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

This! In the place I work, everyone is losing weight and going to the gym.
People previously overweight are now losing weight and getting fit.
This is mostly those in late 20's and into their 30's.
I think that's becoming an obsession. That and eating protein.

Do working hours really play that big a part? Don't Japan and South Korea have longer working hours with much lower levels of obesity?

Why do clothes need to be flattering?

I’m think it starts with educating children about basic nutrition, eating seasonal locally grown food, which is cheaper and above all how to cook from scratch.

I am sorry as I have only skim read the topic, I believe the obesity crisis is mostly down to the availability and social acceptance of UPF, oh and less smoking which is an appetite suppressant - kind of an old fashioned weight loss injection if you will.

What I would say though watching my always proudly trim DM suffering from osteoporosis, slim is not always better from a health perspective.

Even when people have innovative and effective solutions they don’t have the knowledge to know whether they’re really any good, and don’t have the power, or motivation to build the power, to take them forward.

it’s a complete nonsense conversation that’s replaced the old gossiping over the garden wall about how fat Linda’s got.

It’s a completely, completely different culture.

Britishfoodfan You’re quite right, I’m using north and south as a shortcut. I’ve lived all over the north east and Scotland. Nothing to do with them being northern ‘thickos’ but is instead about expensive public transport, shit shops in more rural areas for food (my closest shop was a Spar where I lived, they didn’t sell food, only processed junk), so many areas not recovered from Thatcherism and a lack of regeneration.

in Scotland the life expectancy in Glasgow for a man is 20 years less than Surrey. Addiction, poverty, much more of a factor.

I totally agree - it has become normal. I myself am overweight and dieting to get it off and get fit again. I feel and look awful and had enough of it. Obesity is a huge health problem in the UK. Fast food everywhere, people driving not walking, lazy lifestyles. What are the government doing to promote healthy weight? Nothing it seems.

Thank you! When I lived in North London, I’ve never seen as many fat people in my life, and certainly with the kids I was teaching it was mostly chicken shops that were responsible m. I now live in the NW and in my area (bar me, unfortunately), virtually everyone is slim and healthy- but then, it’s a very affluent area - yes, shock horror, these areas do exist outside Wimbledon!

In addition all the bloody money is in London, successive governments treating ‘areas not London’ as not worthy of investment. If there is investment, doing it piece meal.

reasonable article here talking about children in care and poverty in the divide: “decades of underinvestment”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c51nerw422eo.amp

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c51nerw422eo

I'm not sure.

I've always loved food, I work with food. But I have an absolute cut off.

I have a stop point..

I had a small Easter egg

It's still there. I've eaten half of it.

YABU. You clearly can discuss it, as you are doing right now.

What you mean is that you can´t discuss it without being criticized for being so judgmental of other people's bodies. You may have put "we" in the thread title, but what you really mean is "they", as in the people who are fat.

And for being so disingenuous, you are very unreasonable.

I’m guilty of saying “you don’t need to lose weight” to friends/acquaintances even though I know they are probably at the lower end of the BMI overweight category. I think it’s social conditioning to respond like this when people say they need to lose weight.

As usual, @LaurieFairyCake has pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Few of things I would add…

Our government is in bed with so many of the UPF food producers that they have found themselves between a rock and a hard place. It’s reminiscent of the episode on Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister when they cover the stop smoking campaign. Taxes from cigarettes go towards funding the NHS… but if people gave up, there would be less taxes paid. I feel there are parallels there!

I think the result of many of us leading stressful lives increases our cortisol levels which increases our weight. Learning how to de stress would help. I lost a shedload of weight leaving an abusive relationship. I can understand that WFT, dealing with kids, bills, mortgages, childcare and being time poor adds to this.

When I was younger, we’d go out shopping and come home for a cup of tea. There were no options every 2-3 shops to pop in and walk around clutching a milky latte. I think there was a Wimpy in our high street for any kind of daytime eating.

Much as I'd love to see proper cookery classes again, your ideas wouldn't be anything remotely approaching pretty much free.

Trying to ban UPFs would be an absolutely colossal undertaking. Even agreeing a definition would be tough. There would have to be exemptions, because for example infant formula is a UPF. So are various foodstuffs needed by people with medical conditions. Much supermarket bread is a UPF, and I presume you don't think we're going bread free any time soon? And then there'd be expansive litigation as companies with massive pockets clogged up the courts.

As for long term side effects, WLIs have actually been around the better part of two decades now. People take medication younger than that all the time.

And what we do know very clearly is that there are side effects to obesity. Refraining from prescribing WLIs (which are likely to get cheaper) because you want to test out banning UPFs would have actually very foreseeable consequences, and they wouldn't be good ones. Cookery classes in schools, whilst great, also wouldn't do anything for that vast majority of the population who've left.

It's rarely a discussion when it's about being overweight, fat, obese - whatever you want to call it, because when people give the reasons they're fat, they get ripped to shreds. Nothing is discussed, it just turns into a slanging match of who can be the most offensive, all wrapped up in concern for health or the NHS.

I got ripped apart a couple of years ago by two posters for trying to explain how night shifts have an effect on your metabolism and weight gain, how eating healthily and exercise becomes less of a priority than just trying to get enough sleep to function effectively at your job during the night and keep your life running while working anti social hours, how there's medical evidence of the issues shift work and more so night shifts, cause. Was just shouted down as being bollocks and excuses. Wasn't a discussion, just a series of insults and judgement.

If people want a discussion then it needs to actually be one and not a thinly veiled reason to have a go at other people.

There's definitely value in discussing it, the reasons, the causes, what solutions might be, but insulting people and using negativity and shame probably isn't the best way to get the most out of the discussion, and discover solutions.

teaching proper cookery classes again in school should be top of the list

One of the reasons I'm fat is because I am a good cook!

what on earth makes you think obesity isn’t widely discussed?

I believe overweight people struggle to get a GP to help them with anything that doesn’t start with you need to lose weight/ it’s your weight

That’s because it is often exacerbated or caused by being fat though.

Joint pain?
Bad back?
Snoring?
Gastro issues?

It’s also because a GP has a duty of care to talk about the most pressing issue a patient has when they get them in the surgery. They NEED to lose weight, because otherwise they’re putting themselves at risk of a whole load of other diseases as they get older.

Same! I'm a fan of the idea but am sceptical it would do much about obesity rates.

so you would:
Ban UFPs (or not?)
give everyone advice to distress (what does this actually look like?)
close all the cafes and take aways.

sounds like a realistic plan 🙄

Agreed. People can’t possibly think that the large % of overweight people in the uk are all sitting there unable to make eggs or boil pasta or toss a salad desperately wishing someone had taught them how to for 40 minutes a week when they were 13, so just going out to get a Nando’s instead.

things the Gillian mckeith 2004 view. It’s old, outdated, and we know better. People really need to give it up.

You are right - night shifts have a massive impact on metabolism.

I agree we do need to discuss the causes, not just berate people.

Everyone will have individual causes (like yours), but there are also hugely general trends, the two biggest being sedentary lifestyles (people driving everywhere) and UFPs. Oh, and constant snacking.

The problem we have now is that eating crap UFPs, snacking every few hours (especially for little children) and driving everywhere has become normalised.

People then say “I’m fat because I love food” or “I’m fat because I have a thyroid issue” or “I’m fat because of grief after my mum died” when really they’re fat because of what’s become socially acceptable: an unhealthy lifestyle people don’t even realise is unhealthy anymore because it’s so common.

They were probably narrow because they were designed to be worn with a corset.