Obesity in Ireland, What's goin on?

[J70]

There is a food documentary on Netflix called "fed up" it would open your eyes to the whole subject.

Looking around facebook you see posts all the time, in getting sweets with the kids, ice cream, buns.....  I know one family who say their eldest boy refuses to eat anything but crisps and mcdonalds so guess what he gets every day? I think you have to take a strict stance with the kids. They won't know any different. I didn't let any of my crew near sweets for 3-4 years. They love the veggies and fruit and I keep them all active. Bed at 7.30pm every night and 20 mins of computer games a day.
There is no problem with kids-  there is a problem with parenting, or lack thereof.

We are here to protect and nurture their spiritual, physical and emotional well-being...

Exactly. You have to be engaged and you have to put the foot down when necessary.

[muppet]

I remember my grandfather having a fry every day of his life, except when my grandmother was away minding us, in which case he 3 fried meals a day. He was never remotely fat.

Even just typing that has made me hungry.

[The Iceman]

I remember my grandfather having a fry every day of his life, except when my grandmother was away minding us, in which case he 3 fried meals a day. He was never remotely fat.

Even just typing that has made me hungry.

I bet he was an active man though - out working the fields or manual labour? My grandfather was the same but he was a tight man working outside all the time.
I love a fry up but I'll make sure i have a load of outside work to do later that day i am going to indulge

[muppet]

I remember my grandfather having a fry every day of his life, except when my grandmother was away minding us, in which case he 3 fried meals a day. He was never remotely fat.

Even just typing that has made me hungry.

I bet he was an active man though - out working the fields or manual labour? My grandfather was the same but he was a tight man working outside all the time.
I love a fry up but I'll make sure i have a load of outside work to do later that day i am going to indulge

Yes, both he was a labourer with a small farm and never had a car. He cycled everywhere.

[eddie d]

In my opinion the main problem is lack of exercise and not the diet, due to more computer games, availability of television shows etc. From my own experience I found that the exercise came first which brought on the healthier diet, as I just could not stomach some of the wrong foods. Maybe I'm wrong but if I was to go on a healthy diet, with limited exercise next week it wouldn't last. However when I took up running I found that I was gearing towards the healthy option because if I did take the wrong food or drink I would feel the effects of it in the next day out.



   

[Eamonnca1]

It's all right saying "people should take personal responsibility" but that's a bit like trying to fix the litter problem by coming out with the statement "people should stop dropping litter." All well and good but it doesn't actually change anything.

I can't speak for Ireland but I know the American food supply is so full of shite that it's very hard to avoid sugar and other crap. Sure they even have their Corn Flakes loaded with High Fructose Corn Syrup. Even foods that aren't sweet and labeled to imply that they're healthy are full of all kinds of garbage. It's one of the reasons I became vegetarian a few years ago, I just don't trust the meat producers. 

In the last year I've phased out most of the processed foods from my diet, and I threw my microwave into the skip. No more TV dinners, and I only use the freezer for frozen desserts. I live close to supermarkets so I might as well make use of them and eat fresh produce. Instead of food shopping once a week I go a couple of times a week to top up.

For obesity in the states I blame the following:

• Poor dietary choices
• Messed up subsidies that make processed foods cheaper than fresh produce
• The lobbying power of the Iowa corn industry that has somehow put their HFCS by-product into just about everything
• Lack of cooking skills that makes people inclined to go for fast food
• Lack of access to fresh food in low income neighborhoods ("food deserts" is what they call them here)
• Bad land-use patterns like single-use zoning and suburban sprawl that make it physically impossible to walk anywhere and forces everyone to drive. It also turns parents into chauffeurs since the children have to be ferried about to all their pre-planned activities.
• Rampant paranoia about child abduction that has made helicopter parenting almost mandatory and effectively bans the practice of letting children out to play by themselves. No such thing as showing up at your mate's house unannounced now. Now the parents arrange a "play date" for them.

It's all right saying people should get out and walk, but if you live somewhere like LA where your school is ten miles away and only accessible by six-lane highways, walking across the fields isn't really an option. There was even a story a few years ago where some school children were disciplined and suspended for cycling to school because the authorities decided it was too dangerous.

It's all right saying children should go out and play, but there was a story the other week about the children in Washington that were taken into custody by police and kept for several hours when some nosy neighbor reported them walking home alone. Kids have to amuse themselves somehow, and if they're not allowed to do it outside then the chances are they'll resort to electronic games.

It's all right saying people should make better choices, but if you're on a tight budget and the dead calories in a packet are cheaper than a butternut squash, chances are you're going to go for the cheaper option.

I don't know how much of this applies to Ireland, but there it is.

[omaghjoe]

In my opinion the main problem is lack of exercise and not the diet, due to more computer games, availability of television shows etc. From my own experience I found that the exercise came first which brought on the healthier diet, as I just could not stomach some of the wrong foods. Maybe I'm wrong but if I was to go on a healthy diet, with limited exercise next week it wouldn't last. However when I took up running I found that I was gearing towards the healthy option because if I did take the wrong food or drink I would feel the effects of it in the next day out.

Your flying in the face of scientific opinion there now Eddie

Low carb diets were like the Atkins diet were mass scientific experiments that blew the calories-in calories-out myth right out of the water.

It helped us discover that fat was not the enemy but carbs and sugar.

Funny thing is we didnt even have to discover this as we were basically ignoring an even bigger scientific experiment which was the tradition of our own traditional diets, which have been evolving over generations to nourish us.

[eddie d]

In my opinion the main problem is lack of exercise and not the diet, due to more computer games, availability of television shows etc. From my own experience I found that the exercise came first which brought on the healthier diet, as I just could not stomach some of the wrong foods. Maybe I'm wrong but if I was to go on a healthy diet, with limited exercise next week it wouldn't last. However when I took up running I found that I was gearing towards the healthy option because if I did take the wrong food or drink I would feel the effects of it in the next day out.

Your flying in the face of scientific opinion there now Eddie

Low carb diets were like the Atkins diet were mass scientific experiments that blew the calories-in calories-out myth right out of the water.

It helped us discover that fat was not the enemy but carbs and sugar.

Funny thing is we didnt even have to discover this as we were basically ignoring an even bigger scientific experiment which was the tradition of our own traditional diets, which have been evolving over generations to nourish us.

What I meant was, when I focused on getting more exercise first, I was inclined to eat healthier as a result of it. Yet if I was to eat healthy next week, with very little exercise I would likely give up.

[The Iceman]

So the attitude of more exercise doesn't work. Calories in versus calories out is bullshit when calories in are not all equal.
for example: 160 calories from a handfulof almond nuts with dietary fibre that regulate blood sugar levels versus 160 calories from a drink of pepsi that immediately enters the blood stream, spiking insulin levels and creating fat. Exercise doesn't help any of that. How much exercise will a child need to do to burn 160 calories? 80 minutes of jogging

The problem is sugar. Excess sugar in processed foods, low fat foods, reduced fat foods, diet foods.

the only way to combat childhood obesity and obesity in general is to remove sugar. consume clean healthy calories, stop drinking fizzy drinks and eating sweets and then promote some exercise and activity....

Thats the crux of the documentary FED UP. Worth watching lads.

[Eamonnca1]

I'm with the Iceman on this. I think the quality of your calorie intake is more important than quantity. At the end of the day you'll eat until you feel full because your body will let you how much you need and there's no way you can game the system by going hungry. But exercise has to be part of it too, it doesn't have to be an either/or choice between better eating and better diet.

[omaghjoe]

Ha Iceman I watched it as well.

Recommend it to everyone because it actually affects everyone every day

[DrinkingHarp]

Skip meat altogether and you'll be grand.

Don't think so, I am doing Atkins and am down 20 pounds in 3 1/2 weeks, blood pressure back to normal. No excessive bad carbs, sugar and will do well. I eat no "bad" carbs with the carbs coming from certain veggies and protien- beef, fish, pork and eggs. Feel great, more energy and puffiness gone.

Now on to stage two with more veggies & nuts.

Eating like a king and enjoying every minute although I do miss pizza and ice cream.

[Jell 0 Biafra]

Skip meat altogether and you'll be grand.

Don't think so, I am doing Atkins and am down 20 pounds in 3 1/2 weeks, blood pressure back to normal. No excessive bad carbs, sugar and will do well. I eat no "bad" carbs with the carbs coming from certain veggies and protien- beef, fish, pork and eggs. Feel great, more energy and puffiness gone.

Now on to stage two with more veggies & nuts.

Eating like a king and enjoying every minute although I do miss pizza and ice cream.

Good for you.

Not sure how that counts against my point though.

[omaghjoe]

Besides the main problem of passing up super tasty food that is packed full of nutrients, many of which are not available through veggies. You aren't necessarily cutting out on the main culprit which is sugar.

Plus you are more likely to eat the old empty carbs and sugar for your energy. Also the only fats you eat will be processed vegetable fats which are a total lottery in terms of whether they are good or bad for ye.

Vegetarianism is another great food experiment  that has been going on for centuries in India and while India has as lower rates of cancer for example, other mineral lacking diseases like rickets and infectious diseases are more prevalent.

Meat has been part of our diet since before we evolved into humans I wouldn't mess with that plus its too dam tasty. A very wise chap once said to me.

"if you were supposed to eat meat it wouldn't be meat flavoured!"

 

[seafoid]

Irish Times from 2014

In all, about 90 per cent of Irish men and 84 per cent of Irish women are predicted to fall within a category that ranges from 'overweight' to 'obese' by 2030.
British researchers used a computer model to predict the percentage of men and women who will carry an unhealthy tub of excess weight across Europe in 2020 and 2030. Health experts said the 'shocking' figures showed the huge challenge that health and social care services are facing and warned of the obesity epidemic coming down the tracks.
"Our study presents a worrying picture of rising obesity across Europe. Policies to reverse this trend are urgently needed," said Dr Laura Webber, who headed up the report.
Webber is calling for a tax on sugary drinks and subsidies for fruit and vegetables.
She said that although there was no quick fix for tackling the epidemic, the Government must do more to restrict unhealthy food marketing and make healthy food more affordable.
"The UK and Ireland, where obesity prevalence is among the highest, possess unregulated liberal market economies similar to the US, where the collective actions of big multinational food companies to maximise profit encourages over-consumption," she said.
The predictions were based on a statistical modelling study which incorporated all available data on body mass index (BMI) and obesity/overweight trends in all 53 of the Word Health Organisation's Euro-region countries.
The study, which included the WHO Regional Office for Europe, was presented at the EuroPRevent congress in Amsterdam.