Obesity in England. What's going on?

[dec]

the amount of sugar in processed "food" is absolutely unbelievable. The price of this "food" is a significant part of the problem. Tax may be a good way to deal with that...

In the US there are massive subsidies of corn which makes high fructose corn syrup cheaper that it otherwise would be and you find it in lots of foods here.

[The Iceman]

I think it's all about discipline. If it isn't in the house you won't eat it.
Get your groceries delivered if you can't walk past it in the supermarket. Be strict with what you order.
Eat organic fruit and veg if you can afford it and cook your food rather than being processed and packaged stuff.
I find there are only a few healthy carbs so tend to stay away from the rest.

Take on small changes - switch to small bit of dark chocolate if you have a sweet tooth. Drink your veggies (blended) if you can't eat all your 6-8 portions a day.
Cut red meat (beef, lamb, pork) down to 1/2 lbs per week and eat lots of lean turkey and chicken and good protein from legumes, nuts etc.

I think the majority of us know all this through our various sporting endeavors over the years. The x-factor in all of this is discipline and routine and whole-house commitment.

[AZOffaly]

I think you might have hit on it when you mentioned cost. Most fast food and rubbishy stuff is cheaper than a proper meal. I wonder is this part of it.

[seafoid]

Too much sugar and other crap in processed food. Any food that has to be advertised is probably shite.

And food companies in ireland and the uk have free rein to do what they want. The biscuit and sweet display ina small irish shop, together with the sugary drinks, can take up half the shop.
The costs end up in the health system treating diabetes and heart disease. There is no joined up thinking.

[Muck Savage]

I've thought a lot about this over the past few years, actually more observed. I travel a lot with work and get to see what is happening around the world, I live in the US, home of obesity, have two small kids and put it all down to a few areas

1) Education – Very few people know what a proper diet is. Kids don't learn about food, we didn't either but we lived in a different time growing up.  I was lucky that I was exposed to the Neutron diet when I played football in Ireland, so learned a lot and read a lot after that about food. Kids need to be taught about food at an early age to have a chance now, simple things like fresh food is best, drink lots of water.

2) Infrastructure. When I was a kid I walked to national school, took a bike to the GAA field and most of the summer was spent on a bike. More cars were put on the road, roads got bigger but now there is no place for waking/bikes/runners on the roads. We spend 10 days every year in Germany/Poland (wife is from there) and all main roads around have a little road divided by a grass bank running alongside it for bikes and walkers. In most cities in Europe there is a large population of cyclist, Nordic cities also where it's wet and in Japan and most other Asian countries most people don't have a car, they walk/train/walk to work. By having this infrastructure people get automatic exercise every day. In the US we drive everywhere.

3) Technology (and I live in Silicon Valley) – TV, Playstation, Social media (rather un-social), tablets, smart phones etc. Kids stay inside playing these games and watching TV. Everywhere you go there is a TV, you even get into most new family cars now and they have a f*$king TV in them. Everything is designed to make people sit and do nothing physical, so rather than run around a yard after a ball they use their fingers to chase one around on a screen.
There is a huge movement now with wearable technology which I hope will help people monitor their health. Hopefully this will help educate people and in turn educate their kids.

4) Society/Culture/Lifestyle - culture here is eat out probably 10 times a week and that culture is spreading around the world. Restaurants are built to make money, cheap food, huge competition which means cheap prices. I've never been to a McDonald's here but always wondered how a burger could be sold for $1. Their gross profit is ~40% which means it is produced for about $0.60, Food, worker, wrapping and Electricity etc.
Everyone is in a rush to get to the next place, so fast food allows this. Full of processed food, sugar, fat and all that good stuff. A lot of people here complain that healthy is expensive but that's just lazy, not searching for the right place to go.
Advertisements for Junk food are everywhere, kids think these foods are cool. There was a ban put on cigarettes being advertised there should some standards around foods also.

Recently I saw debate on one of the news stations about removing the healthy schools program that schools brought in. This is a program where schools removed unhealthy lunches from their cafeterias and replaced the foods with healthy foods which the schools had to subsidize. The argument for removing this was kids didn't like apples, wanted cheese burgers instead and it also removed their freedom of choice. Fox news of course!

Starts in the home and education today. Cost, very small bit, and Apple cost less than a mars bar!

[hairyUlsterman]

In Tesco you often get a 9 pack of penguin bars for £1, what do you expect when you have offers like that

[Tony Baloney]

I think the education piece is overstated. Television, newspapers and magazines are full of articles on healthy eating, food awareness etc. How can anyone have missed the recent "anti-sugar" onslaught? Cost and convenience/pure laziness are huge drivers.

[ONeill]

I'm just back from a 5-day stint in Manchester. People were thin.

[Milltown Row2]

I think the education piece is overstated. Television, newspapers and magazines are full of articles on healthy eating, food awareness etc. How can anyone have missed the recent "anti-sugar" onslaught? Cost and convenience/pure laziness are huge drivers.

So what's your excuse? 

[IolarCoisCuain]

I think the education piece is overstated. Television, newspapers and magazines are full of articles on healthy eating, food awareness etc. How can anyone have missed the recent "anti-sugar" onslaught? Cost and convenience/pure laziness are huge drivers.

It's not always that simple, as HiMucker pointed out:

Fitness blogs and that are great ways to get tips on what brands and that are healthier than others.  One I got recently was on granola , which you would assume would be really healthy.  Loads of them are full of sugar.  Lizis Granola, stacked in the same shelf as the others is great healthy stuff.  Basically same calories but much less sugars as there is more nuts instead of dried fruits and sweeteners.  Maybe ones have other suggestions for healthy eating tips?

Tony mentions television there. Back in the 1970s, the Department of Agriculture used to use the Riordans to educate farmers on good farming practice. These fellas wouldn't read the kind of magazines that educate but everyone watched the Riordans. It was education by stealth. TV is too diverse now to have the same effect.

Someone mentioned about multinationals having a duty to deliver good stuff. No. Multinationals have a duty to make as much money as possible. That's all they do. To think of them in any other way is a little innocent, I think.

[ONeill]

Walking and cycling. Back in my youth they weren't healthy options. It was life.

Now people want sponsored to cycle.

[thejuice]

I live in England but thankfully im not obese. Approaching my mid thirties and still have 34 inch waistline but I can already see myself letting it all slide. In my old job where I had been working since I was 25 I was within walking distance from the office, then I moved further away, so I cycled.

But now my new job is an hours drive away. And as Im higher up the career ladder, I have more spending power but less free time as overtime is the norm, often getting up in darkness and getting home at night especially if there is a deadline looming. working 20 hours straight over several days isn't unusual for big jobs or important clients. On top of that there is more stress. When you are that knackered and stuck for time it's a struggle to prepare healthy food. It doesn't help that I pass 5 McDonalds on the way to work (there are also KFC + Burger Kings too).

I'm trying to fit a 30 minute jog in here and there as much as I can but my body just cries out for more sleep. I can really understand how you can let it slip once you start getting a more demanding job which usually goes hand in hand with a more demanding home life (kids, DIY, etc) so when you do ever get a moment the temptation is to reward yourself for your hard efforts with a few pints and a gourmet burger in Wetherspoons.

[ONeill]

I live in England but thankfully im not obese. Approaching my mid thirties and still have 34 inch waistline but I can already see myself letting it all slide. In my old job where I had been working since I was 25 I was within walking distance from the office, then I moved further away, so I cycled.

But now my new job is an hours drive away. And as Im higher up the career ladder, I have more spending power but less free time as overtime is the norm, often getting up in darkness and getting home at night especially if there is a deadline looming. working 20 hours straight over several days isn't unusual for big jobs or important clients. On top of that there is more stress. When you are that knackered and stuck for time it's a struggle to prepare healthy food. It doesn't help that I pass 5 McDonalds on the way to work (there are also KFC + Burger Kings too).

I'm trying to fit a 30 minute jog in here and there as much as I can but my body just cries out for more sleep. I can really understand how you can let it slip once you start getting a more demanding job which usually goes hand in hand with a more demanding home life (kids, DIY, etc) so when you do ever get a moment the temptation is to reward yourself for your hard efforts with a few pints and a gourmet burger in Wetherspoons.

That's just weak-mindedness bollocks.

[Tony Baloney]

I live in England but thankfully im not obese. Approaching my mid thirties and still have 34 inch waistline but I can already see myself letting it all slide. In my old job where I had been working since I was 25 I was within walking distance from the office, then I moved further away, so I cycled.

But now my new job is an hours drive away. And as Im higher up the career ladder, I have more spending power but less free time as overtime is the norm, often getting up in darkness and getting home at night especially if there is a deadline looming. working 20 hours straight over several days isn't unusual for big jobs or important clients. On top of that there is more stress. When you are that knackered and stuck for time it's a struggle to prepare healthy food. It doesn't help that I pass 5 McDonalds on the way to work (there are also KFC + Burger Kings too).

I'm trying to fit a 30 minute jog in here and there as much as I can but my body just cries out for more sleep. I can really understand how you can let it slip once you start getting a more demanding job which usually goes hand in hand with a more demanding home life (kids, DIY, etc) so when you do ever get a moment the temptation is to reward yourself for your hard efforts with a few pints and a gourmet burger in Wetherspoons.

That's just weak-mindedness bollocks.

I don't think a teacher gets to comment on posts like that.

[muppet]

I recently went to The States (work) for the first time in over a decade.

I reckon there are a lot less morbidly obese people there now than there used to be.