American women getting bigger .

Interesting how suddenly 'unacceptable' oft used words evolve. I always wonder how that is generated. I was having a lovely time with my GD and her Mum. The C was on the floor being tickled and generally messing about. Spontaneously I said 'bless your wee fat tummy'. The reaction of M was such that I knew what I had said was 'wrong' immediately. Quick mental analysis, apology and promise to do better(!!) soon sorted my unfortunate slip into what is now unmentionable. Fact is the child is not at all fat but had a slightly bulbous tummy at that moment in time. Must be careful and try to keep up with these modern phobias!

You make a valid point there, Barmeyoldbat. I don't think society is doing itself any favours by skirting around the issue.

I think diet plays a considerable role, as does the way the "easy lifestyle" is pushed by the advertisers ( I agree with parsleywins points), but so, too, I feel does the lack of exercise. Where once we might have walked to the shops several times a week, now a big shop is done using the car. ( I know, time constraints dictate this). Many children are driven to and from school. Sports and games are replaced by computer games indoors. It's rare to see children out playing anymore - I suppose a lot of this is to do with safety concerns, but it's oh, so sad. We ran off our surplus energy outdoors as children. Yes, lots of children attend clubs, but how do they get there and back?
In consuming larger sized, fattier more sugary foodstuffs without very much excercise between to burn off the calories leads to an increase in size and other health issues. Sugary snacks and drinks seem to be the norm rather than an occasional treat for many, too.
There's no easy solution. Society is so pressured today, but I still feel that time to cook and eat sensibly needs to be factored in - less time dashing here, there and everywhere perhaps? The importance of a balanced diet cannot be underestimated, but I suspect home economics ( as it was called when I went to school) is not considered an important part of the curriculum nowadays. We were taught basic cooking skills, budgeting skills, the importance of all the different vitamins and how to incorporate them into our diet. Not sure that happens very much anymore, though I might be wrong. I might add that I'm not talking too many years ago but then again perhaps the 1970's is!!
I'm not sure how we change any of this, but it's a huge concern.

And what is worse you cannot mention to a person that they are fat (in a nice way). My gd, age just 23 Has really piled on the weight so much so that she is nearly as wide as tall! While we were out together she mentioned that I had lost weight and I told her her I needed to lose it because of my health. I then suggested that she did the same and even offered to pay for her to go to Slimming World. She was ok about it and said she would think about it but her mother went on a rant to me about it said I was wrong to make her worried about her size. It just isn’t pc to mention the word fat.

There's more than one reason, isn't there? Years ago mother did the cooking, often from scratch. Shop-bought cakes were unusual and few household tasks were as automated as today. Hardly anyone owned a car so we walked more.
Now many mothers work and therefore have to rely on ready-made meals due to a lack of time and energy. We're better off than our parents so can run a car and treat ourselves more often - which means less exercise and more treats. Bigger portions are also to blame.
At school we discussed the difference between shop-bought and home-made cakes. The conclusion we came to was that shop-bought was 'lighter' - less satisfying so of course there's the temptation to eat another slice - none of which helps us to stay slim.

I suspect there is no single, simple answer. Sadly.

Our modern lifestyles are a challenge. Honestly, where is the time for working parents to fit in meal planning/shopping/cooking/dishwashing/10,000 steps for themselves and extra curricular sport for the children daily with collecting kids, supervising homework, doing laundry etc etc. I'm glad not to be a young mum today. The temptation to give in to the advertising pressures of culinary shortcuts must be immense. Processed food is a quick fix which can cause problems for the future, but who has time to worry about that when they can barely cope in the present?

Fizzy drinks are downright dangerous and addictive. Children needing dental extractions, often in hospital, and people having limbs amputated don't feature in the seductive "happy lifestyle" ads for the gallons of poisonous bubbly liquid that many people become hooked on. The manufacturers cynically and irresponsibly target developing countries, like drug dealers but in plain view.

Until these and other contributing issues are seriously addressed, and in a way that's actually accessible to ordinary people, I fear there won't be a meaningful and effective change.

Anyone who has ever been to America knows about portion size. My DD was at uni there in the 1990s and we visited her. I always wanted to try blueberry pie, but the dinners were so huge I could never contemplate pudding. On our last day I had no breakfast or lunch. just the pie for dinner. My slice was equivalent to at least half a dinner plate size here. And it came with 2 enormous scoops of icecream.
My DD said that even then most people did not walk anywhere

Sadly, obesity seems to be on the increase everywhere these days.

Not being an expert on nutrition, I can't say why, but suspect it is due to the fact that a lot of adults and children are drinking sweet fizzy drinks daily now. (They were a rare treat when I was little). Fast food and ready made meals are probably culprits too, but so is lack of exercise.

Few people walk or cycle regularly. Either they drive or take the bus. Some do go to a gym or swimming, but a lot only do so in an effort to lose weight. Like all good habits healthy eating and sufficient exercise should be acquired early in life.

Obesity in the UK is on the increase Take a look around and it would be unusual to see a 'skinny.'
Supermarkets have their own label foods cheaper than the big name producers..Even the lowest paid would find it difficult to not eat nutritionally. Veg is frequently reduced so no excuse there.
Fast food outlets have a lot to answer for when it comes to obesity.

There's been research showing that people eat less when eating from smaller plates - easy way to cut down without getting obsessed with quantities, hopefully.

my late mother was always weight obsessed ,she ate her main meal off a tea plate and had the same grapefruit and rice crispies for breakfast every day .She had always been a fussy eater when a child too .She ,at her heaviest was 7 stone 6 ,and just before she died she dropped to around 6 stone .She had osteoporosis because of the lack of calcium in her diet.Sadly her obsession was passed onto her 4 daughters and we have all worried about putting on a few pounds over the years.She used to tell me I was fat when I was a size 8!!!Now in my mid sixties and after a year and a bit of chronic back pain I'm a size 14 ,I'm just glad she's not around to see.I have started to eat my main meal off a tea plate though in the hope I can drop a size..or two .

I remeber a long time ago going to Hawaii and being horrified by the size of the American tourists, even then - but then I noticed that it wasn't uncommon for them to tuck into a massive ice cream sundae - which would have been a whole meal for me! - as a snack between meals. Also it was impossible to get a sandwich without fries...

I'm constantly surprised by the large portions of food they serve here in pub restaurants. I usually order a child's portion so that I have enough room for a nice pudding, but there is never much choice on the children's menu.

One place we go to does have a 'lighter choices' menu and I like the idea of that as we don't all want to stuff our faces!

I'd be horrified if my waist was anywhere nice the size mentioned

"The Willpower Instinct" by Kelly McGonigal Phd is a really helpful book if you want to get thinner. It is easy to read and explains the psychological issues , so we can understand how to change. It tells you really interesting things - for instance did you know that if you are dieting and say to yourself "I am doing really well!" You are far more likely to'reward' yourself with fattening food, than if you say to yourself "I am eating healthily" And craving dies away whether you give in to it or not - so you could use my own ten minute rule : when I've eaten healthily but crave something unhealthy, I say to myself "wait ten minutes, and then see if you really want to eat it" Almost always I don't want to eat it after the ten minutes . The book has lots more useful stuff and can apply to eating , procrastinating, biting finger nails - patterns you want to change.

Besides portion size and fast food, never underestimate how much weight regular drinking - wine, beer, spirits and sugary drink - can affect your weight.

Fifty years ago "having a drink at home" was mostly reserved for Christmas, birthdays, a christening etc. Now So many British people are heavy heavy drinkers - for any reason and at any time - but haven't yet worked out the corrolation between this habit and weight gain that can lead to obesity.

Actually Maw my experience has been that M&S ready meals are OK if eaten once a day and a quick look at the label - mac cheese has massive calories but veggie meals are OK, again it needs thought is all. Can't speak for levels of suga/salt etc.

“An obesity time bomb”

When my father died back in 2001, D3 had just started university and Paw was working away from home Monday-Friday. I freely admit I was probably suffering from a combination of depression compounded by grieving and “empty nest” syndrome but I also lived on M&S ready meals for convenience as I was teaching full time and trying to keep the weekends clear for when Paw was home.
I put on about a stone that winter and the rest, as they say, is history.
Guess what is happening since I lost Paw back in November? I am afraid I have slipped back into those bad habits.
Real home cooked food eaten at regular meal times (and not too much of it ) has to be the starting point for healthy nutrition.
Not fancy “traffic light” symbols on food packaging or whatever fad the food industry is trying to push on to us (with little resistance, sadly) I am thinking of “Low-fat “yogurts, “Lean Cuisine”, “Count on Us”and the like.
There is an obesity one bomb ticking, we cannot fool ourselves that education about “healthy options” will solve it.

Another major factor in the US is lack of exercise. A friend moved there and was horrified that her boys' school operated on a drive-thru basis - and she was regarded as weird for walking them to school! The transport layout doesn't help - many roads have no pavements so walking is not normalised..

I recommend 'Supersize Me' and 'That Sugar Film' for people who're interested; the latter shows horrendous levels of sugar in bottled and fast-food soft drinks.

Fast food joints have been and still are a disaster. This has changed eating habits as well as the food content. It is so common now to see lots of people eating in the street. This means that a normal eating habit, and sitting at a table to eat is becoming rarer.

The US was cheap compared to Europe. And food was plentiful which brought abothose large portions. My experience has been that my meal in a restaurant anywhere in the US could feed four of us. That cannot be right for health.

I do wonder if France is on the same road to obesity problems as when I lived there in the 80’s I noticed more and more of the younger generation at checkouts with trollies full of processed ready meals.

My generation of neighbours were appalled that the younger ones no longer bothered with traditional healthy cooking.

I think the trend to obesity correlates with the reliance on processed or manufactured food as opposed to cooking from scratch. It’s easy to buy a pie or pizza, and supermarkets are awash with packets with huge lists of ingredients. In the UK over 50% food eaten is processed, whereas in France and Italy it’s less than 12%, obesity is much less evident in those countries.

My son moved to the USA six years ago and married a lady from Boston, Maine. My d-i-l was already very overweight when they married and he soon piled on the pounds. D-i-l decided enough was enough and went on a diet so she would be able to have a stomach band operation done. She has now lost over 13 stone in just over 18 months which is fantastic. I think she would agree that without the operation her weight loss would have been much less as the temptation to overeat is so great what with all you can eat buffets and huge portion sizes. I wish my son would do the same as he is much more overweight than my husband was and is now the same age as his Dad was when he had his first heart attack. Fruit and healthy foods are much more expensive in the USA, and so many of the 'standard' meals are full of chemicals and additives that are not allowed in our foods here.

When I first went to the US in the sixties I don't remember that portion sizes were huge. However when I went back in the eighties meals were much larger. We are definitely following that here. Years ago we weren't allowed to eat between meals, now there is a "snack aisle!" I'm sure people are getting fatter and so are children, only need to look back at old school photos to see this.

Walking along the street with huge cartons of beveridges and eating a variety of foods + grazing throughout the day was never part of my upbringing but it’s something I witness daily now.

Set meals plus a time and a place no longer exist.

The portion of my first meal in the US was obscene and I felt, totally unnecessary for a staple diet.