The UK is a nation of -porkers- discuss

Sorry I didn't mean to suggest cooking wasn't still taught in school, more about the how, what and why, etc., and that it isn't treated as a life skill.

For example, understanding the basic food groups and how they work together to produce a balanced meal (explain diabetes maybe?), understanding about flavours and how to flavour food (thinking about compensating for reducing salt content), being able to cook with what fruit and veg is in season, even how to read food labels properly. That kind of thing, but I'd also like to see the food pupils cook being eaten at school, so the lessons don't seem like an add on where the food is taken home. Am I expecting too much maybe?

I too know of people who get the other end of the stick and being told they are too thin. I do sympathise (a tiny bit ), but there's no crisis looming for those at that end of the stick.

You are so right MamaCaz, I have a friend who gets very depressed that she is 'scrawny', her words. She swears she eats well but is also a bag of nervous energy...always on the go. I do think there are builds that tend to one end of the spectrum or other. Me ...I'm basically 'sturdy'.Toddler picture of me resemble the Michelin man. I have heavy legs that even at my thinnest (in teens mildly anorexic before it was invented) were still very much in evidence. It was one of my many size related miseries at school when everyone was wearing 'kinky' boots, I could not get a pair to fit my legs.

Well, apparently I'm skinny, or so I've been told on many occasions.

In reality, my BMI is absolutely perfect, but my natural build (especially my narrow face, I think) must affect how I look.

Its strange, isn't it, how it seems to be widely regarded as ok to say this to someone's face, whereas very few of us would tell someone to their face that they are fat!
It's also quite common for discussions on weight, like this one, to throw up quite a few not very pleasant expressions such 'bag of bones' aimed at those like me who are not overweight. While such expressions don't bother me in themselves, it does seems like a clear case of double standards, and that does bug me!

I think the reason we feel safe to blame the food companies, the slimming industry and the NHS is because it's safe to blame them and they are worthy of blame, but if we were to blame the fat people themselves there would be an outcry of horror and denial.

Healthy eating and cooking are taught right through school but, as mamie says, the focus is on low fat nonsense. So it's not that kids are not taught but that what they are taught is sometimes unhelpful.

Minibags has had cookery lessons at secondary school too. She knows plenty about nutrition. She also knows that not allowing oneself to get fat, especially as a teenager, is about self-control. Sorry if that sounds as if it is 'blaming' fat people, but I do think we need to stop blaming the food industry. If we didn't buy trashy foods they'd stop selling them because their profits would fall. It is down to us in the end and yes, resisting sweet foods is challenging.

Cooking is still taught and my GD in Year 7 has made quite a few different things this year. I worry about the "healthy eating" message they are getting though, because it still seems to be about low fat (and consequently often high sugar) which imo is quite wrong for growing children. If you read Mumsnet you frequently see people raging against the things that their children have been told, including having cheese confiscated from a packed lunch.
I think we have a big role as grandparents here - not always giving them sugary treats, cooking with them from fresh ingredients and modelling healthy eating.
We have just had our little granddaughter here who lives in a flat in a very hot part of Spain. Her discovery of the experience of picking vegetables from the garden and cooking with them, was a joy to see.

ajanela I understand many of the points you are making and agree many people who are overweight have a reason for being that way. I deliberately use the word reason and not excuse because excuse implies blame.

Lots of us have said there's no easy answer, but what I don't understand is why healthy eating and cooking isn't as basic a part of children's education as literacy and numeracy, etc.,. Along with personal finance, learning to live a healthy lifestyle including eating a healthy diet should be a life skill taught in schools. We need to break the cycle some how and it seems sensible to me that starting with one generation is where to start. Pupils could eat what they cook as lunch instead of taking it home. Unless they were cooking for one person, there would be enough to go round and that would solve the problem of any unsuccessful attempts!

Is it just me?

Having no transport to get to a large supermarket applies to many people, not only those in deprived areas.

They were saying on the radio this morning that it is the norm now for most people to do small daily shops rather than even weekly ones.

Most people have a Co-op nearby.

I still think there must be some physical reason why some people put on weight more easily than others. I don't believe it is all down to stuffing themselves.

Does anyone do a monthly shop?
Being overweight or obese is certainly not confined to people living in deprived areas, so that while there may be reasons for being obese that are pertinent to those living in those areas, they are not the only explanation.

They never seem to look depressed - fat people. And you often see them in cafes. So, if they can get to a cafe, why not to a supermarket?

ajanela I think you made some very good points.

I agre with some of those points and not others ajanela.

If they are numbered 1 - 9

I agree with points 4 - 8.
Not sure about 9.

3. With respect, sometimes those in deprived areas have plenty of time on their hands.

2. True, but I dont think that that is much of a reason. But I could be wrong I suppose.

1. Really? The supermarkets may not be the largest ones but I really wouldnt have thought that they would be that far away. And as I say, there is often someone in the household who has enough time.
[Generalisation].

Magpie.
We have all heard of "keeping my up with the Jones" so when the Jones are overweight , take no exercise etc then that becomes exceptable.

ajanela Rubbish, everybody else's problem but their own.

People in deprived areas :
- Don't have transport to get to supermarkets where healthy food is available cheaply. Large deprived areas don't normally have supermarkets in easy walking distance, although Lidl is doing well in changing that.

-The local stores have a limited range of fresh food. They stock what people buy, and if crisps are more popular than apples then crisps they have to stock to make a living.

- Planning a healthy meals takes time, commitment and a certain amount of intelligence.

- They don't have the money to buy in large quantities, so doing a monthly shop is difficult.

- They may comfort eat, as they may be depressed by their situation.

- People around them are also overweight so that becomes the norm.

- If they try to change they won't get encouragement from those around them as they are challenging the norm. So changing your lifestyle is easier if people around you are living a healthy lifestyle.

- They sometimes have shops that sell off cakes and bread going out of date cheaply.

- I read an article in which is showed that to give a child enough calories when living on benefits you have to include high sugar items.

.

Yes I agree Anya. And the so-called healthy eating initiatives in schools and other organisations sponsored by the processed food industry.

I don't think anyone is being overly critical Eloethan but people do have to take responsibility for their own actions, and in particular their own health, as indeed you are doing by trying to stop smoking.

(Incidentally good luck with that. I gave up 15 years ago after umpteen attempts and I still get the odd craving)

The majority of people know what is making them fat. But, very few people are prepared to offer the help and support needed to overweight people - apart from slimming clubs which patently don't work as the majority put it all back in again.... and some more.

Mamie I blame not just the food companies but also the slimming industry and the NHS for a lack of a cohesive policy.

I don't know what the answer is

My criticism would be firmly aimed at the food industry. Remember "The Men Who Made Us Fat" documentary?
I see it as cynical exploitation by the money men aimed at the poorest in society.

It's much easier to be judgmental about people with habits that you don't share. I sometimes find myself thinking "You should just stop eating so much - or so much rubbish" but then I have to remind myself that , as a smoker (I gave up last year but still consider myself "at risk"), I really am in no position to judge someone else's irrational behaviour.

I expect most of us have some behaviours that are not exactly life enhancing and, although obesity is a major health issue, I don't think the overly critical, smug approach is particularly motivating.

We have noticed the increase in obesity locally since the recession started, along with increasing amounts of cheap, sugary, processed food in shopping trolleys. Yes my neighbours do love their cream and the apple tarts and cheeses, but it is the women who are overweight, the men are mostly thin.
Plenty of chubby children around too.

must be all that cream and Calvados. Honestly Mamie, I live less than 1/2 mile from France- and around here very few women are overweight- and there is only 1 small shop that specialises in larger sizes. It is true that all walk, ski, Xcountry ski, cycle, swim in lakes, etc, around here. I've just been racking my brains thinking of the people in the next village, and there is only 1 older woman who is overweight- and on this side of the border, 2 I can think of in the whole area + me!

This quote is from an OECD report
Obesity rates in France are among the lowest in the OECD, but have been increasing steadily.
About 1 in 10 people is obese in France, and almost 40% are overweight (including obese). OECD projections indicate that overweight rates will increase by a further 10% within ten years.

Not true round here GJ! It is becoming increasingly common to see obese families including the women (very much associated with poverty) in our local town. In our village and the villages around there are plenty of overweight women and in the shops there are plenty of clothes in large sizes.
At my gym class most of the older women are sturdily overweight and every single one has sidled up to me to ask what diet I have been on.
The favourite pudding is tergoule - very sweet rice pudding with milk straight from the udder.
The obesity crisis is not as advanced as in the UK and Spain but it is still causing concern in France.

It's a book- based on reality ;) - there is still a stigma about being overweight in France, especially in towns- and finding larger sizes for clothes and lingerie (impossible almost) is still very difficult- in fact.

The % of women who are oveerweight is 50% less than the UK, but the % of women being obese is tiny, almost inexistant.