MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
What would you do to prevent an even bigger obesity time bomb going off? There was a rather large lady got on the bus I was on today, only to get off one stop and 75m later. Minimum bus journey lengths is what I'd introduce.
Tax elastic waisted trews. Work it off or wear a sack.
easy, start an e-petition demanding more money for the NHS, I'm sure most people will manage to sum up the effort required to do that
alternatively change vat, bias it cheap on good stuff and raise it to 100% on crap
Obesity time bomb? Didn't it explode about 10 years ago? Everyone is over weight these days. People are lazy, greedy and mis educated at every turn.
Edit: BAN FOOD! Wont someone think of the children 🙁
According to my GP I'm obese.
It's a time bomb so let it be ... tick tock tick tock ... nature's ways of dealing with things.
Yes, me slightly overweight too ... tick tock tick tock ...
make escalators, moving walkways and lifts really REALLY slow
Here in Notts I'd remove 50% of all city bus stops, there's one every 200-400m, makes bus travel a right pain!
sobriety - there is on stretch of road in Edinburgh that has three stops in the space of 90m.
I'm sure the buses on that route stop three times within 90m too! Maybe there are a lot of services along there and its better to have them stopping at a few stops rather than one. At least she was using the busbrather than the car so presumably did some walking.
I'd remove disabled parking passes from the obese if that's their only reason for having one. I'd also stop the same people from using the fire exit to get into my work because they can't fit in the tube door.
I'd also get rid of mobility scooters for the obese, they're just self defeating.
Food manufacturers. Sugar / salt / fat/ carb addictions that they encourage. thats one of the main drivers for this.
Its very noticeable that the countries with least restrictions either legal or from pressures in society on crap food get the fattest people
How long do you think the problem of people getting bigger has been going on? Last Sunday we went the the Photography museum in Bradford while we were there we decided to select a program to watch in a booth the choice is endless and dates from about 1960 to present. We chose Newsround with John Craven from about 1974 so the kids could see how it used to be presented. There was a piece about schools offering healthy meals, salad ect as it had come to the educations notice that children were starting to look a bit porky. This seriously surprised me,it's nothing new Jamie Oliver etal and it has been ticking for a long time.
A bloke opposite me on the train a couple of weeks ago took up 2 seats of a 3 seater, it was only when a 'normal' sized guy sat next to him that I really realised just how big he was...
A bloke opposite me on the train a couple of weeks ago took up 2 seats of a 3 seater, it was only when a 'normal' sized guy sat next to him that I really realised just how big he was...
Make the armrests fixed so they can't sit down. Being obese is not normal and shouldn't be normalised.
I'm obese according to my BMI, when am I going to explode?
[i]Make the armrests fixed so they can't sit down. [/i]
Armrests! You don't get 5 seats across a train by having armrests.
Tax people by their BMI.
Armrests! You don't get 5 seats across a train by having armrests.
Of course you can, get rid of the half arsed designers while we're at it then. 😈
close down Iceland.
It's a huge cultural thing. Its not helped by the fact that there is a McDs or KFC at every turn, but having recently moved abroad I really believe its not entirely down to the individual but the culture of the nation. We no longer value sporting excellence, its hushed away beginning at a young age with day of sport (no longer sports day) and we accept it. I used to be over 20stone, drank 60 pints a week and had takeaways probably 4 or 5 nights, washing it down with 2 litres of coke a day. I no longer do any of that. It was a change in my own culture that it was not acceptable rather than the fact that big business sell me fat.
Changing bus stops, taxing fatty foods won't do it, we need to change the culture of the country.
Just nipped into a local mini Tescos. Whilst I stood there all I could see where chocolate products, sweets, crisps, bread, biscuits, cakes, booze and fags. They have some food at the back. And I use the word food cautiously.
it's cheap, they can make it, it's tasty, looks good, smells good, people buy it. Sold at a profit. Just because you are educated and understand nutrition etc. most aren't! people are dumb slaves to their taste-buds! kerr-ching. People need to be more educated about this stuff.
People need to be more educated about this stuff.
They will still eat the same sh1t, just be slightly more aware of the consequences.
They will still eat the same sh1t, just be slightly more aware of the consequences.
And that someone else will provide the solution, obesity the new smoking...
People have the rights to be obese and die young/early.
The only person to be blamed is ourselves as the corporate monsters do not point a gun to force you to eat. 🙄
Polite request - please don't assume that every 'large' person eats McDonalds, chips, coke etc. Unfortunately the NHS are failing to properly medicate the increasing number of people with an underactive thyroid gland.
C_G
(formerly slim, now increased 4 dress sizes)
(never eat McD's, chips or coke)
In 1973 obesity in both the USA and UK was running at 2% of the population. By 1998, when both governments stopped publishing stats it had risen to 25%. To summarise it took 50 million years to get to 2% but only 25 years to increase another 23%.
From that we can conclude that it is not the amount we eat which most likely hasn't changed that much but is in fact the amount of processed crap we eat that is the problem.
Evidently it is all down to [url=
biology.[/u][/url]
Simple. Change the choices people have available to them, or at least make the healthy choice the easy one, the unhealthy choice the difficult one.
My diet overall is very good and I'm mainly very disciplined about my health - at 38 I'm almost the only one of my friends who does regular exercise and doesn't have a a belly.
But I have a serious sweet tooth and eat too much chocolate. So I don't buy biscuits or chocolate when I go to the supermarket. When I'm at home, if I get a craving I have to sit it out.
At work we have a vending machine full of crisps, chocolate and soft drinks. When I get a craving I grab a bar of chocolate. If the machine wasn't there, like at home, I wouldn't.
I take full responsibility for my chocolate indulgences but the choices presented to me make it much harder/easier to eat healthily and avoid the bad stuff...
As mentioned above, supermarkets and shops have a MASSIVE role to play in this. Maybe we need restrictions on how unhealthy food is sold, like alcohol and fags...
There was a programme on last night with that Bruce bloke who goes and lives with all kinds of tribes and eats weird things. He was with some people who had to hack down a tree with a stone axe to get to the carbohydrate inside it and that was after foraging through the forest to find the tree. Their calorie expenditure just to obtain food was massive and they were fit, well muscled and lean.
Nowadays you can eat ten times as many calories as they did for absolutely no physical effort beyond pushing the button on the microwave. You can even get the shit delivered to your door.
People have the rights to be obese and die young/early.
but not to expect everyone else to pick up the medical bills for keeping them alive.
tie national health entitlement to how much someone tries to look after themselves - only trouble is the assessment needed to do it.
There is a private health policy that rewards you for trying to keep fit and healthy.
Armrests! You don't get 5 seats across a train by having armrests.
cut glass between the seats then, like you see on the top of some walls - that wouldn't take up much space.
I like the odd burger / KFC / snickers but exercise and eat well the rest of the time, why should I have to pay more tax because some lazy b@stard eats too much and is the size of a house? Education and personal responsibility should always come before tax rises.
Bring back ration books. Everyone is comparing this financial crisis to the post war years so as an austerity measure it could kill two birds with one stone...
The only problem with the 'theory' that all fat people are fat due to the crap they eat and the lack of exercise is that its probably not actually true.
There is an element in there that says to me its something about 'make-up' and gene's also - if you take mine and my Dad's side of the family; all the blokes (and my Grandad for one was one of eight brothers) are (and were) built the same - tall and skinny.
No matter what we eat/drink we don't really put weight on. So it seems that the opposite can be true. But I do agree though that there are an awful lot of people who really shouldn't be as fat as they are.
Obviously our women-folk love us for it 👿
Reduce the working week to 30 hours.
I'm serious, it seems that more and more jobs involve sitting in front of a computer for (at least) 40 hours a week. Increasing weekends to 3 days would give people more chance to exercise.
For me, personally, I like at least one day of chilling out at home per week. This means I generally only have one day with an extended exercise period and everything else is just an hour or two here and there during the week.
I hate the 'It's in my genes/I dont eat much' excuses.
Let's face facts... It's imossible to put on body fat if you use more calories than you consume.
Let someone lock you in a room for a month with only water and salad.. lets see if it really is your 'genes'.
Edit: That post may seem a little harsh, but I know so many fat bstrds who are in complete and utter denial.
The only problem with the 'theory' that all fat people are fat due to the crap they eat and the lack of exercise is that its probably not actually true.
Yes, it is a more complex issue than just bad diet and lack of exercise in some cases. But these two elements are key factors in the majority of cases.
My belief is that it's the lifestyle changes post WW2 that have generally made everyone less active, by design or by choice, plus the increase in processed and 'junk' foods.
As an example, when I was growing up in the late70's/early 80's I walked or got the bus everywhere with my mum, there was no dishwasher, no microwave, no laptop, no Wii/Playstation, TV was limited, we played outside at almost every opportunity, all meals were home-made from fresh stuff ... overall we were far more active and ate 'proper' food ... and the key thing: my parents made sure I had a good diet and didn't just sit around on my ar$e watching TV - they encouraged me to get outside and do stuff, took me cycling, hiking, cricket/football in the park etc etc ...
corn syrup has a lot to answer for
Increased public sporting facilities
Urban planning that gives priority to pedestrians and cyclists over motor vehicles in residential areas and urban centres.
Strict parking enforcement within half a mile of any schools while increasing bike sheds etc.
Some decent food laws (ie an apple pie has to contain at least 50% apple by weight rather than having its apple content created by homoeopathy).
I like the reduced working week idea as well.
If w get rid of obesity, where will all the hotties go?
C_G has a point but the amount of people who claim a medical condition is way higher than reality.
My sister in law is a great example. She says she has an under active thyroid which may be true but my guess is it's more to do with the complete lack of exercise and all the food and alcohol she stuffs in her mouth.
My wife has the same condition. She put on weight and then made an effort to get back to normal, which she's done nicely.
It's a huge cultural thing. Its not helped by the fact that there is a McDs or KFC at every turn, but having recently moved abroad I really believe its not entirely down to the individual but the culture of the nation. We no longer value sporting excellence, its hushed away beginning at a young age with day of sport (no longer sports day) and we accept it.
The Spanish are mad on sport, and have basically caught up with the UK on the obesity front.
Still not sure why I should care, apart from being squashed on public transport - the obese are doing us all a favour, they die off earlier and end up costing a lot less to the state. (Healthly living means you die of an equally expensive disease later, after having drawn pensions etc. for a lot longer.)
Ban cars. I'm going to be really pissed if someone taxes my pizzas, chips, jam tarts and jaffa cakes.
Although I agree that some people are genetically predisposed to high body fat,I'm sure the vast majority is down to lifestyle. I have been working in the same office for many years and watched a large amount of people start skinny and get very fat, observing what they eat it is no surprise.
Set up spin farms.
Everyone has to spin for 30 mins a day - if you're unemployed you spin for longer.
All the energy generated is fed into the national grid and we all benefit from having cheaper fuel and everyones fitter to boot.
Radical I know, Feasible probably not, have I been staring at my hamster for too long - probably.
[i]he Spanish are mad on sport, and have basically caught up with the UK on the obesity front. [/i]
I thought they were like us, mad on watching sport rather than doing it.
I thought they were like us, mad on watching sport rather than doing it.
Don't know about that, certainly the women (generally) don't do much sport, but a fair number of the guys here at work run / play in footie leagues / swim / basketball etc.
Still, my post was more aimed at the assertion of "We no longer value sporting excellence" as if that would greatly influence obesity.
Still not sure why I should care, apart from being squashed on public transport - the obese are doing us all a favour, they die off earlier and end up costing a lot less to the state. (Healthly living means you die of an equally expensive disease later, after having drawn pensions etc. for a lot longer.)
The problem is, we've got very good at keeping unhealthy people alive for longer, but they cost a fortune in the process. Far more than someone healthy.
The only problem with the 'theory' that all fat people are fat due to the crap they eat and the lack of exercise is that its probably not actually true.
There will be a group of people for whom obesity is caused by a medical condition. But that group won't be any bigger now than it was then the obesity rate was 2%.
If we're now at 12 times that rate, at most only 1 in 12 of the obese are obese because of a medical condition.
Fat people squash you on public transport, make them pay for 2 seats?
I take my hat off to anyone who manages to lose the weight and turn their lives around, I doubt if I could do it.
We have to think outside the box here people.
As obesity is on the rise at the same time as global warming is posing a threat to our lifestyles, why don't we put the fatties to good use? We could use them as big squishy pink sandbags and pile them up by the coast to combat rising sea levels
I'm with BruceWee on this. Too many jobs are sedentary whereas once upon a time a lot of society kept fit just by going to work. Sure, there are many people who eat badly and don't exercise, but if they were at least moving a few muscles to earn a wage they might be healthier.
There is a part of me that thinks this is just nature's way of *ahem* controlling population. Either that or we'll all end up morphing into immovable fatties like in Wall-E.
I wonder why those of you are fit and healthy are obsessed with the lifestyle of those who are not?
If we're now at 12 times that rate, at most only 1 in 12 of the obese are obese because of a medical condition.
What medical condition, can you give an example?
I wonder why those of you are fit and healthy are obsessed with the lifestyle of those who are not?
We're all part of the same society so the actions of others can and do affect the rest of us. Of course we should be concerned. Obsessed is perhaps a strong word though.
Not obsessed ohnohesback, but you can't help being interested or concerned by what you see. There were only a few fat kids when I was at school, it seems there are only a few slim kids now.
Ultimately we all have to take responsibility for ourselves, at work I only ever move when it's my turn to make the coffee or go to the loo, hence I usually choose to cycle in.
I wonder why those of you are fit and healthy are obsessed with the lifestyle of those who are not?
Because we're paying for the healthcare of a group of people who have chosen an unhealthy lifestyle.
They pay taxes as well.
This thread is like an episode of Black Mirror
They pay taxes as well.
And?
Binners, guess what i have just eaten for my breakfast........you would be proud. 😀
nine people in my office this morning
only three are not obese/fat, three do not consider their weight to be an issue, three know they are fat
Ton - Was it some kind of breakfast pie? For years I've been trying to work out how to combine the ingredients of a full English into a pie?
bacon egg sausage spam black pudding beans toms mushroom fried bread.
Ton - Was it some kind of breakfast pie? For years I've been trying to work out how to combine the ingredients of a full English into a pie?
[url= http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/1486/bacon+and+egg+pie ]The mighty bacon and egg pie[/url] is what you need. (Ok, it's missing some of the ingredients, but a clever chap like you should be able to adjust the recipe accordingly...)
There was a similar(ish) thread about cheap booze & alcohol-related issues on here last week, i.e. some people choose to get drunk & it's nobody's business but their own (despite the wider social impact).
It's the same with lifestyles leadig to obesity.
Some people are 'happy' (?) being an unhealthy weight and living a lifestyle that is very likely to result in reduced quality ogf life, health problems and in extreme cases early death.
These people might say "leave me alone, it's my choice", regardless of any advice and education about what they're doing to themselves ... at which point the decision needs to be made: do we leave them to it and just deal with the consequences, or do we try and help them by forcing a lifestyle change through legislation?
As an aside, I think it's unhelpful to reduce 'people' issues down to how much tax it costs. I don't think putting a price tag on people makes them feel valued as a person.
For years I've been trying to work out how to combine the ingredients of a full English into a pie?
This is my next project - thank you sir - I will feedback when complete....
I really buy the fact that we're still, essentially, cavemen. We crave high calorie foods as a)we [i]think[/i] they're a rarity and b)we [i]think[/i] we'll have to expend a lot of energy and take high risks to get said food (such as chasing down a T-rex...)
Unfortunately, we [b]don't[/b] expend any energy in sourcing our food (drive to shops/waddle to the cupboard etc), yet still have the same basic desire.
It would be nice if we could fit ourselves with a biological meter that somethinged our BMR (Basal metabolic rate) and our current energy expenditure, and gave it as a figure of what "could be eaten that day".
You could argue that this would be our 'hunger', but unfortunately people seem to confuse [b]appetite[/b] (the [u]desire[/u] for food) with [b]hunger[/b] (the actual [u]need[/u] to refuel).
This, coupled with my first statement of this reply, leads to "Tubby-ville, population growing....."
DrP
What we need is a good war !
I like the tax people on their BMI as well, every 6 months do a check up.
I propose that all tv's should be pedal powered.
Ton - I doff my cap to you in an incredibly envious manner. The inclusion of spam carries all the hallmarks of a true professional
*waddles off to beat DrP to a masterplan for black pudding, sausage, bacon, beans and egg pie*
Some people are 'happy' (?) being an unhealthy weight and living a lifestyle that is very likely to result in reduced quality ogf life, health problems and in extreme cases early death.
I reckon you'd be hard pressed to find any people are happy about this. Sure, they may be happy about eating a takeaway every night and watching TV, but happy about the consequences?? I doubt it.
There've been plenty of threads on here about people lacking motivation to ride. It's not a big leap from this to a totally sedentary life with a bad diet. I like sitting in front of the TV. I like pizza, curry and kebabs, chocolate and sweets. I've had whole weeks pass by where I've barely been outside never mind do any exercise. However I've always found some motivation to get out and have a walk, run or ride and I dread the day I lose that motivation.
How, then, do we motivate others to get their heart rate up? Let them eat what they want for now, but get them off their backside first and foremost. Chips always taste better after some exercise.
I propose that all tv's should be pedal powered
We have a winner! Awesome idea 😀
the obese are doing us all a favour, they die off earlier and end up costing a lot less to the state.
As mikeyually suggests, the opposite to above quote is in fact true. The burden of ill health is the issue - dead people cost us nowt. Diabetes, cardiac rehab and care for long term conditions does!
On the face of it obesity is pretty straight forward - energy in vs. energy out. Increase one, reduce the other or both in conjunction and hey presto - weight loss or weight gain!
However, the process of decreasing energy in or increasing engery out is extremely complicated:
http://www.noo.org.uk/NOO_about_obesity/causes
In addition, it's a very emotive subject for most people, with some strong 'evolutionary' drives supporting it and thus simple 'will power' isn't a great way of approaching it on an individual level - it requires 're-thinking' how and why we make our food/exericse choices and creating and identifying new patterns of behaviour that better support our broader aims as an individual.
Furthermore, on a population level, no one solution will solve it either - well no one acceptable solution for western society that is. i.e. my preference would be to ensure that all food manufacturers only produced 'healthy food' and importantly provided food in portions of appropriate size BUT which still cost the same. However, this would not be acceptable to the great British public as we have a general bias towards the notion of 'more is better', driven by a number faulty beliefs.
Unfortunately, the people with the power and money to achieve this are the ones driving the availibility of high fat high salt high sugar foods. A tax on this type of food is one idea but given obesity has a strong correlation with low socioeconomic status, you'll essenntially be targeting those on lowest incomes. You could then say - well that would make them eat other foods but actually not having the skills, knowledge, confidence and resource to prepare and purchase 'other foods' is perhaps more the issue.
And so on......
There's an intersting idea from Japan whereby companies get taxed if the average waist circumference of staff is outside a given range - as a result staff 'have to' exercise during the day. How would that go down in the good old [i]'say no to the nanny state'[/i] UK?
Finally, before I get off my soap box - [u]the issue here is not fatness but fitness[/u]. The evidence from 100's of studies suggests that it is much better to be fat and fit in terms of coronary heart disease risk and ill-health, than it is to be thin and unfit.
So bottom-line - let's all ride bikes!
The evidence from 100's of studies suggests that it is much better to be fat and fit
Good point. I know plenty of walking/mountaineering types who outwardly look *ahem* tubby, but could yomp ups hills and mountains for hours. Don Whillans was one of the best mountaineers of his day but drank, smoked and ate like a trooper.
I'm probably overweight at 5'9'' and 13st I just can't avoid the evil carbs!
To answer the question I would take action at an earlier point. Any child who is overweight would have their parents made aware of this, ideally being given free school healthy lunch. you need to start a healthy lifestyle at a young age.
What medical condition, can you give an example?
I was never exactly slim, but I used to be a lot thinner before getting CFS/PVFS - it's not that I couldn't do it now but it's made it a lot harder to do decent regular exercise, and I spend more time around the house being bored/down which can encourage me to eat. There's also quite a bit of evidence that people with sleep problems often end up over eating.
I find it interesting how vehement some of the anti-fatty comments are on here though, not sure there is the same stigma attached to smokers, heavy drinkers etc who also 'cost the taxpayer more'.
Finally, before I get off my soap box - the issue here is not fatness but fitness. The evidence from 100's of studies suggests that it is much better to be fat and fit in terms of coronary heart disease risk and ill-health, than it is to be thin and unfit.
This. Not that I am fat and fit at the moment. 🙁 I'm still more physically active/fitter than half the people I work with though.
The evidence from 100's of studies suggests that it is much better to be fat and fit in terms of coronary heart disease risk and ill-health, than it is to be thin and unfit.
That's a false dichotomy though. It's better to be fit than unfit and better to be thin than fat. In the interests of balance I do not fall into either the thin or particularly fit category.
bacon egg sausage spam black pudding beans toms mushroom fried bread.
And just the other day you were saying you'd give anything to have your health back.. good effort on the breakie though 😀