http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/news/health/obesity-hidden-killer-of-scotland-s-women-1.1109028
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
"Obesity: Hidden killer of Scotland’s women"
(23 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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Hidden? Pretty obvious walking down the street...
The thing is, for years now we've been getting told that obesity is a growing (pardon the pun) problem in the UK and there are all sorts of schemes to get people eating 5-a-day, take some exercise, etc etc etc. For some reason transport policy never gets involved. Get people walking or cycling and you guarantee that minimum of 30 minutes exercise a day, without the need to join a gym or some sort of zumboxercise class (the cost, and embarrassment of which simply puts many off).
I always try to make a point of selling cycling as basically being exercise without the gym membership and the fact that the mere act of going to work can give you a great backside. The idea of advertising this way has yet to catch on. I'm simply ahead of my time...
Posted 12 years ago # -
"The decline in smoking rates may also have led to an increase in obesity, according to a 28-year study of 3600 women in the west of Scotland who have never smoked, and this has in turn exacerbated the problem."
Worst
Statement
EverI may have to look this article out rather than relying on the journalist to have wrote proper.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Quick,, everyone who is fat, take up smoking!
Posted 12 years ago # -
And most importantly, it is NOT lack of excerise and too much food that makes you fat! It's not smoking! Who knew?
Actually the whole obesity/transport total-lack-of-joined-up-thinking infuriates me so much i may have to take up smoking to calm down...
Posted 12 years ago # -
Perhaps it means that obese people who have stopped smoking are surviving longer to be counted as obese more often.
Except that that bit was based on a survey of never-smokers. I can only assume it established that those surveyed established a five-a-day cake habit which they're certain they wouldn't have had had they taken up smoking instead.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Yes indeed, smoking still kills people more effectively than obesity. And yes, I don't know how they can make conclusions from people who have never smoked. I really want to see the original paper now!
But sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.
Posted 12 years ago # -
You're right - they're not obese
Posted 12 years ago # -
"The decline in smoking rates may also have led to an increase in obesity, according to a 28-year study of 3600 women in the west of Scotland who have never smoked, and this has in turn exacerbated the problem."
Woman A who smokes is friends with Women B and C who do not smoke. Women B and C are occasional friends. A stops smoking and looks for an alternative leisure activity, and invites B and C to lunch. A, B and C take advantage of the latest Groupon offer and eat heartily. A is still fighting the urge to smoke and invites B and C to dinner on Friday. B feels sorry for A because stopping smoking is hard, and invites A to another lunch, and A invites C as well. A orders comfort food, while B and C feel obliged to follow suit because the salad portions are always small and they would finish before A. A, B and C enjoy the newfound social activity and arrange another dinner and another lunchtime meet.
See, it's quite obvious when you look into it. The solution, therefore, is not to socialise.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Abstract of study available here:
http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d3785
It states:
Conclusions: Women who had never smoked and were not obese had the lowest mortality rates, regardless of their social position. Where obesity is socially patterned as in this cohort, it may contribute to health inequalities and increase pressure on health and social services serving more disadvantaged populations.
i.e. being fat - bad, being poor - bad, smoking - bad, living in poor housing - bad, being more than one of these - terrible.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Did they put on the funding application that they wanted to investigate the prevelance of needles in an enormous stack of needles?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Slightly off topic in that this video does not consider the 'social' implications of obesity, rather the 'physical' (physical, in how calories are consumed by the body) reasons for obesity.
Professor Lustig makes a strong case that fat consumption is NOT behind obesity rates in the western world because although calorie consumption has gone up by around 100 calories a day in last 30 years. In the same period there have been a number of successful government campaigns to reduce fat intake, and as a result fat consumption has gone down by about 30%. He argues that processed sugar is to blame for this epidemic because the body actually stores more of the carbohydrate at fat, than it stores fat as fat for the same amount.
If you have a spare 90 mins then this video is really quite informative and dispels some of the myths surrounding the obesity epidemic, Sugar, the bitter truth:
Posted 12 years ago # -
As a non-smoking anti-social fat bird who cycles, I'm confused.
Posted 12 years ago # -
A woman who I worked with, who was rather voluptuous, actually did not realise that sweets (which contain no fat) could cause her to put weight on, she really thought that sugar was not fattening!! I was incredulous, but given the fact that a great deal of advertising advocates eating a low-fat diet in order to keep weight off, and does not really promote eating fewer calories in order to lose weight, I did come to believe that many people may actually think like her.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Doesn't really surprise me much. It doesn't help that "low fat" versions of foods are almost always rammed with sugar instead. I usually avoid them for that reason. I remember buying a low fat flapjack once, there was so much sugar I could actually feel it crunching between my teeth. Nasty. Oh, and the liquorice sticks I bought once which had FAT FREE! written on the front in large, friendly letters. Mental.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Try buying yogurt etc for kids. Bizarrely, it is very hard to buy full-fat yogurt without sugar added. None of us like added sugar, but we don't mind full-fat (and it is recommended for the under 5s), but very very hard to buy. Luckily this time of year, we can just add wonderful fruits to plain yogurt. Made a divine mango fool last week too.
Posted 12 years ago # -
It used to amuse me when I worked in a pub that people would ask for a double vodka and then get tetchy if we didn't have diet mixers to put in it.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"Would you like to go large with that?"
"Aye."
"And what drink?"
"oh. diet coke please. I'm on a diet"
Posted 12 years ago # -
Now that was interesting, an hour and a half well-spent. I had noticed that all of my obese colleagues at work, and there are a fair number of them, all drink fizzy drinks and that will be one or two cans at least a day, or when drinking diluting juice add little water, and ladle on relishes or dressings to their food. I had correlated the consumption of sports/fizzy/juice drinks to their weight problem and this has confirmed my suspicions. My son also got pretty fat once I started him on formula milk and lost the podge once I stopped it. I will have to watch some of the other videos in the series, most informative.
Posted 12 years ago # -
An episode of Horizon last year found that diet ginger might cause you to consume more calories.
They had two groups at a buffet. One has diet ginger the other had normal sugary ginger. The diet drink group left less food.
The suggestion was that your body expected the calories and when they weren't supplied from the sweet flavour drink it sought them elsewhere.
Right, where's that big slab of Fruit and Nut, it's got fruit in it so it must be healthy.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
I was never bothered about how much fat I burned, or even that I was saving the planet along the way (apparently). For me it has always been the 'obvious' way to get around the place I live.But other people are interested in these things, and now that I've added them to the journey planner calculations, I'm getting more interested in them too
"http://www.cyclestreets.net/blog/2011/06/30/calories-burned-and-co2-saved
Posted 12 years ago # -
And south of the border -
"
500,000 overweight children 'at risk of liver disease'
"Posted 12 years ago # -
Something about this thread makes me long for a trip to PY. Would anyone care to stop by there and send me something? Thanks.
Posted 12 years ago #
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