Perhaps you might agree with me.........

[everydayupsanddowns]

The other thing which strikes me as not immaterial, is that for years and years *most* of the advice about losing weight has been focussed on 'low fat' everything. Some references to low sugar, but just look at advertising... it basically all revolves around fat.

Meanwhile white bread and other high carb staples are ridiculously cheap. And much of the 'convenience food' generation who grew up in the 70's and 80's have lost any real connection with cooking and preparing food from scratch (there are always exceptions, of course).

And now we have a situation where high carb, high calorie diet meets sedentary lifestyle and hey presto 60% of the population are overweight.

Those that are overweight? Well if they believe the TV ads and media hype, they can carry on eating 200g of spaghetti with a sugar-laden sauce as long as they choose the 'light' pot of dolmio to microwave onto it.

*sigh*

 

[HelenM]

I really notice the amount of eating that seems to go on in the UK now.
In every high street there's a (well several) coffee places. They don't just serve coffee, but giant calorific monster drinks, and why not have an enormous muffin to go with that? A few steps up the road there will be KFC with a Md Ds opposite . Don't fancy that well how about a 12 inch sub, a bowl of noodles or a plate of pasta? Pubs are now open all dau selling all day breakfasts, themed lunches and if you're still hungry fish and chips in the afternoon.
You can't get away from the temptation to eat.

If you want to eat out in my nearest town Villefranche de Rouergue, you'll have to do it between 12 and 2pm or 7. 30 to 9pm In a bar you can have a drink, either alcoholic or a coffee ( small and expresso or a bit bigger with some milk) maybe a croissant if it's early morning. Even the 2 takeaway pizza places are only open at meal times.... Oh and in winter you might find that you have to search to find an open resturant on a Sunday evening.
You could of course go to Mc Ds but you'll have to drive to the very outskirts of town to find it!

 

[lucy123]

This started provoking thoughts Hazel.

I am not sure we ever ate really healthy as kids. We always ate cereal for breakfast (mainly cornflakes) and we always had sandwiches and a bag of crisps for lunch or a school dinner, followed by yet another dinner in the evening when we got home, often with mash and gravy and a slice of bread to mop up (eek), and always a biscuit and glass of milk for bed. We were stick thin and had oodles of energy. My parents were slim too.

I think what changed was we never used to eat snacks (the ocasional sweets bought with pocket money) and we certainly hardly ever touched a takeaway - maybe a fish and chip suffer the odd time.

We walked everywhere - even the walk to school and back was some hike!

So sometimes I wonder if all this healthy low fat, low salt etc stuff is required and should we not go back to 3 hearty dinners and stay active.

Memories now of mums cooking mmmmmmm🙂

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

...and we certainly hardly ever touched a takeaway - maybe a fish and chip suffer the odd time

Ha ha! A brilliant D-based Freudian slip there Lucy!

 

[Hazel]

Wow - thanks everyone - a thought provoking thread, with many interesting points.

 

[MeanMom]

In my humble opinion...

Whilst I agree with a lot of the points made here and I have no wish to offend anyone - it puzzles me that we middle aged people are the ones with the so called better life style in our youth but we are still (some anyway) struggling with our weight now. We apparently were brought up to know better and taught to cook at school and home but we still regard a cream cake as a wonderful treat whereas my daughter recently listed 'salad' as one of her favourite foods and has never had a cream cake in her life. My Mum is in her late 70's and if I go out with her shopping always has to stop for coffee and cake mid afternoon and also always buys cake for 'pudding' when she comes to visit.
Personally I believe the problem is more peoples attitude to food and their emotions not education ( I generalise of course) - to blame the lifestyle of the current teens for their parents obesity seems very strange to me.

 

[Northerner]

Personally I believe the problem is more peoples attitude to food and their emotions not education ( I generalise of course) - to blame the lifestyle of the current teens for their parents obesity seems very strange to me.

I think that the problem is that people are becoming fatter, younger, which is where most of the points in the thread are seeking to find possible clues to, and also that this isn't something that just affects today's children and young people, but their parents too most of whom are quite young to me - I could quite easily be a grandparent at my age. My childhood was late 50s and the 1960s. 🙂 But I do take your points and it is a complex issue! 🙂

 

[Catwoman76]

Whilst I agree with a lot of the points made here and I have no wish to offend anyone - it puzzles me that we middle aged people are the ones with the so called better life style in our youth but we are still (some anyway) struggling with our weight now. We apparently were brought up to know better and taught to cook at school and home but we still regard a cream cake as a wonderful treat whereas my daughter recently listed 'salad' as one of her favourite foods and has never had a cream cake in her life. My Mum is in her late 70's and if I go out with her shopping always has to stop for coffee and cake mid afternoon and also always buys cake for 'pudding' when she comes to visit.
Personally I believe the problem is more peoples attitude to food and their emotions not education ( I generalise of course) - to blame the lifestyle of the current teens for their parents obesity seems very strange to me.

It's a lifestyle of eating in moderation and exercise, even if it is just getting off a stop earlier on the bus. As for treats, a cake(not cream) or a couple of lovely biscuits, or a couple of liqourice/mint toffee's is a big treat for me. I eat salads, fruit and veg alot, and I love yogurts. It is alot to do with burning off those calories( if we are mobile, as I know many poeople aren't) and being sensible. As we get older it is harder to shift the weight, I am now about 9 1/2 stones whereas, 10 to 15years ago I was always around 8 1/2 stone.
If you eat too much, don't do any exercise, then people will pay the price of that lifestyle, with medical conditions. A treat, now and then, is wonderful, and that's what it should be, not a way of life as it seems to be for millions of people nowadays Sheena
I thought I would add that maybe, just maybe, if we got those younger families out walking, seeing the ouside, the birds, small mammals, the parks and riversides. taking up cycling etc then a few of them may appreciate what is really like outside and actually enjoy the freedom and fresh air of being out and about, and not just within their four walls, stuck to a screen of something electrical and ordering a takeaway.

 

[grandma]

dint think the youth of today understand what helthy eating is my son likes cooking but his exwife carnt cook didend even know how to cook a turnup at the first xmas we went to there house and the grandkids when they lived with us loved all the home cooked meals we had but now they are back with there mam, said to the youngest grandson hows your mam doing with the cooking now then and he said great we have a new chip shop we go to now.
Said nothing well what do you say to that.
Years a go when we forsterd Dylan he had been with us for a few months and sent our son to the chip shop when he came back Dylan was like a mad man with the chips we had just never thought that he might me missing them as we dont eat them and he was like a junky with withdraw simtoms never thought of chips on the same way agen.

 

[grufflybear]

I dare say many who ferry their children to school would shoot me down in flames for adding that I used to walk to school from the age of 5 (that was when I first went to school) it took about 15 minutes each way and I came home for my lunch... so I walked an hour a day.. in addition to which I ran about at play breaks so even if I was never exactly sports orientated I stayed a stick thin child and stayed that way until I reached the dread spreading years after 40 ish. When I went on to secondary education I had to travel on the bus but there was a 10 to 15 minute walk at each end and I was usually carrying a briefcase packed with books, a violin in its case and on some days additionally had to carry a bag with sports kit - we all looked like little laden camels lugging it about. Children used to get exercise just from life, there wasn't the need to plan it so much we just did it anyway.

I suppose you could argue that it didn't save me from diabetes but at least it was a good start and my later middle aged spread was my own fault.

It isn't difficult to make quite small adjustments and reap significant benefits.

 

[Steff]

Im making sure while my son is young he has the best diet i can give him as i dont want him to turn out like me,unfortunetly i was over indulged as a child I was from a broken home and my fathers way of spoiling me was not just with money but with feeding me whatever and whenever i wanted.I m happy to say I picked up on none of that when I became a mother and i know this without a doubt my son has an excellent diet, he has a very balanced diet,he walks to school he is in the school football club and he goes to morning sports every morning at 8am till the bell goes for school and im happy with that.He does sit at his xbox some of the time he is at home and not school but we limit that and he had strict guidelines on how long.I have to say if i sat about on the sofa munching on food 24/7 i dare say my son would pick up on that really quick, but his father and i are both active now and just pray we enstill it into our son to keep fit and healthy throughout his life

 

[FM001]

Im making sure while my son is young he has the best diet i can give him as i dont want him to turn out like me,unfortunetly i was over indulged as a child I was from a broken home and my fathers way of spoiling me was not just with money but with feeding me whatever and whenever i wanted.I m happy to say I picked up on none of that when I became a mother and i know this without a doubt my son has an excellent diet, he has a very balanced diet,he walks to school he is in the school football club and he goes to morning sports every morning at 8am till the bell goes for school and im happy with that.He does sit at his xbox some of the time he is at home and not school but we limit that and he had strict guidelines on how long.I have to say if i sat about on the sofa munching on food 24/7 i dare say my son would pick up on that really quick, but his father and i are both active now and just pray we enstill it into our son to keep fit and healthy throughout his life

Sounds like a good balance, we always encouraged our kids to be sporty when they were younger and kept treats to a minimum, teach them good eating habits when they are young and hopefully they'll follow this through in adult life, no guarantees mind.

 

[Steff]

Sounds like a good balance, we always encouraged our kids to be sporty when they were younger and kept treats to a minimum, teach them good eating habits when they are young and hopefully they'll follow this through in adult life, no guarantees mind.

I dread the day I lose control of what my son eats, but saying that if I have given him the right diet while he is living with me i cant see why it would not continue into his adult life.

 

[FM001]

but saying that if I have given him the right diet while he is living with me i cant see why it would not continue into his adult life.

That is the hope we have🙂

 

[trophywench]

Teenagers are a different breed, I mean our grandson has completely hollow legs and literally drinks about a gallon of milk a week as well as any food (proper or junk) he can get his hands on. He would prefer to have about 5 proper meals a day! However he is still growing (conservative est that he has another 4 inches to go yet) and plays U16 rugger for the town (they live in Rugby!) and is in an adult cricket side. Doesn't carry fat, and what covers his bones is becoming muscle more with every week that passes.

Both sexes learn to cook at their school but they know most of what they do there anyway because daughter has always let/made them help and she is a trained chef. Wish someone had taught me to chop an onion 'like that' in my formative years!

They crux of it for him will be recognising when his body isn't in that mode any more. Or going to college/Uni and stopping exercising - however Loughborough and PE is at the top of the list, although he also quite fancies Ancient History. (how the hell did a mix like that happen? in the same brain?)

We've all told him we don't mind which - just as long as he bears in mind he needs to ensure he can earn sufficient in future to keep us all in clover, like we've always kept him ...