Why our food is making us fat

Don’t try to tell me that curry in a packet is a healthy option.

Sorry just confessing that I don’t make my own Thai curry paste, not quite got everything here yet. Rest is made fresh.

our perception of overweight is changing

I often hear people saying they could maybe do with losing half a stone of so. This usually means that they could do with losing 2 or 3 stone.

Mike, Wrecker, Druid.

May I ask what the basis is for your food choices.
What standard / filter do you apply to ascertain what food you believe is correct for you ?.
(Genuine Q, theres no right or wrong here, just asking)

Yes solo ,
type two diabetes due to eating the shite that people leave in bins

our perception of overweight is changing.

Isnt that along with clothes manufacturers adjusting the cut of their sizing too.
Didn’t the OP’s article pointout that ‘L’ has now become ‘M’, that ‘XL’ has become ‘L’.

I must admit to seeing some folk and then thinking to myself, ” how and where on earth did they get clothes large enough to fit “.
Yes, I have seen people that large.

our perception of overweight is changing

not helped by clothes companies, what was a 18 is now labeled as 16 or even 14 (Gap, I’m looking at you LOL). I buy a lot of vintage clothes, some of the dress sizes for stuff from the fifties is laughable really ( i fit into size 10/12). For modern stuff I’m size 6.

Edit: I make stuff too, and have stolen patterns from my gran, her size chart shows waist/bust 24/31 as size 12, same measurements now are 6

Yes solo ,
type two diabetes due to eating the shite that people leave in bins

So, those poor animals have consumed so much sugar that their insulin response is shot to bits.

Some of the food Man has created is truely scary, stuff.

Fresh, varied not much processing.
Taking the best parts from what I have seen in life so far.

Also have a general science background.

It also has to taste good 🙂

Also I “try” not to overeat when I’m inactive – that is the hard bit really. My exercise has been up and down in the last year so changing portion size etc is a little iffy sometimes.

I also know that you can make some really unhealthy food from scratch too.

On clothing sizes – did they also make inches longer at some point? I still wear 30″ or 32″ waist size trousers (often have to go 32 for the thighs!) When they get tight, I know I have to eat less and/or exercise more.

wrecker – eating egg whites just sounds like a horrible snack. Bleurghh! 🙂

A lack of personal responsibility is the biggest threat to life rather than anything else.

Hmmm, personal responsibility is important, but I think you are massively letting the food industry off the hook there. They spend millions and millions marketing unhealthy food (especially to children), on making it much more readily available than healthy alternatives, and lobbying/bullying governments and organisations like the WHO to tone down healthy eating recommendations.

Yes you can still buy healthy food but it becomes increasingly difficult – try buying something healthy from any garage or convenience store.

On clothing sizes – did they also make inches longer at some point?

Kind of. A 32″ waist pair of jeans doesn’t actually have a 32″ waist…

her size chart shows waist/bust 24/31 as size 12, same measurements now are 6

Could part of the size changes be down to people being a lot taller now than they were?

There’s a bloke at work who’s really proud that he still fits in 32″ trousers. Seems a bit churlish to point out to him that’s because you’ve got cocktail sticks for legs and you’re wearing them round your hips. That massive tyre just above – that’s your real waist. 😀

Yes you can still buy healthy food but it becomes increasingly difficult – try buying something healthy from any garage or convenience store.

I heard that, even my local Sainsbury’s is absolutely awful at sourcing and stocking the food I want.
In fact, since moving to Coventry, I’ve been properly hacked off with the supermarkets here.
Absolutely shocking.

try buying something healthy from any garage or convenience store.

Try not shopping in a Garage!

Tesco’s is open 24/7 these days and they actually have a large selection of fresh fruit, veg, meat and fish.

Salmon, Spuds, Green veg steamed 20mins?? Yes it’s harder than picking up 1 packet but your body will thank you.

One of the things I miss in Oz is the quality and variety of UK supermarkets. I could go in and get everything I needed fresh or good quality in 1 visit.

arrrghh, stuff to do…

Miketually, not really, that’s what hems are for!!

Have to agree with Wrecker, on paper mikewsmith’s diet doesnt look that healthy to me. But it obviosuly is ok for him, so lucky Mike.

My diet was just like that for most my life until 2 years ago. But I was 2 1/2 stone overweight and no amount of exercise (and I was doing a lot) made an ounce of difference.

All the info I was reading back then said that most of my diet should come from carbs/starhcy food, which was what I was doing, so I just thought I had “bad genes” :lol:.

Anyway, without really knowing the science, I cut out the pasta, cereal, bread and dropped 2 stone in next to no time plus found I had more energy.

Now I know a bit more about the insulin response etc, it now makes sense.

We are clearly all different. But low carb/low GI/low sugar… whatever you want to call it works for me.

Try not shopping in a Garage!

I don’t generally – and yes if I was more organised I would never have to. It only generally happens when I’m working long hours and don’t have much time for breaks etc.

Salmon, Spuds, Green veg steamed 20mins??

Not really possible when I’m working a 12 hour day and grabbing something on the way between two jobs. And yes I should take something from home with me, but is it really right that there should be shops selling food where there is literally nothing even vaguely healthy in the whole shop? It’s hard enough just to find a sandwich on brown bread.

I don’t quite see why you are so keen for people to take more responsibility, but don’t seem to think the food industry should take any responsibility (or be made to by regulation). Surely both things are desirable.

But I was 2 1/2 stone overweight and no amount of exercise (and I was doing a lot) made an ounce of difference.

My post from page 3:
The American College for Sports Medicine:

Exercise may be associated with better long-term weight control than dieting alone, but the influence of regular physical activity on weight regulation is complex. Although numerous experimental studies have documented the positive effect of exercise training on body weight and fat stores, far less is known about how regular exercise affects attained weight and the risk of weight gain in the general population. What few longitudinal data there are suggest that regular physical activity may be useful in minimizing age-related weight gain or reducing the risk of substantial weight gain, rather than in actually promoting weight loss. Nonetheless, primary prevention of substantial weight gain with age may be a more efficacious public health strategy for reducing the prevalence of obesity and obesity-related morbidity and mortality in the United States.

And I am currently reading this:

Last fall, researchers at the University of California, Davis, published three studies—two of humans, one of rhesus monkeys—confirming the deleterious effect of these sugars on metabolism and insulin levels. The message of all three studies was that sugars are unhealthy—not because people or monkeys consumed too much of them, but because, well, they do things to our bodies that the other nutrients we eat simply don’t do.

The second fallacy is the belief that physical activity plays a meaningful role in keeping off the pounds—an idea that the authorities just can’t seem to let go of, despite all evidence to the contrary. “We don’t walk, we don’t bike,” says University of North Carolina economist Barry Popkin in The Weight of the Nation. If we do exercise regularly, the logic goes, then we’ll at least maintain a healthy weight (along with other health benefits), which is why the official government recommendations from the USDA are that we should all do 150 minutes each week of “moderate intensity” aerobic exercise. And if that’s not enough to maintain a healthy weight or lose the excess, then, well, we should do more.

So why is the world full of obese individuals who do exercise regularly? Arkansas construction workers in The Weight of the Nation, for instance, do jobs that require constant lifting and running up ladders with “about 50 to 60 pounds of tools”—and an equal amount of excess fat. They’re on-camera making the point about how the combination is exhausting. “By the time the day’s over,” one tells us, “your feet are killing you; your legs are cramping. You can’t last as long as you used to.” If physical activity helps us lose weight or even just maintain it, how did these hardworking men get so fat?

Mike, Wrecker, Druid.

May I ask what the basis is for your food choices.

I certainly don’t consider myself an expert, but I try to have a diet which fits with my goals;
Gain lean muscle, stay fit/get fitter and be generally healthy. I do not want to lose weight. I’m not a bodybuilder by any stretch but I’m no racing snake either.
I know that I want a lot of protein and fibre, I know that I don’t want lots of sugar or fat and try to only have wholewheat carbs.
I try to eat lean meat/fish and vegetables and pulses with an absolute minimum of prepared food. I do not eat crisps, chocolate, cakes etc. As I say I’m no expert at all.
When I fail (and I do), it’s usually when I’ve been in the gym (straight from work) and haven’t time to cook as its 2100hrs and I need to shower, walk the dog, sort my stuff for the next day etc. A healthy take away option would be amazing.

I don’t quite see why you are so keen for people to take more responsibility, but don’t seem to think the food industry should take any responsibility (or be made to by regulation). Surely both things are desirable.

Mostly as it’s your own body.

The food industry arguments are a bit chicken and egg. They claim there is demand you suggest they create the demand.

It’s probably the downside of not living in N Korea you need to make the choice about what you want to do.

The biggest way to change what is on offer is to shop differently.

Think having grown up on a farm and worked out how food works fairly early on in life.

No offence, but your diet doesn’t look that healthy to me. I reckon it’ll catch up with you.

I grew up on a “farmer’s diet”. HUGE portions, 2-3 cooked meals every day, mugs tea / coffee with fresh cake mid am and mid pm, quite often a mid afternoon cooked savoury snack – egg pasty, yummmm…

All home cooked from fresh ingredients, and did I mention portion SIZE…

BUT, we were always hungy. What comes from doing physical hard graft all day every day. Probably why I grew as big as I have (height / frame – not waistline 😉 ) – combination of hard work and lots of food during teenage developmental years.

Healthy diet? Yes I would say so, provided it is combined with the hard work. It was the diet of my grand parents / great aunts / uncles (their farms). They pretty much all (big family) made mid – late 80s, early 90s, despite the lifetime of hard work

Doesn’t work for me now – don’t burn the calories, so need to eat less quantity. Same principles apply though – the food was fresh, unprocessed, home cooked (mainly boiled / baked)

Wrecker.

Ok, like I posted, I’m not going to judge.
You’ve posted the choices you prefer.

I’m just curious about how people come to the decisions that they do.

Do people choose on the basis of scientific evidence ?.
I don’t think that most people do.
Afterall, it would have been a lot more difficult in our past, esp before the webs.
And as a lot of people will know, eating habits can be established at home.
That people’s choices may be heavily influenced by what their parents raised them on.

I think theres also another facet to the question of choice.
The information that is pedalled by the people selling stuff.

What comes from doing physical hard graft all day every day. Probably why I grew as big as I have (height / frame – not waistline )

I’d guess genetics were responsible for that.

you suggest they create the demand.

Why else would they spend so much money on marketing unhealthy food? Look at the Olympic food/drink sponsors. And where was this demand 50 years ago or whatever?

It’s probably the downside of not living in N Korea you need to make the choice about what you want to do.

Believe it or not there can be a middle ground between unfettered promotion/selling of unhealthy food and living in north Korea. I just think the balance we have at the moment is quite wrong.

And whatever you might think about how adults should have better personal responsibility, the constant and massive marketing of unhealthy food to children is in my opinion deeply immoral.

I’d guess genetics were responsible for that.

as far as i understand it having the right nutrients will allow you to reach your genetic maximum.

so your both right.

I’d guess genetics were responsible for that

Partly, off course. Although I’m 6″ taller than my father and probably 1′ taller than my mother *
Both of them grew up with wartime rationing / poverty, so possibly the genetics were there, but not the diet??

* and before some wise ass comes up with an obvious genetics answer – I’m very like them in other respects… 😉

Look at the Olympic food/drink sponsors.

The whole Coca Cola / Muccy D thing is an absolute disgrace. Probably what irritates me most about the Olympics.
Utterly shameless

On the point about regs and corporate responsibility.

I think Coke a Cola have a lot to answer for.

In 1984 Coke swapped out Sugar for HFCS.
HFCS may not have made it to these shores, but thats not my point.

Coke modified their recipe for two reasons.
To increase margin, and to encourage increased consumption.
The people within Coke who made those choices are morally bankrupt imo.

However, when you see the way some within the scientific community have regarded the issue of sugar in the diet.
In the context that some members of that community might have been called upon to advise Government to construct policy to protect the public.

Then it seems to me that a Government might not have prevented the obesity epidemic anyway.

If you think about the comparision that was made in the article between the food industry now and the cigarette industry earlier the advertisement associated with sports sponsorship and product placement starts to look a bit more dodgy

starts to look a bit more dodgy

Dodgy doesn’t begin to describe what I’ve recently read.
More, may be.
Later.

On clothing sizes – did they also make inches longer at some point? I still wear 30″ or 32″ waist size trousers (often have to go 32 for the thighs!) When they get tight, I know I have to eat less and/or exercise more.

this but they never get tight and I need a belt to fit them over my massively powerful thighs.

In answer to Solos question about how people make food choices, when I left home at 18 I just carried on eating the kind of food that I had grown up with, i.e. homecooked fresh veg & meat. So I have my parents to thank for that.

I was also lucky (?) in that during my years at Uni, I worked part-time in M&S, so ate pretty well as a student (although as we have heard even processed food from M&S needs to be treated with caution)

However, as I moved into work and moved around (various parts of the UK and the world), I picked up eating habits from the people I met/ the places I lived.

I never gave it a second thought. But my diet definitely changed over the 20 or so years to the point where carbs formed the majority of my diet and I was borderline Type 2.

Ive never been massively influenced by food marketing e.g. MacDonalds etc

Up until 2 years ago I knew nothing about nutrition and had no interest,(still dont know enough but I have a lot of interest) but I thought I was eating reasonably healthily.

Illness changed all that for me. And its been a bit of a blessing in disguise.

I now hopefully make much more informed choices about what I eat. Some of this is based on science and some on my own personal beliefs.

One thing I do know, is that I spend far too much time thinking about food and reading labels in supermarkets. To the point of obession. But I do feel healthier.

I’m just curious about how people come to the decisions that they do.

Do people choose on the basis of scientific evidence ?.
I don’t think that most people do.

There are a pajillion “experts” who will all tell you different ways to achieve the same thing (this is what I was getting at a few pages ago). These experts will slant science to support their views generally. The information out there is very contradictory and confusing.

Where are all these obese people..?

Troll of the month so far IMO.

I like to think I have a better grasp of what to eat these days, and more importantly what to avoid. But im still finding myself hugely confused with all the conflicting advice, and no amount of reading links to other websites whilst im supposed to be working seems to really help..
Solo, I may hit you up for some comprehnsive suggested reading if you don’t mind?

Here’s a thought,
IF I followed any seriously fit and healthy persons diet and activity programme, to the letter/gram/calorie, would I eventually end up looking more or less exactly the same as them? (genetic muscle disribution differences aside perhaps).

I’ve often looked at fit friends and thought ‘ I move roughly the same as you, I possibly eat only a fraction more than you? possibly eat the same , If I did exactly the same as you would we balance out? ‘

This is coming from someone who’s lost nearly 6 stone, but still has to battle the flab and seemingly work harder than most for similar gains. Grump.

Yesterdays Grub-

Breakfast – several cups of black tea
Lunch – tinned tuna, salad, loads of garden peas
Snack – white choccie biscuit from spain (damned colleagues)
Pre Ride hunger snack – cashew nuts, 2x chicken drumsticks, several salami slices
Post ride meal – big bowl of Raisin Wheats with whole milk (a moment of weakness, but they were very nice none the less)

The people within Coke who made those choices are morally bankrupt imo

Only if you show that they knew all the health problems at the time. didn’t coke used have actual cocaine in it?!!?! same thing, they didn’t know then about how bad that was, seems mad now though.

solo – do you cook in the left-over tinfoil from your hats?

didn’t coke used have actual cocaine in it?!!?!

And alcohol!
Probably less harmful. And a lot more fun!

Thing is I think the drive to be “beautiful” is just as bad as the fact that there are more obese people, the whole ‘cut’ look for blokes and ridiculously thin look for girls is building a society with massive amounts of people with an unhealthy attitude to food, whether that’s too much or too less of it.

This was interesting, on BBC News magazine a few weeks ago…

US Drinks Sizes

The image of the “soda” with the sugar cubes in front is quite compelling. One to show the kids.

ETA – Given the “Big Gulp”, “Double Gulp” etc mentality (cups up to 2ish litres), they must have huge bodies to accomodate their bladders…