Shocked yesterday at just how many people are overweight?

[Whatevskev]

And I know I’ll get loads of bashing but I’m not judging- myself and all my family may well be included in this observation

The day before I’d been watching a documentary about the 40s and was struck by how slim the vast majority of people were. We got chatting as a group and I remembered there was only one child at school who was considered to be overweight (this is the 80s) so I got a photo out and realised by today’s standard he wouldn’t stand out at all.

Then yesterday walking around town I started actually noticing and it struck me that only about 1 in 10 people if that would be classed as properly slim and how normalised carrying extra weight is. Many people who would have been maybe a size 12 so ‘slim’ are actually carrying so much more body fat than our ancestors.

Once I looked it was striking.
No blame on anyone- society makes it almost impossible to maintain a lower weight unless you have iron will with all the food availability and snacking culture and calorie laden drinks and meals.

And we definitely have reset in our heads what is slim and what is ‘normal’.

How on earth do we reverse this is a society or is it just going to rise exponentially?

[Choclips]

Come on, the amount of sugar and salt added to everything is hugely to blame.

[Zaphodsotherhead]

Definitely had yoghurts outside London in the 60's. I was SW England. But they were a HUGE treat in our less-than-monied house.

Mayonnaise on frites in Belgium was revelation in 1971 though!

[jennymanara]

Snacking culture makes a huge difference. I remember when it changed. It started with lots of magazine articles saying snacking constantly was much healthier than 3 big meals. At that point people who started snacking were eating nuts and fruit. Then food manufacturers moved in and we started to get lots of processed snacks

[MadameForest]

What do the kids do while you’re enjoying sport very early in the morning?
They get up, have breakfast and get ready for me to take them to school at 8am. They are over 10 so it's easier for me, not possible with little children I know. We always eat together in the evenings so I do spend some time with them (I never eat breakfast anyway).

I used to love the orange Ski yogurts. And I made a little packet of Golden Wonder salt and vinegar crisps last 2 days, my brother and I had one packet a week as a treat. Nowadays it's normal to demolish a big family bag in one sitting

[TomPinch]

@LeGrandBleu

Yes, I think this is normal across the Antipodes.

And what annoys me so much is that good health and diet isn't hard if you are in good habits.

If you use a bike when you can, if you don't buy a bar of chocolate just because the shop has some at the till, if you're used to eating simpler meals cooked by yourself (and know some simple methods for making them tasty) rather than burgers and chips, snack on fruit rather than things from vending machines, drink tea instead of canned fizz or chai lattes, if you don't believe that dieting makes up for all this, then you're very unlikely to get fat.

[IveGotBillsTheyreMultiplying]

If we're talking mayonnaise my mum used to make it in the 70s and Hellman's was definitely around too. People have had mayo in France since before the Big Bang.

[MarshaBradyo]

We had homemade mayonnaise too with crayfish, so good. I find it hard though must improve as can’t eat shop stuff.

[MadameForest]

I find it hard though must improve as can’t eat shop stuff.

When I moved to France I ad never thought of making mayonnaise myself but if you have an electric whisk it's really easy...only problem is that I'm not keen on whelks even if DH loves them