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Obese Britons don’t think they have a weight problem

(120 posts)

12…4

  1. crowriver
    Member

    Obese Britons don’t think they have a weight problem, report finds

    Number of those accepting that they are very overweight has dropped, raising fears that key health messages will be ignored.

    Fewer than one in 10 people who are obese would ever describe themselves as such, according to research showing that most people with a weight problem seriously underestimate it.

    Being overweight and obese have become so common that perceptions have shifted, suggest the authors of a paper in the journal BMJ Open. Many obese people who are in danger of health problems associated with their weight, including heart attacks, stroke, cancer and diabetes, think their weight is normal or only slightly too much.

    http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/14/obese-britons-dont-think-they-have-weight-problem

    Posted 9 years ago #

  2. slowcoach
    Member

    Some people complained about a "war on car-drivers" without recognising how much damage driving (or being driven) is doing to them.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  3. CycleCommute.CC
    Member

    "In 2007, only 13% of women and 4% of men considered themselves to be obese, and in 2012 that dropped to 11% and 7%"

    Do they have the figures right here because in my mind 7% is not a drop from 4%?

    Posted 9 years ago #

  4. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Mate of mine lived the yeah, yeah, yeah lifestyle until his doctor sat him down and told him he was morbidly obese. He's a man mountain, huge frame so he carried the weight well, but when the link was made with his impending death he took action.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  5. Instography
    Member

    That's hardly surprising, is it? Here, fatty, fancy wearing this label that is used to describe people routinely derided as self-hating, worthless gluttons, incapable of even a modicum of self-control? No? Why not?

    I suspect people who are overweight know very well that they are overweight and if they are substantially overweight, they know that too. No reason to rush to wear the badge just to keep some sanctimonious and judgemental researcher happy.

    Because it looks to me like the researchers made a fundamental methodological error in having the questions administered by an interviewer rather than use a self-completion approach. We know that people will often simply lie to interviewers when they're asked questions about sensitive topics. And it doesn't take a genius to work out that someone who is obese might recognise that but be reluctant to articulate it.

    Their questions show no understanding or empathy. You could easily design questions that would allow people to comfortably describe their perception of their weight. This is rubbish.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  6. ARobComp
    Member

    IWRATS - I think that's the thing. Most people don't have that conversation soon enough, and perhaps all their friends are similar sizes.

    Being in London over the last few days - particularly in east london - and travelling by train more than anything else I noticed that in general the larger people were together more often than not.

    There are also a significant number of very overweight people that I see at my Gym every time I go. One wonders whether they feel that because they do their 30 mins swim (read 20 mins in jacuzzi) they are "taking action"

    Posted 9 years ago #

  7. Instography
    Member

    See, even when they go to the gym no one takes them seriously.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  8. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    The sedentary office workers around me recently bought and ate iced cakes in support of a charity dedicated to fighting cardiac disease.

    There is wilfull blindness around this issue. I suspect there is a class element to it as well. I've been particularly struck by the shapes of the female nursing staff who visit one of my neighbours several times a day. They are running round multiple clients, but all of them are clearly overweight. The issue is complex and political, and I agree that labelling people will not be helpful, despite the fact that I am deeply prejudiced against the fat. That prejudice is and should be my problem, not theirs.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  9. Instography
    Member

    When my mum was a nurse, there was running joke that the uniforms came with generous seams because they would inevitably need to be let out as the nurses gained weight. There were three main factors behind this:

    1. Between periods of intense work, long periods of sitting around.
    2. Piles of chocolate sitting around. People think they're being nice giving chocolate to the nurses for tending their relative
    3. Weird meal times, crap food in the canteen and the physiological disruption caused by shift patterns, especially night shifts (which also made 1 and 2 worse).

    At some point someone will twig that when a phenomenon reaches 60% or more of the population it has ceased to be a problem of individual restraint and become a societal problem. Individual weight is a reflection of how society is structured to create obesity. It doesn't matter how many people do that "well, I lost some weight" or "I've been the same weight since I was a child". This sort of anti-science has the same validity as the longevity of the individual who smoked 90 a day. When society is organised to promote weight gain, we should stop being surprised when people get fat.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  10. Charlethepar
    Member

    Well, I enjoy my occasional trips to shopping malls, as they make me feel tremendously thin, when I am in fact well over ideal weight.

    I can understand, therfore, how they make the fat folk feel that their condition is entirely normal.

    What amazes me is that the degree of coorelation between the spread of car ownership and the spread of people's waists doesn't dominate the public debate. I don't think people in the 50s or 70s thought hard about their food, or spent hours in the gym. They just walked and cycled places as a matter of course.

    Fat kids who are driven to school will remain fat kids, regardless of an hour or two of school sport and a few lectures about healthy diet.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  11. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Without wanting to get all Hovis, when I was at school you'd get ripped to shreds if your mum drove you to the gate. Possibly literaly.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  12. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I don't think people in the 50s or 70s thought hard about their food, or spent hours in the gym.

    There were also a lot more people doing hard physical graft for a living rather than sitting on their rear in a comfy chair in the pleasant ambiance of an office, tapping away at a keyboard (like I do).

    Posted 9 years ago #

  13. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    My mum's dad was a stoker on the Aberdeen-London train for many years and retained both the forearms and the diet particular to that trade all his life. As a driver on the Intercity trains, this made him portly.

    I suspect quite a few Scots have inherited diets from a bygone age of outdoor hard labour.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  14. 559
    Member

    Recall up to about twenty years ago in clothes shops sizes were S, M, L.
    then S,M, L , XL
    now M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL

    Posted 9 years ago #

  15. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @559

    The top I cycled in in today has the following sizes on the label;

    Eur......M
    Japan..L
    Brazil...M
    USA.....S

    Posted 9 years ago #

  16. crowriver
    Member

    I don't think people in the 50s or 70s thought hard about their food, or spent hours in the gym.

    There were also a lot more people doing hard physical graft for a living rather than sitting on their rear in a comfy chair in the pleasant ambiance of an office, tapping away at a keyboard (like I do).

    I suspect quite a few Scots have inherited diets from a bygone age of outdoor hard labour.

    All of the above, plus the majority of adults, plus most kids above 12 or so, were chuffing away on tobacco products every few minutes. As well as being highly addictive, nicotine is an appetite suppressant.

    But yeah, diet has changed. No Mickey D's or KFC in the UK in the 1970s. No Dunkin' Dodgems or Kripsy Krack. People did not come home and eat ready made pizza, ready meals, etc. for dinner. Even the humble potato crisp did not come in the huge packets you can pick up now for one person ("grab bags").

    Most of us are eating a LOT more carbs, fat and salt than we were, without knowing it. Not eating home cooked meals as much (heating a pie up in the microwave doesn't count). Also doing a lot less physical activity, in the main.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  17. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    I'm convinced that banning mechanical diggers and delivery vehicles from city centres would simultaneously tackle;

    * Obesity
    * Unemployment
    * Inequality
    * Air quality, and
    * Traffic congestion

    Everything delivered by cargo bike, all holes dug with spades. What's not to like? (Unless you're an oil baron.)

    Posted 9 years ago #

  18. PS
    Member

    @iwrats Another reason for the council to replace the majority of its vans with cargo bikes. "Look, it's for your own good." Plus, council workers might finally learn how best to put cycle facilities in once they're actually riding them themselves.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  19. chdot
    Admin

    No-one has mentioned alcohol.

    More relaxed opening hours, more pleasant pubs, silly cheap supermarket deals - and generally way cheaper than it used to be. (Bit like motoring...)

    Posted 9 years ago #

  20. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @chdot

    Good point.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  21. Mandopicker101
    Member

    Last weekend I was despatched to a local M&S to collect some food shopping. Asked to pick up something for dinner, I looked at some of the ready meals...

    A macaroni cheese for one (not a *huge* portion) offered 98% of an adult's saturated fat intake and something like 700 calories. Add garlic bread and chips to hit a nice round 1000.

    OK, macaroni cheese isn't exactly health food even when you make it at home. Point is though that cheap food that's quick to make is surely a major causation of the health problems our age faces. When many of us are time/cash poor it's very easy to just amble into a supermarket and walk out laden with cut-price carbs.

    In my uninformed opinion...I doubt there's a quick fix. Shoving freebie fruit at primary children is a step forwards, but its not going to suddenly change the fact that the household might have next to nowt to live on - 'value sausages' and 'bargain chips' time.

    Long-term re-education of the population on diet and exercise, application of pressure on major food retailers to do something about selling crap food dirt cheap and a widespread economic improvement (you can eat better if you've got a job paying decent money)might probably play a part in turning things around in a sustainable way. As I said, my opinion is rather uninformed...

    Posted 9 years ago #

  22. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Sounds tricky. Let's leave it to the invisible hand of market forces and the invisible scythe of natural selection?

    Posted 9 years ago #

  23. crowriver
    Member

    No-one has mentioned alcohol.

    People in this country (Scotland. UK) have always liked a drink.

    I do recall in the 1970s and 1980s that adults were drinking really quite a lot. In pubs, at parties, at home (the era of Home Brew beer and wine).

    Alcohol may be cheaper and more available to purchase as a convenience product, but it's always been there.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  24. ARobComp
    Member

    Alcohol is bloomin expensive. As someone who mainly drinks at bars and pubs and rarely at home - it's crazy expensive.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  25. Nelly
    Member

    "Alcohol is bloomin expensive. As someone who mainly drinks at bars and pubs and rarely at home - it's crazy expensive"

    Well, the alcohol itself isnt expensive, its the markup.

    I have a mate in the food wholesale business, and he says it would amaze people how cheap food and drink actually is - but he (like everyone along the chain) takes a huge markup.

    I am going out tonight and expect to pay £4.50 for a pint of shoddy cooking lager - while tapping this out I see the bottles of Spitfire I bought in sainsburys for £1 per bottle...........

    Posted 9 years ago #

  26. chdot
    Admin

    http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn124.pdf

    Posted 9 years ago #

  27. PS
    Member

    Don't forget that there are plenty of overheads to cover in the licensed booze trade - it's not just mark-up, whilst Sainsburys have no doubt achieved some sort of cut-throat deal with Shepherd Neame...

    Booze is possibly a contributing factor, but I have vague memories of plenty of boozy adults in the 70s. Also, I'd hope that booze doesn't explain the increased weightiness of the under 16s...

    I'd put the bulk of the blame at the door of heavily sugared drinks - a frankly astonishing number of people will think nothing of having 3 cans of coke or a litre of Irn Bru a day.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  28. Nelly
    Member

    One of our number last night (smashing result for Scotland by the way!) was drinking "kobbaberg" cider. I had a sniff and it smelt horrifically sugary - the type of drink that coats your teeth.

    Thankfully my son only drinks water.

    Large kids are one I can't figure out, my son would eat chocolate until he was sick (if allowed) but is like a rake. Almost all his diet is home made food though, no microwave pizzas etc. I think many large people suffer from portion control and calorie laden pre packed food.

    Don't think labeling as obese helps, but people need education about calorie intake.

    Sure I would be fat if I didnt cycle, so exercise also important.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  29. Kenny
    Member

    I suspect people who are overweight know very well that they are overweight and if they are substantially overweight, they know that too

    Based on my life experiences, I don't agree.

    Throughout my life, I've always been made to feel ashamed of my size. I'm of average height, and I have a BMI of 21. Yet despite this, many people (who, let's say, have a BMI of much higher values) make out I am the one who is "in the wrong" and thus implicitly they are the right size / weight.

    It's taken me until this year (I'm 41) to finally accept that these people are wrong, and that my size is actually perfectly ok.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  30. Min
    Member

    Really it is all of the above and more. I don't think it can be boiled down to one thing be it sugar, fat or whatever.

    No-one in authority is prepared to really stand up and say what the problem really is as there is too much money in it. The problem of too little exercise is "fixed" by encouraging people to go to the gym. Getting them to move about in daily life is just not going to happen as we know all too well.

    Same with food, processed food is the real problem and not just one constituent be it salt, fat or sugar. The fact is our diets have changed very drastically over the last few decades and many of the foods that are sold to us as "healthy" are no such thing. The food companies are brilliant at leaping on whatever health bandwagon is in vogue this week and turning it to their advantage. The shelves are groaning with "low fat" (high sugar) yoghurts etc cholesterol lowering (sugar) drinks, healthy margarine (what the hell is that stuff anyway?) It isn't food.

    The latest thing seems to be that people have finally figured out that messing with the *fat in food is a bad thing and that we are all short of omega 3 fats, such as those found in fish. The other day I noticed that fish fingers are now being sold as "omega 3 fish fingers". The rush for omega 3 has meant that fish fingers can now be sold as a health food. No. If you want omega 3 from fish, you get a fish and grill it, you don't buy it in a packet mixed with all sorts of crap and covered with breadcrumbs. So people are duped into believing they are eating healthily even when they are not. And if you still need convincing of the power of the food industry, remember that these are the companies that persuaded generations of women that formula milk is better than their own.

    Now consider how many billions of pounds these companies are worth. What party or politician is going to stand up to them?

    And I haven't even started on GMOs, the wheat industry or who is sponsoring the scientific research into nutrition.

    *What is vegetable oil? Clue-vegetables don't have oil.

    Posted 9 years ago #

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