The obesity crisis is caused by availability of fatty food, not lack of will power

[Northerner]

The obesity crisis is partly caused by the wide availability of unhealthy snacks and not a lack of self-control, a leading health expert has argued.

Environmental factors as well as the influence of an individual’s genes make it harder for some people to maintain a healthy bodyweight than others, according to Susan Jebb, professor of diet and population health at the University of Oxford.

Speaking prior to her appearance at the The Times Cheltenham Science Festival this summer, Professor Jebb, the senior obesity adviser to Public Health England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, said that the obesity crisis cannot be pinned to a “national collapse in willpower”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...isis-says-leading-health-expert-a6975126.html

A shame the headline highlights 'fatty' food, rather than the real problem which is 'unhealthy' food 🙄

 

[trophywench]

.... and thus at the end of the War when I was born and the only 'takeaway' food available was from a chip shop, that IS obviously why absolutely EVERYBODY - men, women, children of all ages and whether they'd just been demobbed or not - were ALL so fat.

 

[robert@fm]

One thing that is mind-boggling about the "dietary fat is evil" myth is that it has been known for a long time that an excessively lean diet is dangerous — if one tries to live exclusively on rabbit, for instance. Indeed, the phenomenon is actually called "rabbit starvation".

 

[Ljc]

I as born in the early fifties. It was the norm or at least in my family it was, to use lard for cooking ie roasts and frying
If we had chops, mash and veg, then some of the fat was went over our mashed potatoes ,yum.
Then their was dripping, personally I didn't like the jelly, so had the fatty part on bread and marg instead 😱
We had a lot of fried food and suet puds . Sunday's we had a cooked breakfast, bacon, eggs, maybe tomatoes and sometimes a sausage but we always had fried bread all cooked in lard.

 

[Northerner]

When I was a kid there was nothing better on a hot summer's day than a tall glass of warm, refreshing lard 🙂 What? Just my family, then? 😉

One of my favourites from the sweetshop was a packet of 'kayli' - basically coloured sugar that you dipped into and licked off your finger 😱 Bread and dripping a favourite, home-made chips a treat. In the early-1960s there was porbably only one or two children in each class that were overweight, probably due to genetic or other factors, and in line with society as a whole.

 

[trophywench]

One of my favourites from the sweetshop was a packet of 'kayli' - basically coloured sugar that you dipped into and licked off your finger 😱 Bread and dripping a favourite, home-made chips a treat. In the early-1960s there was porbably only one or two children in each class that were overweight, probably due to genetic or other factors, and in line with society as a whole.

Finger? No no! Wrong! You didn't have kayli unless you had a penny - a haporth of kayli and a hardcore liquorice (also cost a ha'penny) stick to suck and dip into bag, repeat .... lasted AGES!

I rather think Alan that we all took a damn sight more exercise in those days - 15 minute walk to school, four times a day, for starters and that was without playtimes AM & PM, PE lessons twice a week at least, lunchtimes, evenings and weekends. 20 mins walk each way to the library at least twice a week and a HUGE flight of steps up to the Children's library on the 3rd floor, and several hours walking and helping to carry shopping with mom. If she needed to pay the electricity bill that day, even longer.

And - we hadn't, sort of, taken any exercise particularly other than the couple of PE classes, had we ?

 

[Ljc]

Finger? No no! Wrong! You didn't have kayli unless you had a penny - a haporth of kayli and a hardcore liquorice (also cost a ha'penny) stick to suck and dip into bag, repeat .... lasted AGES!

I rather think Alan that we all took a damn sight more exercise in those days - 15 minute walk to school, four times a day, for starters and that was without playtimes AM & PM, PE lessons twice a week at least, lunchtimes, evenings and weekends. 20 mins walk each way to the library at least twice a week and a HUGE flight of steps up to the Children's library on the 3rd floor, and several hours walking and helping to carry shopping with mom. If she needed to pay the electricity bill that day, even longer.

And - we hadn't, sort of, taken any exercise particularly other than the couple of PE classes, had we ?

Oh yes we walked everywhere, and once my chores were done I was off out playing with my mates , running around, skating, skipping, cycling and when much younger playing Cowboys and injuns , yes I was a tomboy 🙂

 

[HOBIE]

Oh yes we walked everywhere, and once my chores were done I was off out playing with my mates , running around, skating, skipping, cycling and when much younger playing Cowboys and injuns , yes I was a tomboy 🙂

Totally agree. People wont walk 6ft to the paper shop if they can help it/ There cars are nearly in the shop 😱

 

[Annette]

I rather think Alan that we all took a damn sight more exercise in those days

When we were kids, we had to get the bus to school. (2p. Sheffield pre-privatisation ). But we (my 2 older siblings and I) discovered we could actually walk there in the same amount of time (cos we didnt have to make stops and could go up the ginnels), and spend our 2ps on sweets. Which was fine, cos I was already D by that time, and my 2p fudge bar meant I got to school without going hypo. We did it for years, never quite sure if my Mum knew (I'm fairly sure she did, but didnt mind cos we were being active!)

 

[Northerner]

Biggest illustration for me of how things have changed regarding exercise for kids is the fact that traffic is practically gridlocked around schooltime these days, but almost disappears during school holidays 😱 I'm guessing there's a link! I do see some kids walking to school, and for some I know it's quite a hike with a big hill, so well done to them 🙂 My neighbour drives his kids everywhere, no matter how short the distance - not a good life lesson. They got bikes one year - I saw them go out on them once. They have a dog, I've seen it being walked maybe a dozen times in two years - certainly not a daily walk like I see so many other dog owners doing. They're all overweight.

 

[Lynn Davies]

Speaking of fat - one of our weekly meals when growing up was bacon, cabbage and potatoes. The bacon what fried and the resulting fat in the bottom of the pan was poured over the tates and cabbage - a very yummmmmm meal.

I have a winter white cabbage and lots of bacon - guess what we are having for lunch? Sans tates though 🙄