So just HOW should 'the government' tackle obesity etc...??

No ~lol~. I'm stuffing ham, salmon, beef and cheese.

I think there is a very simple solution that would work for quite a lot of overweight people. Return to the days of family meals around the table without the distraction of television, mobile phones and, indeed, anything other than family conversation. Before anybody shouts at me, I am aware that many families still do this – my own included. When you are focused on what you are eating you are much more receptive to the signals that your body sends you to say that you are full and don't need any more, however much may be remaining on your plate.

What about people who live on their own, as an increasing number of middle-aged and elderly do? There is also an increasing number of shift workers, who can't eat together as a family.

I eat more when I'm in company, so I'm afraid that wouldn't work for me anyway. I find cooking and eating boring, so I'm in favour of anything which involves the shortest possible time and effort - more than half an hour for cooking, eating and clearing up is a waste of time as far as I'm concerned. I calculate how many calories I eat and if my weight starts to creep up, I reduce the number of calories. I can't do that when I'm cooking for others.

daphnedill I did make it clear, I hope, that I was talking about some, but not all families. I have to say that when I lived on my own, I cooked fresh food every evening and sat at a properly laid table. Of course, some solitary people will eat from trays while watching television and some people cannot be bothered to cook. I wasn't talking about them.

I lived alone for a short time and rapidly put on weight, going up a dress size in a matter of months.
I think it was because of the idea that had been drummed into me from an early age of 'waste not want not' and always leaving a clean plate in gratitude of actually having enough to eat. So, not having a freezer or even a fridge in my bedsitter, I dutifully finished everything up and put on weight.
I'm aware of course that there are an increasing number of people who don't have enough to eat in this country, but for the vast majority the problem is recognising when to stop eating, rather than making sure the family has enough to meet nutritional needs.
Perhaps that's something else the government could focus on - what is a reasonable amount of food to deliver a certain amount of calories.
Many people for example think that they can eat an unlimited amount of fruit - not so.

And at the time I lived alone I did cook from scratch - the only ready meals were Vesta curries and they were a luxury!

Here is my contribution as an overweight grandma. I have been active all my life - I played netball and hockey at school and continued playing netball on and off until my 40s. I also enjoyed jogging (but not walking). I have struggled with my weight almost all that time. I cook most meals from scratch. My husband eats the same food as me and is slim. I have 2 sons: one struggles with his weight like me, the other is slim like his father. The main problem I think my son and I have which I don't think the other two have is we don't seem to have a switch in our brain that says 'you've eaten enough'. This has been made clearer by watching my 3 grandchildren. They are all very active and very slim BUT one of them can eat so much that she has been physically sick! Thankfully her father is aware of what is happening and can help her to control it from an early age. It is much more difficult when you're older.
So this is my resolution: to consciously reduce the amount that I eat rather than what I eat. Does anyone else have the same problem?

I think I would eat less if I lived on my own. Before we were both retired I wouldn't bother to stop for meals but grab something on the go even if I was at home. DH is a stickler for regular meals so lunch has become a full stop in the middle of the day.

Like others on here I can't bear waste but you have to be careful not to become a human dustbin.

Me too merlotgran.
I wouldnt cook anywhere near as much and eat much more salad and raw veggies.
Having said that, I do think there would be more consumption of some treats.

Unfortunately, I don't think the government can put the food genie back in the bottle. The anti-smoking campaign was successful and it seems extraordinary that you could smoke in hospitals, trains, restaurants etc, but food is now everywhere, 24/7, and other than closing down cake shops and banning public consumption of food I honestly think that the obesity crisis will just grow unabated.

Cigarettes were made very expensive so I assume that had a beneficial effect - so maybe something drastic like doubling the price of non-essential foods?

I really don't know

@absent

It's not that I'm 'not bothered' to cook, which makes me sound lazy. I just think it's a waste of time. I'd rather be doing something active and productive. I eat loads of salad and raw veg, which I don't have to cook at all and add some protein and fat to it. I just don't get the obsession with freshly cooked food, especially if you're trying to lose weight. I used to know somebody who always made her own bread, had a regular 'baking' day, made loads of pies and pasties and thickened stews with flour. She put as much salt into her cooking as any ready meal. She was grossly overweight, but used to tell everybody she ate healthily, because she cooked everything from scratch. Prepared food has improved vastly since the days of Vesta curries.

PS. I always eat at a table.

@Ankers

Just don't buy the treats! After 25 years of eating very little sugar, I don't even like things with a sweet taste and I dislike chocolate (shock, horror). My big weakness is nuts. I could happily munch my way through a big bag of cashews.

@Riverwalk

The difference between cigarettes and food is that food is essential. I don't really know how the government would classify food as 'non essential'. VAT is already charged on confectionery, but plenty of it seems to be sold. There's nothing wrong with the occasional Mars Bar, if somebody is feeling faint from hunger and it's a meal substitute. Calories are, after all, just a way of measuring energy.

I wonder how many people know how many calories they should be eating to maintain their current weigh/lose weight and how much they actually eat. The balance between carbs, protein and fat is also important. Most people eating a variety of foods don't need to bother about vitamins and minerals, It always amazes me how much the market in supplements is worth.

When I am alone I eat well and cook myself nice meals. I enjoy food, new tastes, new recipes and that doesn't go when DH is away on business, not even when he has been gone for several months. I love my food, but I eat moderate amounts and have a very mixed diet.

I am also not overweight.

That just shows that there is no 'one size fits all' solution. As far as I'm concerned, eating is an essential function of life, like going to the toilet, and I prefer not to spend too much time doing that either.

I am highly restricted in what I can eat, so I prefer not to spend time even thinking about it. I plan what I'm going to eat, buy accordingly and am extremely efficient in cooking things as quickly as possible. I eat 'well' too - my scales, blood pressure monitor and blood sugar tests tell me I do.

Is part of the problem that food is so cheap now? I know some are struggling and use of food banks is growing but I endlessly see adverts for restaurants and food outlets offering pizza for £2.99 or some such. And there are huge numbers of people eating out now, you see them everywhere and catered food may well be high in fat and sugar. In fact, the cheaper the food, the more it will be high in those ingredients.
Ready meals are also cheap and not nutritious but instead likely to be full of cheap ingredients especially unhealthy fats, including palm oil which is in everything now and is, I believe, a saturated fat not a normal part of the human diet and likely to increase cholesterol levels.

I know many people choose ready meals because they are stressed and cooking for a family or are older and find cooking tiresome. I don't understand why we have lost our way as a nation regarding food. I've always cooked, mostly simple but tasty food, usually vegetarian though not totally.
I think the national curriculum now teaches children basic cooking skills. The government should ensure that continues but also should tackle the food industry. The latter get away with too much as a result of lobbying.

daphne I think you're right about people not having much idea of how much they should be eating.

It's easy to find out, though. Not rocket science.

When I got my fitbit I was staggered to find out how little I should be eating. My TDEE (ie the number of calories my body needs to function) is 1350. If I add in 10,000 steps, I can get away with eating a few more. That's just to maintain weight.

That's not many calories at all.

I can eat more than that, because I'm very tall. I aim for 1500 calories, which allows for a bit of 'slippage', but it really isn't that much. I'm so used to portion size now that I don't bother calculating everything, but if my weight ever starts to creep up, I go back to basics and have to decide what to cut out.

Sorry, Azie, I disagree. Ready meals can be very nutritious and, at least people know what they're eating, because it's printed on the box.

If a ready meal shows say, 500 calories on the box, and lists a reasonable amount of protein, what can be wrong with that? You can always add a bit of cabbage. Or peas. Or carrots.

Or salad.

I rarely buy ready meals and perhaps this is slightly cross posting with the Paul McKenna/sugar thread but, as an example, I happen to have a box of Belvita breakfast biscuits in the cupboard. Looking at the nutrition information, they contain, per biscuit, 55 calories, of each 12.5gm biscuit 3% is fat and 1% of that fat is saturated, 3 % is sugars and 3% is salt. 2% is protein. I do realise that adds up to 11! That aside I suppose my point is that processed foods often contain sugar and salt to make them tasty along with fats. The latter are often saturated and unhealthy, in particular, palm oil is used in virtually everything now because it's cheap but it's a saturated fat and it can increase cholesterol levels. So I can shrug and take note only of the 55 calories or I can look at the rest of the ingredients which are unhealthy and unbalanced. Sugar and salt are addictive and have effects on body weight, fat composition, mood and appetite.
I'm not saying all ready meals and perhaps not the high quality ones but a lot of ready meal type eating is not healthy at all. To read the marketing hype on the Belvita biscuits you'd think they were the food of Royalty!

I'm not sure what the government could do, it's such a big problem- no pun intended!
The American government has been blamed for demonising fats in its attempt to get the vote from the corn farmers, so obviously governments have and do continue to put their oar in.
There is so much information on diet out there, admittedly a lot of it quite confusing but I think most of us get the idea if we want to.
Our surgery runs an obesity clinic and pays for patients to go the gym, our hospitals equip themselves to deal with the bigger patient at huge expense , overweight people cost us a lot of money and resources.
Until the 'plus sizes' understand energy in has to equal energy out it will just carry on.
I am fairly slim and am not just 'lucky' . I've been to slimming clubs in the past and say no thank you quite a lot.

I'm sure I heard a Radio 4 Food Programme episode about Ready Meals not necessarily being healthy. I can't find it but in the process of looking found lots of links to articles making the point, eg www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2978316/Read-ll-never-eat-ready-meal-again.html

I have just eaten a Tesco Chicken fillet with garlic mushrooms.

It contained:

Energy 187kcal (9% of RDA)
Fat 5.4g (8%)
(of shich saturates) 2.8g (14%)
Carbohydrates 1.2g
(of which sugars) 0.3g (<1%)
Fibre 0.9g
Protein 32.9g
Salt 0.3g (5%)

I ate it with a huge plate of veggies from the bottom of the fridge.

What's wrong with it? It's well-balanced and low calorie. It's a bit short of fibre, but the veggies will have made up for that.

Sorry, ready meals aren't all bad.