Britain's Fat Fight (HFW)

[Tigresswoods]

First of all, I love Hugh, we've watched him from the start of River Cottage. Second I think a programme on obesity & raising awareness etc is a good thing.

However AIBU to feel like we've seen it all before? I'm sure I've watched almost exactly that programme with Jamie & Tom Kerridge & probably someone else too?

[LARLARLAND]

I have heard it before Battleax. What was interesting is that it is now being discussed in a primetime television programme.

[Battleax]

I don't blame people for eating unhealthy food but given the strain on the NHS, we all have to take collective responsibility and say for god's sake lay off the pizzas and eat something nutritious once in a while.

Yeah that will work 🙄

Be sure you tell them it’s your right to lecture them because they’re a strain on the NHS. What a loss to behavioural psychology you are.

[LARLARLAND]

I am not lecturing them at all. I was shocked when I heard how much obesity costs the UK each year. That's only the financial cost, not the emotional cost.

[LARLARLAND]

And given that I have never claimed to be a behavioural pyschologist I am certain that I am no loss whatsoever.

[HelenaDove]

People also know the danger of sunbeds but continue to use them.

[ppeatfruit]

Eolian Interesting that you say that about the message not getting through, it has seemed to have got through about plastics, the bad eating one just needs to be repeated enough.

Ref. education being needed, I heard Vanessa Feltz interviewing someone who said that about education and she replied that she was highly educated and she still ate shit!!!! It's down to many other things like emotional issues , sitting in cars and at screens etc. etc.

[PiggeryPorcombe]

I actually thought the bit where they were selling veg and the woman said that people look at all that raw veg and think it looks like a lot of work was very true. I’m not poor but certainly not well off, I always ate meat and two veg meals as a child, not an overweight family as a child or now, and yet I realised that I do view piles of veg as hard work. So I don’t cook enough as I ought to really and this made me realise why.

It’s not all about the economics. However those with healthier food budgets can buy ready prepped veg for a premium.

[HelenaDove]

Im guessing long commutes dont help either.

[LARLARLAND]

The industrialisation of food and clever marketing techniques are to blame in my view.

[ppeatfruit]

I haven't seen it when is it on? Sounds good to me I like HFW , he may be an old Etonian but he's great, he doesn't talk down to people (I loved his anti factory farming programmes).

[Battleax]

People also know the danger of sunbeds but continue to use them.

Look how long it took to get smoking levels this far down.

[Cherrypi]

I thought the programme was trying to get corporations to change things not blaming individuals. It was saying people were eating an extra 200 calories a day that’s not a pizza every night.

[HelenaDove]

YY Battleax It took DECADES. I still remember the ashtrays on the back of cinema seats.

In the 60s there was an advert with the slogan "More doctors smoke Camel than any other cigarette"

[LARLARLAND]

On the issue of smoking I think it may have to come to the point where food manufacturers are sued by people who have become ill from consuming their products, much like what happened with the tobacco manufacturers. Sadly I think litigation is the only thing unscrupulous big businesses respond to.

[HelenaDove]

One of my fellow Slimming World members quit She couldnt follow the plan properly because her working hours were long and erratic with no proper breaks to eat.

Her employer? The NHS.

[IrmaFayLear]

Dh refused to watch the programme and he is overweight. Like many he just puts his fingers in his ears.

I agree that it is very surprising how little 30g of cereal is. Perhaps cereal bowls should be made smaller!

I really think the scourge of modern society is snacking. When I was a child (70s) there was no snacking. There was nothing in the fridge that you could just eat . And yes, there were biscuits and chocolate, but I think you would have been thrown out of the house (for ever) if you had gorged on a whole packet yourself.

I just don't get this eating chicken after school, either. I was recently in an area of London, and the chicken shops were packed with kids in uniform chowing down at 3.30, so presumably that was a pit stop and they'd eat again later. Rather than bleating on about what is healthy, schools should name and shame the unhealthy products and portion sizes.

[megletthesecond]

th battle. I was pondering the same thing. Smoking took decades to reduce. I think it'll be the same with healthy eating.

[HelenaDove]

" Perhaps cereal bowls should be made smaller"

I use a Christmas snack bowl as my cereal bowl. Got it from Tesco back at Christmas 2010. It is a lot smaller than the cereal bowls in a dinner set ive got.

Its a red ceramic bowl with big white snowflakes on it.

I only have Weetabix or Shredded Wheat anyway (the plain ones) which are already measured out.

[expatinscotland]

Oh, here we go again! Another one of these programmes, whose creation and intention are for one purpose only, the flog a celeb cook's book, via the same tired-ol' means, which appears to still be working: 'the poor' are all fat and obese because they are lazy and thick. All supermarkets everywhere deliver for a £1, there's an Aldi on every corner in the UK people are just too lazy to go there, I can knock up a 5-course meal out of dust and unicorn tears, the government needs to police everyone a lot more because everyone is thick, we've lost sight of normal portion sizes, back in the 1950s/60s/70s/Nelson's time everyone was poor but thin and happy, people only need 2 calories a day to survive and be perfectly healthy, everyone is eating takeaways 5 meals a day . . .

[Dumbledoresgirl]

Well, something is making so many people fat.

The cost of fruit as a snack versus the cost of a packet of biscuits always makes me smile. Why the need for constant snacking anyway?

[N2986]

I also think anti depressants should shoulder a massive portion of blame. I gained a lot of weight on anti depressants, but sadly I need them. I eat pretty much healthily but can't drop the excess weight.

More and more people seem to be needing them now- can't be too much of a coincidence with increasing obesity rates

[N2986]

Dumbledoresgirl who said anything about constantly snacking? I have 3dcs and a bunch of bananas is literally one day's worth of a healthy snack/dessert etc. A large pack of biscuits could last a whole week

[notacooldad]

Well, something is making so many people fat
I don't think there is one single issue that's is making people fat but a combination of environmental, financial and social factors.
We have more disposable income than a couple of decades ago in general,fast food shops occupy a large part of the high street, ready meals are popular rather than home baked everything, there is more choice of snacks and treats than ever before. Many houses are a minimum of two car families instead of the one car that ' dad' needed for work years ago. A lot of kids don't play out as much for many reasons. Working hours have changed so meals are at irratic times, fast food from Macs and similar is cheap and adictive. This list is a quick example of some of the reasons, there's probably dozens more but when youput them together it can become a personal weight problem.
There is going to be know quick solution to turn undo the damage.

[TheFifthKey]

I'm educated, have plenty of money and access to a variety of nutritious, appetising foods. I log my meals and check my calories and try to do enough exercise. I'm an informed consumer who wants to be healthy.

And EVERY SINGLE DAY when it comes to break time at work I have to basically force myself to eat the fruit I brought instead of getting biscuits or chocolate. That's because biscuits and chocolate are much nicer than fruit as a snack. So if I were poorer, less educated, and generally had less to look forward to in my life, would I choose the chocolate? Hell yeah. And as for cost, each of my lovely Pink Lady apples (from Lidl!) cost 60p, and I could have bought a whole packet of fake Jammie Dodgers for that, and shared them with the kids too.

[extinctspecies]

It took a long time to change the culture around smoking, but it did change eventually.

The health risks of obesity are on a comparable scale.

Tackling the large corporations and their marketing strategies is a good place to start.

I'm old enough to remember the huge budgets that used to be spent on advertising cigarettes.