The UK is a nation of -porkers- discuss

I dunno. Protect your organs perhaps? An extra store of energy when you need to fight disease? Sounds reasonable to me. Thin people would have nothing to fall back on when needed. (No pun etc)

The nurse at the surgery told me, when I had a well-woman check-up - about 30 yeas ago. One remembers these things.

In times of famine perhaps?

It makes sense to me.

When you lose your appetite for several weeks, it's quite good to have something to fall back on. Otherwise you could get really weak.

Boiled eggs...?

Exactly!

Hard chairs?

Yes, being skinny can be hard on your coccyx!

And that bit seems to get skinny when the rest is putting on weight.

#tryabikesaddle

Yes i agree that cookery in schools has changed beyond recognition ., from cooking cheap nutritious meals to analysing food packaging, but the foods available have changed too, who knew there are 12 teaspoons of sugar in a box of blackcurrant juice ?.
Today my 3 year old grandchild along with mum and grandma have walked 2 miles through the woods, played in the adventure playground, had a sandwich, banana and bottle of water picnic then come home and had fish pie, brocolli and potatoes followed by natural yoghurt and honey ... Then still wanted to play football after that!
I think food education begins at home and at a very early age. Sadly and for a variety of reasons, not everyone is blessed with the skills to give this education .
Lets all be supportive and think of ways to put real food (and exercise) back on the agenda.

oops should say broccoli and carrots .

Just to clarify, are we talking about Anorexia, the psychological illness in the elderly or elderly people who don't eat enough full stop?

jinglebellfrocks I have always looked at what other people are eating and what size they are - judgemental or what (especially at my size) ?!

Last night I watched the first part of The Men Who Made Us Fat mentioned on this thread. What a shocker! So many surprisingly revelations about the agricultural and food industry over the last 40 years, but one medical matter that shocked me was watching the 40 year old presenter having an MRI to check how much internal body fat he had. He was shocked to find out he had far too much for his age, especially as he wasn't particularly overweight. I didn't know we could store so much fat inside our bodies with relatively little on the outside (IYKWIM). It left me wondering how much use our BMI reading is, as this is based on weight and height.

Will be watching the other two parts soon to see how many more shocks are in store. Can't believe I missed the series when it was on last year.

I was really, really shocked by "The Men Who Made Us Fat", Wilma and couldn't understand why there wasn't more outrage about the utter cynicism of the food industry. I think the second one is about the diet industry and that is a pretty appalling story too.
We see all the handwringing that goes on about obesity, but there are things that could be done if anyone in power had the political will to challenge the big money (or if people stopped buying their products).

I just wonder about individual responsibility. If your clothes are beginning to feel a bit tight, if moving around is becoming a little more effortful, if walking to the bus stop (or wherever) is slightly more of a struggle, isn't that a warning sign? Why wait until you are 2 stone, 3 stone, 4 stone… overweight before you think you should do something about it (for your own well-being) when it is going to be so much more difficult and long-term to do so? Great dollops of overweight don't go on (or off) overnight – it's a gradual process. Why not nip it in the bud rather than blame the food industry, the weight loss industry or, perhaps, Vladimir Putin?

Hear, hear, absent. Nobody and no organisation or industry makes a person fat. It's eating more than one needs that does the fat-making.

That's not to say there aren't valid criticisms of the food and diet industries. There are plenty. But one's body weight is one's own responsibility and nobody else's. Surgery and a few medical metabolic problems aside, nobody else can put weight on or take it off a person.

I agree to a certain extent and I think there is only one real message which is "eat real food".
I suggest you do watch "The Men Who Made Us Fat" though and see if you are still of the same opinion. To me the cynical targeting of emerging economies and the poorest in society with huge portions of cheap food full of addictive artificial fats, sugar and artificial sweeteners is quite wrong and should be regulated.
It doesn't do much for the planet either, does it?
I am in the UK at the moment and went for a coffee with my GDs yesterday. I ordered a "medium" because I didn't know any better and there must have been half a pint of coffee in a small bucket. Quite ridiculous.

Something that I think can be taken into consideration is the fact that food producers have become very successful. Until quite recently in human evolution food has essentially been scarce for most people so I suppose it's possible that we are slightly 'conditioned' to eat as much as we can whenever we can to shore us up against lean times. You'd think our concurrent brain development would mean that we could change our approach once food became much more easily available, but it would appear not. I stil, don't think we can blame anyone else for personal obesity.

If, out of ignorance, one buys a medium coffee that turns out to be larger than you want, there is an easy solution in two parts: don't drink more of it than you actually wanted before you bought it and ask for a small one next time. Alternatively, you can go ahead and drink it all but have less of something else later. It's still one's own responsibility not to imbibe or eat more than one needs.

The quality of food produced is a separate issue. Obesity has to do with quantity.

Plenty of places show you the size of cup for large, medium or small. Or one can ask. It's quite easy to be in more control of such trivia.

What channel can I find this programme on please?

Also I think I read that some countries (the USA?)systematically allow antibiotics to be added to animal feed to fatten them up. That's awful on two fronts; the unregulated use of antibiotics when there is already a resistant issue and if it's fatten up the cattle.....???

Anti-biotics in meat do not make people fat. Too much meat might and the problem of anti-biotics in meat is indeed a problem, but it's a separate one from what makes people fat.

Absolutely Bags, I left half of the coffee and vowed never to return. But you are missing the point. Why is it acceptable to serve a cup of coffee in that size portion at all? Why has the size of a medium coffee tripled since the last time I was in the UK? The large cup needed two handles.
Excessive, ridiculous waste.

It would be the waste that would get under my skin - I seldom eat out for that very reason as neither OH nor I have the capacity to eat the meals that are served up in most places.

Here Anya www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01k0fs0/episodes/guide

Thanks Mamie

They fatten up cattle but could they be doing the same for us?

Just found the article I mentioned.