thing but we know for example that waist to hip ratio is a better predictor of health outcomes than BMI. When it comes to being older as long as you aren’t frail you are least likely to die with bmi of 23-24. I wonder if people are just larger full stop, bigger frames as well as they became more well nourished.

I do think we talk about it a lot tbh, I think WLI will be the key. People often have shit eating habits due to their childhoods, I had an extremely restricted diet inflicted upon me by my mother and have overeaten most of my life as an engrained scarcity response.

I do think that time is a factor, people can either choose to spend time cooking, cleaning and eating or doing something else. I’m a SAHM so cooking is not an issue. But if I were working full time, getting home, dealing with chores, homework etc etc I can see how quickly you would end up being reliant on easily prepared food. And the less money you have the more your options may seem to narrow.

Remember adults in the 1970s would have spent the very early years of their life living with rationing.... apparently that played a part in overall development and size. And not to mention the smoking too...

Haven’t the size labels changed over the years too? I’m still a size 10 but definitely much fatter than 20 years ago. Which means that what was 16 then is probably more like a 20 today.

I really don't understand weight gain through medication. Is it water retention or the medication making you hungrier so that you eat more?

Both. Very common side effect of all sorts of medication

A lot of people are making a lot of money due to people’s addition to sugar and reliance on convenience food so it’s a difficult thing to change.

Genuinely wondering- what is considered obese? Size 14? 12?

I don’t understand this idea. These adults- who are now in their 60s and 70s- are the obese people we’re talking about. I don’t think I know a baby boomer who isn’t overweight.

you're literally talking about the generation who embraced convenience food, the microwave, takeaways etc and brought their children up on findus crispy pancakes and oven chips.

I genuinely think that's about all we bloody talk about! Especially when it comes to health matters - pretty much all the focus is on obesity tbh.

I am a size 14. Been a size 12 to 14 for the last 20/25 years.

I was anorexic from age 17 to 19 (periods stopped, I nearly got admitted to an eating disorders unit for teenagers). My absolute fear was to put on weight. I saw myself as disgusting and not worth of living if I was going to put on weight.

I got myself out of this obsessive disorder quite messily but succeeded.

I promised myself I'd never diet again. I've been focusing on eating healthily but allowing myself non healthy foods too. I finally have a balanced relationship with my body and with food.

That's what I want to communicate to my children too: not obsess about food and body image but having a good knowledge of nutrition.

Fat is not healthy, but an eating disorder is hell on earth and can be deadly too.

Most of what you say has applied since the early 80s. People now vegetate in front of the TV (or mobile) or both...

The High Street has spawned fast food (crap food) everywhere unfortunately.

Deliveroo. Just Eat? Either you care or you don't.

It's a matter of self discipline.

This is an interesting article for those genuinely interested.

https://www.statnews.com/2021/09/13/how-a-fatally-tragically-flawed-paradigm-has-derailed-the-science-of-obesity/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

If it was just self discipline, how do the weight loss jabs work?

In a society with a national health service it’s a huge problem.

They make you not want to eat

I hear what you’re saying about being malnourished due to poverty but I believe in the UK it is a mindset that poor people can only afford white bread, junk food etc. I grew up in poverty in Latvia and then Ukraine, the poverty there in the 80s/90s was pretty tough. But the focus was on health and the vitamins that food can provide you - a mindset from USSR when the government were taking all the farmers food and trying to malnourish the population (Holodomor famine for example) Soups, stews and picked vegetables/fruits were the focus and still are.

But here it seems that people value their relaxation time over cooking. I get it, I’m a busy mum too and I know how exhausting it is when you come home from work. Not only that but people don’t want to eat a healthy soup every day for a week, because it’s boring or gross. They find an excuse to eat junk. But the focus on nutrition needs to come from the home and also through education, that doesn’t seem to happen in the UK in a lot of areas.

I like to eat nice food too now that I can afford it, but I don’t buy junk. If we have cake I make it, fruit ice lollies or cottage cheese and fruits blended to make ice cream. Sure if we go out for the day we buy treats for the children but I won’t buy ‘beige freezer food’ that seems to prop up a large part of the population. People have to take responsibility for themselves and their families.

Yes this is my size 5'5" 9st 5 I would have been a 14 in the '80's. Definately not super silm.

I definitely wouldn’t be celebrating them but on the other hand I think sometimes people can be overly ( and wrongly) complimentary towards overweight people as you think they may need an ego boost and are possibly feeling down about their weight which may lead them to believe that they are ok at the weight they are

Its a difficult issue to approach as critical comments don’t go down well