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CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".

IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters


It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.

RULES No personal insults. No swearing.

CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

31. chdot
    Admin

    "

    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.

    "

    Well done. Seems a curious form of bullying, but perhaps 'human'.

    Grayson Perry recently did another series, one part of which showed a group of fairly large women who were happy to no longer feel isolated.

    His commentary made it clear he was 'happy for them', but concerned about their health.

    http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grayson-perry-who-are-you/on-demand/55337-003

    The section on Loyalism was even more illuminating.

    Posted 9 years ago #

32. ARobComp
    Member

    @nelly - I don't drink cooking lager thankfully. I drink good beer from local or small breweries. So although the markup is there in the pub it's still usually still £1.80 per 330ml in the shops...

    Posted 9 years ago #

33. Nelly
    Member

    @arobcomp we were in a "sports bar" watching the game. Food was all burgers and chips and beer choice was appalling.

    After game we went somewhere else that had decent beer.

    I'm same as you, don't mind paying for a quality product.

    Posted 9 years ago #

34. crowriver
    Member

    Mediterranean diet is best way to tackle obesity, say doctors

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29929403

    Posted 9 years ago #

35. Min
    Member

    So, a diet with no processed food is good. Only not in as many words.

    Posted 9 years ago #

36. Ed1
    Member

    Wonder what the implication of the benefits cuts have been on diet. With the growth in food banks etc, wonder etc.

    Posted 9 years ago #

37. Min
    Member

    Never mind.

    Just use new Food Substitute.

    Food substitute!

    *faints*

    Posted 9 years ago #

38. Mandopicker101
    Member

    @Ed1 - from my own experiences, I'd imagine diet probably takes a hit. Fresh, healthy produce is (usually) more expensive than cheaper, processed food.
    I don't often see Tesco flogging plentiful and dirt cheap fruit and veg (unless it's on it's sell-by date). While discount retailers like Aldi and Lidl do sell fruit and veg at pretty low prices, if you've got next to nowt, I guess it's going to be a challenge all the same and just a little bit depressing. Well that was my experience.

    Though it's a travesty they need to exist, my rather limited understanding is that foodbanks provide a decent quality of food.

    Posted 9 years ago #

39. chdot
    Admin

    "foodbanks provide a decent quality of food"

    Think most (all?) don't collect/distribute 'perishables'.

    Posted 9 years ago #

40. crowriver
    Member

    @Min, it's called "Soylent". Have you ever seen Soylent Green?

    Posted 9 years ago #

41. Charlethepar
    Member

    David Cameron: "When I run I'm just a middle-aged slightly overweight jogger"

    If Dave is only slightly overweight, then I'm really skinny!

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/10605089/David-Cameron-When-I-run-Im-just-a-middle-aged-slightly-overweight-jogger.html

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/11053030/The-big-wetsuit-conundrum-laid-bare.html

    Posted 9 years ago #

42. Min
    Member

    Crowriver - No but the article helpfully provides spoilers should I ever want to! Makes the concept sound even more tasteful (no pun intended).

    Thankfully it has been a while since I struggled to afford to eat but I did it by eating a lot of plain veg. Supermarkets are expensive for veg though as they don't bother with seasonality and I reckon most folk don't even know what is in season and what isn't. And they assume that supermarkets are cheap when for a lot of things they aren't. I was horrified when I first saw the price of tatties in a supermarket. They were 4 x what they cost in my parents small shop. Obviously that shop is long gone now as people preferred to drive a 30 mile round trip to the lovely cheap supermarket.

    The drive for ever cheaper food has not only screwed up people's diets but also their expectations of what they should be able to eat. I don't think there is an easy fix.

    Posted 9 years ago #

43. Roibeard
    Member

    @Min - my hoax radar was working overtime on that one, but it seems to be real...

    It's a bizarre world when negative pop culture references become trademarks!

    Robert

    Posted 9 years ago #

44. Min
    Member

    Yes, I had to double check the date myself. :-/

    Posted 9 years ago #

45. crowriver
    Member

    @Charlethepar, to judge from those photos I'd say Cameron is right.

    In comparison I am straightforwardly overweight. The classic "fat thin person", which I put down to a largely sedentary job and a tendency to the wrong diet. Oh and middle age.

    Was skinny as a rake at 25.

    @Min, yes fresh veg can be quite inexpensive. You just need to know what to do with it. IIRC Argyle Place in Marchmont used to be full of fruit'n'veg shops 20-odd years ago, very inexpensive due to competing with each other. Are any of them still there?

    Posted 9 years ago #

46. Charlethepar
    Member

    Re Soylent

    "The product's name is an inside joke based on Harry Harrison's 1966 science fiction novel Make Room! Make Room!, though commonly associated with its 1973 film adaptation Soylent Green, in which the futuristic food supplement "Soylent Green" is made from human remains."
    Wikipedia

    (a) Harry Harrison is brilliant

    (b) Soylent is just a concantenation of Soya and lentils.

    Posted 9 years ago #

47. crowriver
    Member

    @Charlethepar, aye I knew all that. The point was that the "Soylent" moniker was revealed as a "big lie" in the film (and in the book IIRC, I may still have a copy somewhere). All the crops had failed decades ago, due to overpopulation, pollution, etc.

    Posted 9 years ago #

48. Instography
    Member

    Yes, the mediterranean diet that the mediterranean's are themselves abandoning.

    According to the OECD, "Obesity rates are low in Italy, relative to most OECD countries, but are very high among children. ... In Italy, 1 in 3 children is overweight, one of the highests rate in the OECD."

    The cause? "Large socio-economic disparities in obesity exist, both in men and women."

    Posted 9 years ago #

49. Charlethepar
    Member

    @crowriver

    I think that you may be being too kind to Dave.

    For a man of his heigh (6' 1/2"), overweight on a standard BMI chart starts at 13st 7. No way is he anywhere near that.

    Posted 9 years ago #

50. Charlethepar
    Member

    @crowriver

    And no, you don't RC. There is no canabilism in the Harry Harrison original, which makes the environmental limits theme more effective.

    Posted 9 years ago #

51. crowriver
    Member

    the mediterranean diet that the mediterranean's are themselves abandoning.

    Never underestimate the power of food industry marketing.

    There was a Money Programme special last year (I think) on the food industry's success in bringing new food products to market. Three programmes looked at three products which had in common: cheap basic ingredients, processing, and heavy mass marketing. They looked at bread bottled water, breakfast cereals, and yoghurt IIRC.

    A real eye opener that was!

    'The Foods that Make Billions'

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wdf5t

    Posted 9 years ago #

52. Instography
    Member

    Yes, that's precisely my point. Obesity is about poverty in particular and more generally about food industry marketing of fats, salts and simple carbohydrates as 'convenience'. While I'm at it, I'd also point the finger at an economy and housing market that is now predicated on two adults working full time, where children are fed by proxies and mealtimes are sandwiched between the end of work (which is often late) and children's bedtimes (which are also often too late). Convenience sells because convenience is needed.

    Posted 9 years ago #

53. Morningsider
    Member

    Insto - agreed. It has became increasingly difficult to make the "right" choices over diet and exercise and easier to make the "wrong" choices.

    This isn't really a matter of individual morality (for want of a better word). Walk round any supermarket, where most people shop, and look at what they sell. It is frankly amazing that more people aren't overweight than now.

    This is a matter of public policy. Relaxation in planning laws, shop opening hours, the promotion of motoring and reductions in public transport have all played their part. We have designed a system where the best outcomes are reliant on people making hard choices, every time. That's madness.

    Now, some of us could crow about local shopping, active travel, home cooking. However, these all require access to resources that many people don't have - cash, time, knowledge, access to the right facilities, stable home life, regular work and so on.

    Our politicians need to make it easier to do the right thing. I don't see this happening though.

    Posted 9 years ago #

54. chdot
    Admin

    "Our politicians need to make it easier to do the right thing. I don't see this happening though."

    Sad but true.

    And that's without even considering the power of vested interests and their lobbyists.

    Posted 9 years ago #

55. Min
    Member

    It is more true to say it is about greed, not poverty. Unilever, Coca Cola etc can't make a profit out of people eating veg and drinking tap water. GSK and Pfizer can't make a profit out of people who aren't fat, diabetic and depressed and Shell and Exxon can't make a profit out of people who don't own a car.

    Other multinationals are available.

    Posted 9 years ago #

56. crowriver
    Member

    @Min, exactly.

    Posted 9 years ago #

57. crowriver
    Member

    Found those programmes on Yontub. Suggest you download these as they might disappear...

    [+] Embed the video | Video Download

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    [+] Embed the video | Video Download

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    Posted 9 years ago #

58. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    "Our politicians need to make it easier to do the right thing."

    Politicians are not planets whose gyrations in the sky we can observe but not influence. Our votes are the aether through which they glide. I do not see the passive voice as an appropriate tone in which to discuss them, though I understand the temptation to do so.

    I am attracted to the idea that our politicians have been seduced by the market fundamentalist notion that the best outcomes for all are achieved by everyone acting in their own selfish interest. They can't say this openly because the idea is revolting to everyone except the people sitting on the desk of banks directly behind me, but it does explain a lot of their behaviour and instincts to de-regulate all commercial transactions including food purchases.

    When said politicians treat their own life partners and children as rational self-interested competitors in a financialised free market then I'll have a serious look at these ideas. Until then I'll believe that we have a duty and a right to look after each other.

    Posted 9 years ago #

59. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    It takes an entire financialised free-market economy to keep us down.

    Posted 9 years ago #

60. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @Cyclingmollie

    And gravity.

    Posted 9 years ago #

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