Obesity as bad as climate change

[Labarum]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7043639.stm

[kate58]

Re: Obesity as bad as climate change

"The study showed there had to be "further and faster" efforts beyond existing anti-obesity measures to encourage exercise and healthy eating"

And the sad thing is that in all probability the "healthy eating" they encourage to tackle obesity will heavily emphasise low fat foods.

[kiobe]

Re: Obesity as bad as climate change

My friends' brother flew in from living in France for 12 years and the first thing he said was, or rather yelled was...."HOLY ****, EVERYONE IN THE U. S. IS SO FRIGGIN FAT. So what are we doing differently than Europe and other countries? Personally, I believe it has to do with convience foods.

[angelstar]

Re: Obesity as bad as climate change

Tell the Government to change the bl**dy food pyramid.....they put it in place some 20 or so years ago and now they reckon that by 2050 half the population will be obese...doesnt that tell you something?!?!? Apart from the fact that our lives have changed, we're working longer hours to support ourselves from the monetary crisis that we're in, longer hours mean less time to cook decent food and lots of people resort to convience foods and take aways. Plus junk food is considerably cheaper than fresh meat and veg.

You hear that Gordon Brown....reduce the cost of fresh, nutritious foods and more people might start to eat them.

[ttdriver]

Re: Obesity as bad as climate change

We ARE a convenience food nation. We have hectic, busy lives; we don't have the time nor the energy to actually cook a meal or sit down and actually eat together. How sad is that. We eat garbage and then wonder why we're fat and sick. Then we go to a doctor and they prescribe pills to offset the damage.

Until we make eating healthy a priority, and combine it with regular rigorous exercise, nothing will change for the better.

ITS TAKE TO TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR HEALTH AND NOT RELY ON THE GOVERNMENT OR ANYONE ELSE TO LOOK OUT FOR WHAT'S BEST FOR YOU.

Betty

[kiobe]

Re: Obesity as bad as climate change

Balogna, peanut butter, most bacon and sausage, canned dinners like chef boyardee ravioli..etc, really almost everything that is a convience food, fast food breakfasts, lunches and dinners all are loaded with some form of sugar. I've yet to figure out exactly why we need sugar in things like bologna and peanut butter but it's there. Because sugar can be expencive to use as an ingredient the overuse of high fructose corn suryp is a prime reason we are addicted to sugars. It's the perfect storm.....we've run out of personal time to cook well for ourselves, the products available for that situation are full of sugar and lots of other nasty things and the agencies responsible for policing what goes into our food and then into bodies are asleep at the wheel. The people here at this site have taken the bull by the horn (figurativly and literaly) and are making a difference.

[TitianWasp]

Re: Obesity as bad as climate change

Ultimately the responsibility lies with us. How much we move and what we put into our mouths will determine how fat or not fat we are.

Here in the US, and increasingly around the world, we are a generation afixed to electronic entertainment and convenience foods. Our jobs seat us in front of a computer for 8+ hours, and often our lunches come out of a microwave.

It starts now at childhood where TV is the babysitter and familiar toys tend more towards the xbox variety. Climbing trees, playing tag, cycling - these are all unheard of in some households.

American portions tend to be large, and bland. Marketers discovered that the word "Sweet" sold such an overwhelmingly larger market share that sugar was added to completely illogical foods (Bread anyone? Salted crackers? Why do these things need sugar?). Anything with a real flavor ("sharp" cheddar and "sweet & sour" pork) were found to sell better when the extremeness suggested in their naming was tamed down ("medium" cheddar and "sweet and pungent" pork). Strong, exciting flavors satisfy the palate much faster. Bland foods require larger amounts to satisfy. In countries where emphasis is on the food, portion sizes are a third what they are here, but the food is so good, so flavorful, that they completely satisfy with many fewer calories.

It is not the government's fault. Most people (though admittedly not all) know the difference between a supersized big mac and a salad in terms of their health, and the choice they make between them is their own. The majority of the weight issue can be directly attributed to our biology and our cultural lifestyle. We are designed to desire salty, fatty and sweet foods because these things were all that stood between us and famine in less technological times. Our average day requires something like a quarter of the energy expenditure that a person would have expended 100 years ago. Water does not have to be hauled and dinner does not have to be caught, plucked and butched by hand. Emotional eating would have been much tougher if you had to spend a small fortune for such exotic ingredients as chocolate powder, stoke a woodburning stove, and then bake that slice of cake from scratch. The average family owns not just one car, but two, or more. And thank goodness - according to economists, we live in the safest, healthiest, richest period in history. But it does have it's consequences in terms of our waistline and how we deal with the fruits of our successes is the question we now face.