Obese in Britain

On a visit to Cuba I noticed that, just as when I was a child, a meal was filling and the feelings of fullness lasted several hours.

This is pretty subjective evidence, but I believe that not having fertilisers on their fields, or appetite-enhancing food for their livestock, makes a big difference as to how bodies process food and use it/store it.

Eating less calories than you expend makes you lose weight.
Regardless of what food the calories are in.
(Says fatty!)

BradfordLass WALOR!

Please indicate your sources.

Exercise does make you lose weight.

It has been proved time and time again that excercise does not make you lose weight, for that you have to eat less. But excercise makes you feel better and improves your mood and perhaps keeps you off snacks and crisps etc.

My GS has always taken his own lunch to school - whole meal bread and healthy sandwich fillings. His lunch went down well with the other kids at school and he exchanged it for junk food, which he never got at home.

All my Gcs drink water or tea. Fizzy drinks are bought for birthday parties. If you start early then a child does not expect junk food.
Looking back to the old days we did move about more. We went to the shops on foot as we did to get to the bus stop, we walked to the library and to Brownies or the youth club.

Having researched and written two books and numerous articles on this subject I disbelieve almost anything written about obesity.

Almost every country is told they have the highest rate of obesity.
We assume, do we not, that the USA has the highest rate and yet they are 46th in the WHO table.

These articles, studies, reports etc., are often financed by diet and pharmaceutical companies.

My research showed that 80% of all research into obesity was financed through these entities. And they have no qualms about skewing the facts to fit their story and their profits.

From 1953 onwards (with a temporary aberration in 1949 when rationing on sugar was removed but the demand was so high the government repealed it) there have always been sweet things.
We had two dedicated Sweet Shops within a 3 minute walk of our street.

We may say children are not as active as in the old days but independent studies show:

a) that's a false assumption; more children take part in sports and other active hobbies than ever before.

b) In the old days, before computers, children were sedentary when reading, listening to the radio, doing homework, playing records and board games and much more.
Yes, we played out but only in good weather and after school or weekends.

Take everything you read in the press with more than a grain of salt.

The hard-copy press in general are fighting for survival and diet and pharmaceutical companies will
pay mega-bucks for articles and studies... and to keep those which show a more truthful story ..from being published.

The problem nowadays, is that most people are sat down, constantly looking at square screens for most of the day! Providing them with ample time for continuous and constant all day grazing. Eating on the hoof seems to be the norm too. I often wonder if the people that visit these fast food joints have actually sat down and enjoyed a slow cooked meal. Plus the fact is, not many people do manual work, which would enable them to lose calories. It's really about portion control. These eat everything for £5 places, just encourage people to eat more than their body really needs. Walking is healthy and free, but most prefer to use a car just to go a short distance. It's as though they have forgotton how to walk.

Spot on.

Willow10 I have seen children leaving the dentist's and being rewarded with chocolate for being good while their teeth were filled!

Fat children do not always grow up to be fat adults. Many slim adults will tell you that they were fat kids.

Also, remember that everybody used to smoke. Like it or not, smoking certainly kept everyone slimmer.

Jo1960. I do agree with so much you have said : these BMI tables are very arbitrary and make little allowances for muscle. With the epidemic of eating disorders and self harm among young people I think that we should be very wary of the “fat”label.
There seems to be an easy acceptance of eat less,exercise more as a panacea for weight problems, but for many this simply doesn’t work. People suffering from an under active thyroid, others with PCOS or taking steroids know this is a limited answer at best. A lifetime of calorie restriction also slows down the metabolism as well as being a joyless existence. My advice to young people would be eat “real food” and avoid stringent dieting!

I agree with Jennifer that it's neglectful to feed your child so that they become unhealthily fat.

Why do some parents allow this to happen? Is it ignorance of proper feeding or what?

Gillybob my D has just had a letter from school declaring that my GD, 10yrs) is overweight. She is 5ft tall and weighs 8st 4lb with a BMI of 18.
BUT - she is a semi-professional dancer and has lessons after school and at weekends, plus rehearsals! She and her sister are walked to school most days, 2 miles either way! She has a packed lunch, cereal for breakfast and cooked from scratch dinner most days. Sweets, chocolate and fizzy drinks are a rate treat. Cakes and biscuits are homemade.
There isn't an ounce of fat on her yet that charts say she is overweight!
According to charts, I should be 9st 7lb, and at 5ft 6in's a walking skeleton I tphflink too much emphasis is put on charts and ideal weight etc. The idividual, lifestyle and activities are ignored.

I think a lack of exercise is a key factor. When our boys were little, they and their friends were always outside running around and playing.

We see very few out nowadays and I wonder how much has to do with so many families having both parents working. Children are with childminders and can't let their charges go off and play.

My great granddaughter was showing me her first loose tooth this morning. I reminded her to save it when it comes out and pop it under her pillow for the tooth fairy. I asked her mum what the going rate for the tooth fairy is these days. She said 'in this house it will be 20p'! Great granddaughter piped up saying her friend has just lost her first tooth and the tooth fairy left her a big bag of sweets!

I think the main problem is lack of exercise. Kids don't go out to play all day at weekends or after school like we did. All kept inside safely glued to tablets or games consoles.

I was 10 when sweet rationing ended after WW2. There had been a few sweets around that were off ration, but these were so disgusting that it wasn't hard to resist them. Our diets were stodgier but we relied on cars much less, as far fewer people had them. If I wanted to meet my friends when I was a teenager it was bus or bicycle, so we got more exercise.
It's much harder for people now, and I'm reluctant to criticise those with young children, little money, long hours and no time to cook healthier meals from scratch. Good healthy meals are not that cheap. Child poverty is a shamefully growing situation in this country and that is what really needs addressing.

My DD and SIL are very health-conscious, and are bringing up my little 2-year-old GD in the same way. They never buy any junk food, and she even likes sharing their Nutribullet concoctions of various fruits and vegs, which always reminds me of pondwater!
They Skyped me to share the moment of the 2 birthday candles being blown out, and the cake cut. GD rarely tastes cake, or other sweet treats. She wolfed down her slice, and asked for more, but didn't get it. DD and SIL didn't have any, and said that the rest of the cake would probably be thrown away.
Such a waste. I can't help wondering if GD will over-compensate for the lack of treats, when she gets older, and over-indulge. Only time will tell.

We just have too much food in offer everywhere.

When I were a lass you didn’t help yourself from a supermarket shelf, you went to the local shop, beit the butcher, the grocer, the greengrocer, the sweet shop etc with a list and waited to be served. Then you put it in your bag and lugged it home, on foot.

Food is just too ‘in your face’ everywhere you go, even WH Smith’s FFS!

This makes me so cross. I never ate sweets or fizzy drinks (and still don't!) yet was bullied at school for being "fat". Having now seen photos of myself at that age I know that I wasn't, I was tall and muscly. Because of this bullying, I started dieting at 12 and have had an ongoing battle with food all my life. I've had bulimia and struggle even more now as my meds, penury and lack of strenuous exercise due to severe asthma and fibromyalgia make it even harder to lose weight and keep it off.

My DD has had issues with professionals telling her my DGSs were overweight. The elder was a fat baby and she was continually being harangued by her HV about his weight. Her GP told her to ignore it until he started walking. He's now a very tall, thin, lanky child of 9 that excels at sport and academically. His little brother got a letter home from school saying he was abuse which his mum ripped up. He did not have any fat on him, just muscle and an adult size head! He too is a happy, long legged child with a love of basketball and cycling. They are both very slim children who are on the thin side if anything. Neither have food issues, they eat healthy home cooked meals and have fruit rather than crisps etc but are not restricted in their choices as their parents didn't want them to have hangups.

It's been proven time and time again that obesity us not just about food in, energy out yet people still claim its easy to lose weight and keep it off. These uneducated fat-shamers should shut up and thank their lucky stars that they don't have issues. I gave up cigarettes years ago without trouble but don't fag-shame those that can't or need years of gum etc to do it.

I have 4 grandchildren ages from 13 to 18 and am glad to say none of them are obese as they all seem to have a lot of exercise and also do not eat lots of junk food

However my eldest daughter is very overweight in spite of going to the gym, swimming etc.

A sad world when for the sake of our health so many cannot or will not use the word NO when it comes to fats and sugars. It is not unusual to see young children in pushchairs with a packet of crisps etc while their parent/s are otherwise engaged in shopping. Is this due to the fact a child may be hungry ??or merely to distract while mum is busy with other things.? I see Tesco give out free fruit for children yet in spite of this, packets of crisps or some kind of sweet treat is still observed.

Sueki44 You are spot on about 'lite' products. I read a book called 'Eat fat, grow slim' and lost weight on the extremely low carb diet. It can be expensive as carbs tend to be the cheapest part of the diet. I struggle with will power more these days and tend to give in to cravings in the evenings of mostly carb rich foods, but when I stuck to it 6 days a week with one day of 'normal' eating it really worked. The day off satisfied my cravings. Perhaps I need to try that again.

I tend to agree with MOnica on this in that we tend to eat much more at a meal than we used to. I've been somewhat successful in recent weight loss and all I've done is reduce my overall intake. Nothing is out of bounds for me but little at a time has proven painless. I have also noticed recently that none of my dining companions opt for the usual 3 courser. The norm is 2 courses with preference between starter and sweet. The other option I now observe is a selection of 2 starters and that's it. This may be an age/capacity thing. I don't know but it's certainly noticeable. I was on a bus trip yesterday where 2 fathers were travelling with their sons - guesstimate 5 yo - and they were having fascinating conversations with them. Lovely. In both cases the fathers proffered sweets without being asked and not in any need of fillling a void. I found that both strange and interesting.

I agree with you floradora...down to parents. If they feed this junk to kids from day 1...they are gonna start demanding it! My kids had sweets once a week on Friday after school ...got their 20 p and spent it on rubbish and had eaten it before they got home. Never asked for anymore cos they knew better. If people brought them sweets they were kept and eaten over time. Seaside rock was different...that’s always been ‘special ‘. My grandkids don’t eat a lot sweets neither ...and grandson didn’t have fizzy til he was 10..... granddaughter not allowed fizzy or squash and drinks only milk and water. Flavoured milk allowed as well.They are both skim and fit...as are my two kids. All four of them have no fillings in teeth and my kids are 42 and 38. I think that’s impressive these days.