Obese in Britain

Nobody has mentioned the poor eating advice we have been given over the years. Ever since the 70S fat has been demonised and we have been encouraged to eat a plethora of low fat products. Of course when fat is removed it is frequently replaced by sugar, which isn’t as satiating as fat but spikes insulin - a major cause of diabetes. Although a bit of an oversimplification,I do feel that “lite” products and artificial sweeteners have a lot to answer for.

Maybe more regular mandatory PE in schools would help with the exercise problem.

I remember eating sugar sandwiches too, but it was soon burned off by all the running around we did!

Obesity is not just about what we eat and drink and exercise.
It is a big part of it but damage to the gut flora is also a big part.
This damage is usually caused by Vaccination, Antibiotics and other medication.
Artificial sweeteners are another big problem as they strip Iodine from the Thyroid gland which lowers our metabolism.
Hormones too can and do cause these problems from the
contraceptive pill and HRT to pregnancy.
We need to sort out all these to keep healthy.

I too was brought up to 'clear my plate'. Also my mother's rule at tea time was you could only have a piece of cake for each slice of bread. I can remember eating lots of bread I didn't want to enable me to have the cake I did want. That obviously resulted in an increased appetite over time.

Being raised to 'clear your plate'- if not, it was re-presented at the next meal - it became my notion of parenting.
I felt a failure if son didn't eat all I put in front of him. Thankfully, he knew when he'd had enough but leftovers reduced me to a tearful wreck. I'm glad to say he has not only retained his sensible attitude to food but also blessed with his dad's lean genes!
My lifelong weight struggles have been more to do with how much, rather than what I eat as my childhood destroyed my 'satiated button'.

As others have said, as primary school age we walked to and from school and played out afterwards. We walked everywhere, to town with our mum for Saturday shopping about 2 miles each way and to friends houses anywhere in town. We ate lots of sugar and quite fat laden meals but we're never overweight. I agree that fast food and endless snacking contributes heavily to obesity but I still think that lack of ecersise is mostly to blame.

Did you see that sad program on TV called "Thin brides, fat wives"? It showed photos of girls on their wedding day looking gorgeous, then interviewed them as they are now, six or so years later, having put on about a stone a year.

In general, obesity is caused by overeating the wrong food types and a sedentary lifestyle. I am about two stones overweight myself. I have lost the weight over the years and then put it back on again and more and, now I am older and have had knee problems, I am not as active as I used to be. So it was up to me to eat more sensibly and do non-load bearing exercises, but I didn't. No one to blame but myself, I admit that.
Unless there is a medical condition ( and laziness and a 'couldn't care less attitude' is not a medical condition) there is no excuse for obesity or the people who enable it by making excuses.

When I was growing up I can remember that an obese person was stared at quite openly because they were fairly rare.

Now I stare because there are so many - the teens seem to be the worst and biggest. My word, there are some truly fat lasses around! And the Fat Acceptance Movement that has sprung up in recent years doesn't help any. Is there such a thing as fat AND healthy?

Discuss.

One positive on the snacking front is that our 2 big Tesco supermarkets have fruit available free for children to eat as they go round the store. Unfortunately I don't think I've seen anyone taking advantage of that!

It seems to me that children are ‘rewarded’ in this country by be given crisps, snacks, fizzy drinks, etc, or a trip to KFC or McDs.

What’s wrong with a train or bus trip?

I usually go to the supermarket fairly early and it shocks me to see the number of small children eating sweets crisps etc at that time. I realise this might be a bribe for them to behave but surely that in itself is creating a problem. Also recently I was doing a charity collection in a supermarket at lunchtime and several students came in and were buying bags of sweets, cakes , biscuits plus cola for their lunches.

There are two main causes of obesity in the UK. The first is overeating, especially sugary food and drinks. The second is lack of exercise. So many children spend all their free time on computer games. When I was a child we didn't have a TV and my free time was mostly spent playing outside with friends. If children are active, a snack after school will not do any harm but if they are then driven home and spend the evening in front of a screen then there will be problems. When I was at primary school all of us walked to and from school alone or with friends. Nowadays a large % of children are driven everywhere. ( I know, as I live by a primary school where the parking problems at drop off and pick up are horrendous.)
As some have said there are medical conditions leading to weight gain and whatever the reason for being overweight it is never easy to lose it. Having been a really skinny child my weight problems started after a botched operation which resulted in me being a lot less active during the long and painful recovery period. I didn't reduce the amount I ate to balance the lack of exercise and my lifestyle became increasingly sedentary. The more weight is gained, the harder it is to exercise too! Only in the last 2 years have I begun to work on the activity side of the equation as well as what I eat, but it is still hard. I've lost about 3 stones but still need to lose as much again.

It is sad to see so many obese children. Parents are the main culprit. I was a teacher for 30 years in a comprehensive school with one of the feeder primary schools next door. The nursery school pupils - who only attended morning or afternoon were greeted by both parents and grandparents with sweets etc
By the time they got to 'big' school they were already overweight. I did duty many times in the Tuck shop/ canteen and I was amazed to see pupils with far more money in their purse than I had. Needless to say they bought copious amounts of burgers, chocolate and fizzy drinks.
After break that lesson was dubbed the ' sunny delight hour' as the kids were so hyper after their sugar rush.

Oops premature posting - during my “skinny life” whilst on steroids I could gain a good stone and a half during treatment.

I can shut my eyes and remember the taste of my Granny’s white bread and dripping sprinkled with salt - it was so yummy.

I was skinny (sz 8) till menopause, well that’s what I am blaming my weight gain on !!!!

Hi all, when I was a kid my favourite snack was a white bread sugar sandwich with lots of butter.. Feel like one now, actually... I was a skinny kid.

At work I knew of at least three children in a school of about 200 who were so overweight they couldn't sit comfortably on the floor at assembly and had to have a chair. Another child lost his mother to a heart attack. She was around thirty and weighed a tremendous amount - and he too, not surprisingly, was obese. What uncomfortable lives these children must lead, it's so sad. What's wrong with a banana or apple when you come out of school and a drink of water? Often children are thirsty, not actually hungry, and a long drink of water will be enough.

Apart from the horrendous amount of unhealthy processed and sugary food around I find it amazing how there is this constant need to eat no matter what time of day. In suoermarkets children can be seen munching away before the food is even paid for, really as a way to keep them quiet. Of course trends are set, make a noise and they will be given food! Just look at the bottle water craze. Children are expected to take water with them to school. I know my GS's water bottle is hardly ever touched. This is yet another trend being set. I am not saying a drink of water between start and finish of school isn't good but surely a beakerful at lunch time would be sufficient for a wee one without the need to drag bottles of water around.

Clearly as far as young children are concerned it's the parents influence which dictates the food a child eats.
As they grow older with money of their own it is difficult to control the types of food they eat outside the home but hopefully some of the education they have received from their parents will stay with them all their life.
Unfortunately there are many overweight young parents who don't understand diet or care and I would suspect are the ones who can't loose weight.
Other than health problems where medication can increase weight it's the food that you put into your mouth and the lack of exercise and the lifestyle you have into adulthood.
We make the decisions, it's our body and although I personally care about what I put into my body not everyone does but it's their right to choose.
We cannot control the decisions other make.

nfk it could be that your efforts to reduce fat in your diet aren’t helping.
There’s now evidence that ‘low-fat’ foods contribute to weight gain and no evidence that (healthy) fats do.
This is a long but good article from Harvard Public Health. Scroll down to the section on dietary fat.
www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-causes/diet-and-weight/

EllanVannin - tend to “bulk up” with stodge (steak and kidney suet puds) and stews and mashed potatoes I wish! Half a fresh tuna steak with salad for me last evening with no afters. I’m on around 1100 calories a day and cutting out fat as much as possible. And still three stones overweight according to the charts. Suet puds are a distant memory.

It is too simple to just blame sugar for everything, we just eat far more than we did. One newspaper recently cooked and plated up the average Sunday roast for every decade since about 1950. The 2010 meal was about three times the size and 4 times the calorie value of the 1950 meal. Admittedly in the 1950s everything on the plate would have been consumed while in 2010 at least a third would have ended in the slop bucket, but in 1950 peoples lives were intrinsically more active.

The problem is we are programmed to eat as much as possible in times of plenty to build ourselves up for the times of want. it is just nowadays, the 'wanting' days have gone.

I should by rights be the size of Primo Carnera for the huge dinners etc I've packed away in the past, with an appetite like that of a horse. But alas, my metabolism made sure that it would assimilate what I'd eaten and would keep me at a steady 9 and a half stone for life until this last 6 months or so when my weight has crept to 10 stone because of my semi-sedentary life. But I am 5' 7 so it's not so noticeable. BMI is 21.9, so within range.

Most of what I eat is from scratch and during winter months you tend to " bulk up " with stodge ( steak and kidney suet puds ) and stews and mashed potatoes.

My GGC are fed home cooked dinners and they're all slim, except their mother ( my GD ) as she had a thyroid problem a few years back and went to skin and bone, was put on medication and she's now quite big, but it was awful seeing her with her clothes hanging off her. She likes the odd pink gin too, but her treat.

Not all obese people have problems though as fat that has collected/been stored in their behinds stays there whereas in a slim person the fat in the body tends to settle around vital organs causing problems. A slim person can have a higher cholesterol reading than an obese person so are prone to type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

as we have now got to the shameful levels of childhood obesity in this country, that parents of such children should be charged with child neglect
And then what would you do to them, jennifer?
Would you mete out the same punishment/rehabilitation to the parents of middle-class fat children as you would to parents who were struggling to get by in benefits?