FIRETHORN1 58 #1 Posted October 21, 2019 There's been a lot of articles in the press recently pointing out that obesity - particularly among children - is a growing problem in the UK and is putting a huge strain on the NHS. I agree that you see a hell of a lot more fatter people, especially kids, than we ever saw when I was growing up in the '60's, but there seems to be a view that there's a link between poverty and obesity - because "poor people can't afford to eat healthily or to feed their children healthy foods". I don't think that this is true at all. I think that one of the biggest contributors towards obesity is that kids don't run around as much as we did when we were kids - they don't play out as much, they don't walk to school, but I don't agree that people on low incomes can't afford to eat healthy food. Quite the contrary - I think it can actually be cheaper to eat healthily than to eat takeaway junk food and fatty, sugary "ready meals". Vegetables can be very cheap - especially if you buy "wonky" veg from supermarkets. Tinned and frozen veg, like tinned tomatoes and baked beans and big bags of frozen veg are cheap too. Pulses and grains, flour, rice, pasta, wholemeal bread and pitta breads are also quite cheap - and if you want to add meat and fish to meals, then low-fat mince and tinned fish, like pilchards and sardines, go a long way when mixed with plenty of veg, herbs, etc. There's any number and varieties of healthy soups, stews, risottos, curries, pies, sandwiches, etc that can be made from the above ingredients. I reckon we get fat because we're lazy - too lazy to exercise much or to shop and cook properly - not because we're on low incomes! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
ANGELFIRE1 10 #2 Posted October 21, 2019 38 minutes ago, FIRETHORN1 said: There's been a lot of articles in the press recently pointing out that obesity - particularly among children - is a growing problem in the UK and is putting a huge strain on the NHS. I agree that you see a hell of a lot more fatter people, especially kids, than we ever saw when I was growing up in the '60's, but there seems to be a view that there's a link between poverty and obesity - because "poor people can't afford to eat healthily or to feed their children healthy foods". I don't think that this is true at all. I think that one of the biggest contributors towards obesity is that kids don't run around as much as we did when we were kids - they don't play out as much, they don't walk to school, but I don't agree that people on low incomes can't afford to eat healthy food. Quite the contrary - I think it can actually be cheaper to eat healthily than to eat takeaway junk food and fatty, sugary "ready meals". Vegetables can be very cheap - especially if you buy "wonky" veg from supermarkets. Tinned and frozen veg, like tinned tomatoes and baked beans and big bags of frozen veg are cheap too. Pulses and grains, flour, rice, pasta, wholemeal bread and pitta breads are also quite cheap - and if you want to add meat and fish to meals, then low-fat mince and tinned fish, like pilchards and sardines, go a long way when mixed with plenty of veg, herbs, etc. There's any number and varieties of healthy soups, stews, risottos, curries, pies, sandwiches, etc that can be made from the above ingredients. I reckon we get fat because we're lazy - too lazy to exercise much or to shop and cook properly - not because we're on low incomes! The last line says it all really. Angel1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Mister Gee 823 #3 Posted October 21, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, FIRETHORN1 said: There's been a lot of articles in the press recently pointing out that obesity - particularly among children - is a growing problem in the UK and is putting a huge strain on the NHS. I agree that you see a hell of a lot more fatter people, especially kids, than we ever saw when I was growing up in the '60's, but there seems to be a view that there's a link between poverty and obesity - because "poor people can't afford to eat healthily or to feed their children healthy foods". I don't think that this is true at all. I think that one of the biggest contributors towards obesity is that kids don't run around as much as we did when we were kids - they don't play out as much, they don't walk to school, but I don't agree that people on low incomes can't afford to eat healthy food. Quite the contrary - I think it can actually be cheaper to eat healthily than to eat takeaway junk food and fatty, sugary "ready meals". Vegetables can be very cheap - especially if you buy "wonky" veg from supermarkets. Tinned and frozen veg, like tinned tomatoes and baked beans and big bags of frozen veg are cheap too. Pulses and grains, flour, rice, pasta, wholemeal bread and pitta breads are also quite cheap - and if you want to add meat and fish to meals, then low-fat mince and tinned fish, like pilchards and sardines, go a long way when mixed with plenty of veg, herbs, etc. There's any number and varieties of healthy soups, stews, risottos, curries, pies, sandwiches, etc that can be made from the above ingredients. I reckon we get fat because we're lazy - too lazy to exercise much or to shop and cook properly - not because we're on low incomes! Could you provide us with some then please? Edited October 21, 2019 by Mister Gee Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
El Cid 220 #4 Posted October 21, 2019 2 hours ago, FIRETHORN1 said: I reckon we get fat because we're lazy - too lazy to exercise much or to shop and cook properly - not because we're on low incomes! Are kids lazy? They are at the start of their lives, they like to run around, so why more fat kids? Maybe its the 'poor' parents that are lazy? Giving their kids convenience food and not making sure that their kids exercise. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Halibut 12 #5 Posted October 22, 2019 10 hours ago, FIRETHORN1 said: There's been a lot of articles in the press recently pointing out that obesity - particularly among children - is a growing problem in the UK and is putting a huge strain on the NHS. I agree that you see a hell of a lot more fatter people, especially kids, than we ever saw when I was growing up in the '60's, but there seems to be a view that there's a link between poverty and obesity - because "poor people can't afford to eat healthily or to feed their children healthy foods". I don't think that this is true at all. I think that one of the biggest contributors towards obesity is that kids don't run around as much as we did when we were kids - they don't play out as much, they don't walk to school, but I don't agree that people on low incomes can't afford to eat healthy food. Quite the contrary - I think it can actually be cheaper to eat healthily than to eat takeaway junk food and fatty, sugary "ready meals". Vegetables can be very cheap - especially if you buy "wonky" veg from supermarkets. Tinned and frozen veg, like tinned tomatoes and baked beans and big bags of frozen veg are cheap too. Pulses and grains, flour, rice, pasta, wholemeal bread and pitta breads are also quite cheap - and if you want to add meat and fish to meals, then low-fat mince and tinned fish, like pilchards and sardines, go a long way when mixed with plenty of veg, herbs, etc. There's any number and varieties of healthy soups, stews, risottos, curries, pies, sandwiches, etc that can be made from the above ingredients. I reckon we get fat because we're lazy - too lazy to exercise much or to shop and cook properly - not because we're on low incomes! Are you a scientist, or just a reader of tabloid newspapers? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Branyy 10 #6 Posted October 22, 2019 2 hours ago, Halibut said: Are you a scientist, or just a reader of tabloid newspapers? Oh, you want some science? Here you go, study from US, quite recent: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-018-0201-x Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
alchresearch 214 #7 Posted October 22, 2019 11 hours ago, Mister Gee said: Could you provide us with some then please? Your Google broke? "obesity children" brought up plenty of recent news stories. One in three Norfolk children finishing primary school 'unhealthily overweight' https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/health/nhs-digital-says-one-third-norfolk-children-overweight-by-year-six-1-6334013 SEVERE OBESITY AMONG CHILDREN AGED 10 TO 11 HITS RECORD HIGH https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/obesity-children-severe-primary-school-overweight-public-health-england-a9151526.html Childhood Obesity Is Rising 'Shockingly Fast' — Even In Poor Countries https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/10/17/770905500/childhood-obesity-is-rising-shockingly-fast-even-in-poor-countries?t=1571735159907 Severe obesity among children aged 10 to 11 at record high https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/oct/10/severe-obesity-among-children-aged-10-to-11-record-high-england Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Ms Macbeth 75 #8 Posted October 22, 2019 Surely its a combination of lots of factors. Lack of knowledge of how to cook fresh food, accessibility to cheap fast food and ready meals, allowing children too many sugary foods and drinks (tooth decay in children is also worrying), allied with lack of exercise won't help children develop healthy lifestyles. Although I think modern technology is fantastic, it can be too easy to allow unlimited use. Children are kept occupied, and it can often be a battle to get them to do other things. Some schools have signed up to the Daily Mile which I think is a great idea, especially where there's a lack of children's play areas or children in homes without gardens https://thedailymile.co.uk/for-schools/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Annie Bynnol 612 #9 Posted October 22, 2019 BBC Radio 4 at 16 00 this afternoon Born in Bradford reports on the largest medical study ever attempted on health and lifestyles. Today's programme focuses on Type II diabetes in children and the links with obesity, also tooth decay. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
ads36 219 #10 Posted October 22, 2019 (edited) humans are lazy. Exercise used to be built into our lives, it was either our job, or transport, or both. we've been very clever, and invented cars, then we built our towns and cities and lives around them. Cars have made our streets more dangerous, who'd let their kids cycle to school? Kids get driven everywhere. Car parks take up huge amounts of space, meaning the distance between destinations has increased. making walking less practical. so we walk less. Exercise is now something that you have to choose to do. you have to find time, and make it happen. so it doesn't. The solution : more walking and cycling for transport, less driving. Your teenager wants to visit a friend, they live 3 miles away. right now, that's a drive. 4 journeys in fact, to drop them off, and pick them up. Or, it's an easy 20mins by bike. We've built-in the driving option as the default. how do we make this happen? : cycle routes, / low traffic neighbourhoods* / school streets, etc. not only is this good for our health, but it's also a money saver : less money spent mitigating health problems caused by inactivity, less money spent desperately trying to accommodate a growing number of cars in a finite space. (*filters, bollards, etc. that turn rat-runs into quiet cul-de-sacs) Edited October 22, 2019 by ads36 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
geared 318 #11 Posted October 22, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Ms Macbeth said: Surely its a combination of lots of factors. Lack of knowledge of how to cook fresh food, accessibility to cheap fast food and ready meals, allowing children too many sugary foods and drinks, allied with lack of exercise won't help children develop healthy lifestyles. But which of those are directly linked with poverty? Perhaps at a push accessibility to fast food and ready meals but even then I can't think of many places where fruit and veg aren't also available in the same area. As @FIRETHORN1 said, it's more down to lazyness than anything. I find it very hard to believe that in this day and age people don't know the basics of a healthy diet, it's just not possible. Much more likely is that they have been taught, but chose to ignore or couldn't be bothered to listen. The same goes for cooking a healthy meal, it's not rocket science and it's there is an absolute mountain of information available on how and what to do, if people aren't doing it then it's down to choice. No-one gets fat by accident. Edited October 22, 2019 by geared Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
apelike 10 #12 Posted October 22, 2019 16 minutes ago, geared said: No-one gets fat by accident. An extremely good slogan! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...