The Men Who Made Us Fat

[teaandthorazine]

Anyone? Should be interesting...

Green did you watch it,the evidence is there?

There was no obesity in the 70s(before the influx of burger bars,crappy snacks,junk food and bigger portions),children are no less active now than they were before the obesity epidemic, 2 thirds of adults are now overweight.It's a myth that stopping obesity lies in the hands of the eater.Food companies are duping people because it suits them.The general population just keep shoving their heads in the sand.

I am utterly shocked at how these food companies get away with bullying WHO,governments and scientists.It's total madness.We line their pockets by paying for the crap then pay for it a second time with funding the aftermath in the NHS.Our NHS is going to steadily go down the pan as this epidemic gets worse yet the food companies will just keep on raking it in.They must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Good on Peretti for making this series.Would be good if the gov would grow some balls,stop being intimidated and ban all junk food advertising,ban junk food promos etc and do whatever it takes to get this epidemic sorted.It's a whole mind set and it needs to change.Putting money into taking on the companies and this nation's attitude to food would make excellent economic sense.

Excellent series. The longer we keep shovelling down the sugary, processed high carb nutritionally poor rubbish that so many manufacturers pedal - the bigger & fatter we will get.

Thought the snacking thing was fascinating. Manufacturers must have made a fortune out of peddling really sweet, nutritionally poor snacks to the parents of children & children themselves. Grrrr, makes me angry.

It was very biased and wanted to portray the whole industry negatively but it did make you really think about the tactics they used and the psycology. I wish everyone would watch this show. The aiming the advertising at kids and using the chocolate bars as healthy snacks is quite gobsmacking.

Post I don't get why govs don't sort it out and are so intimidated by food companies. Surely it would save us a fortune if they did,maybe they're worried about jobs.Just don't get it.

We need to move away from this snacking,junk food is part of a healthy diet mindset we have.I have soooo many friends that think a healthy lunchbox has to contain crisps and choc. Yes they put fruit in but wouldn't think it a complete lunch without crisps,over processed meat/cheese products and choc biscuits.

As the program shows people clearly aren't eating sensibly and don't cut back later after eating junk.Kids don't even eat fruit as a snack these days it has to be a fruit product ie something with very little fruit in,loads of sugar which costs a fortune.

They've completely hoodwinked us.

I don't think it was biased at all.

I worked for one of those huge global drinks manufacturers whose logo appeared over & over again & I also worked for a huge global chocolate manufacturer too. Believe me, nothing Perretti said was untrue and to be fair, he allowed them to say their piece & didn't snort with derision!
Food manufacturers only manufacture food to make money. They do not have any altruistic motives. They are commercial organisations and they want a good return for their shareholders. They will use any tactic and any method that is legally at their disposal to get consumers to consume more. They spend millions & millions of pounds every year persuading us to eat their products. A huge percentage of the price you pay for branded food products is the marketing costs. This is not the stuff of conspiracy, this is just the way the capitalist world works & I'm all for it.

What I'm not for, is "research" being produced that is not independent. I'm not for government's being bullied by huge wealthy corporations.

We all have to make a choice about what we eat, but that choice needs to be well informed with facts - not just spin, advertising & marketing!

Mu uncle is a medical scientist in North America. He's been saying this for years.I found it quite chilling. Everything he said years ago eg re fructose and fat,junk food,obesity crippling the US health system and the NHS is coming true.

At least in the US they're starting to wake up ie beginning to ban advertising(McDonalds is now banned from Disney)and supersizing.We still seem half asleep with McDonalds and other junk food companies advertising the Olympics and all our major sporting events.It just makes kids think junk food is ok and part of a healthy sporting life.Even MN advertises McDonalds.

Who should be blamed then green, if not the people who make and sell the food we eat?

Whilst I agree that personal responsibility plays a part, it's simplistic to suggest that it's the whole issue. As the programe showed, we're now living in an obesogenic environment - one that's set up to ensure we have easy, constant access to nutritionally void food. Unless you're very vigilant, it's virtually impossible (particularly in poorer areas) to eat well, especially when out and about. Shops, restaurants and supermarkets all make bad food choices easy, and good ones hard.

Of course no-one has to eat fast food all day. But it's more subtle than that. We didn't all wake up lazy, feckless gluttons one day in 1980!

And... (digression alert) what happens when you do get fat and sick from eating this crap? You're given medical advice that will just keep you fatter and sicker.

e.g: the diabetes advice in this country (carbs=rise in blood sugar, but you should still eat them several times a day and just keep on taking the medication) is nothing short of a scandal, imo. Still, when one of the Diabetes UK corporate partners is Kellogg's... go figure...

My sis is a GP & the medical advice she has to give to overweight patients, because it is BMA approved, is that to lose weight you should exercise more & eat a low fat diet. Low fat nearly always means high carb, therefore, the standard medical advice is wrong.
My sis doesn't believe this medical advice & she says it is widely acknowledged amongst the medical profession that exercising more & eating a low fat diet clearly doesn't work, because everyone is getting fatter. However, until the official recommendations change, GPs won't be giving anyone different advice - because they can't.

I need to watch it again as there was a bit where the presenter mentioned Tessa Jowell handing a report over to the food companies who then went on to bully the scientist instead of doing the right thing.

Little I know-and she did nothing. She basically commissioned the report(presumably paid for by tax payers money)then after bullying from the companies did nothing and threw the author to the wolves-nice.

That's the thing Bugsy - and the BMA advice won't change until the food companies (with the politicians in their pockets) stop burying research that proves they're wrong. The thing about Tessa Jowell last night made me despair.

And all driven by corporate pressure from Wall Street

Wow. I'm watching now, just seen the Tessa Jowell thing!

Interesting article here - gotta love the bit about Clinton

Thanks for that Lacuna. Really great article. It is interesting to see how people start out cynical, but once they get their head around the evidence, they change their minds.

Sharing. God they're sneaky bastards.

Surely the advice from doctors should be to eat less and move more.....

I thought it was fascinating last night - particularly that children are no less active than they were in the 70s. I think that we should all lobby our MPs to do something about this - it's not right that our children will be the first generation where life expectancy falls due to obesity and all of the complications that brings.

Because 'eat less and move more' doesn't work. If it were that simple, wouldn't we all be doing it?

And in any case, as you say, it's been shown that kids today aren't any less active than they were. But they're getting fatter all the same...

Because they are eating more processed food - in larger portions. Wasn't that the whole point of last night's show?!

Yes, it was, but what I'm saying is that the 'eat less, move more' mantra itself is simplistic.

We're not moving less (and there's evidence that exercise has little effect on weight loss anyway - health and fitness, yes, actual weightloss, no) so that's not really the issue.

And as for eating less? Less what? Most people think that means less (fewer!) calories, or less fat. But you can eat 'less' food (smaller portions/diet food/low-fat/calorie-controlled) and still be ingesting huge amounts of sugar and starch. And fat is not the bad guy, either.

So doctors simply saying 'eat less, move more' is unhelpful at best. (And it won't do much for diabetics, which was my original point )

Sorry, I didn't read the whole thread, probably the last couple of posts before mine, so was completely picking up fag ends...!

Yes, it's a bit simplistic, but it's a start. As is encouraging people to eat 5 fruit and veg a day. And removing corn syrup and processed crap from the shelves.

The real issue is removing the power of the food industry (and the alcoholic beverage manufacturers from health policy meetings where they outnumber the medical profession by about 2:1, but that's another post )

Totally fascinating last night.

I too am surprised we're not even more obese given the larger portions and the more calorie dense foods.

We should really all be in an Aldous Huxley novel by now

I love the research that proves that it doesn't matter how much you eat at lunch you don't reduce what you eat at dinner naturally. And that if you increase portion size we quickly get used to it.

I honestly believe every snack food should be in an individual portion size (none of that fake 'sharing' marketing wet dream bollocks) and there should be legislation around it.

We are biological beings programmed to eat more in times of plenty - give someone a large bag of crisps and they will, without thinking or awareness, eat more than they would have in a single portion size.

This does not make them greedy, slovenly, or stupid - it makes them human. And I think it doesn't just make them individually responsible - it's a public health issue IMO.

Completely agree about the power of the food industry, though. And the bloody corn syrup/processed crap!

Sorry, that was to PanicMode, x-posted!