Our 'New Age of Obesity'

MB Lacey

Opinion piece in the Guardian today on the correlation between processed foods/ sugar and our growing levels of obesity.

The writer (George Monbiot) suggests that in comparison to the 1970s (when obesity levels weren't as high), we eat fewer calories now, we exercise more, which is irrelevant anyway as he claims there is no relationship between exercise and weight gain and that really, the whole obesity surge is down to what we are eating now in comparison to the 1970s.


'Today, we buy half as much fresh milk per person, but five times more yoghurt, three times more ice cream and – wait for it – 39 times as many dairy desserts. We buy half as many eggs as in 1976, but a third more breakfast cereals and twice the cereal snacks; half the total potatoes, but three times the crisps. While our direct purchases of sugar have sharply declined, the sugar we consume in drinks and confectionery is likely to have rocketed (there are purchase numbers only from 1992, at which point they were rising rapidly. Perhaps, as we consumed just 9kcal a day in the form of drinks in 1976, no one thought the numbers were worth collecting.) In other words, the opportunities to load our food with sugar have boomed. As some experts have long proposed, this seems to be the issue.'


He also suggests we stop fat shaming people and focus our attention more on Government policies and 'those who have discovered our weaknesses and ruthlessly exploit them.'


Another wake up call to make all your meals from scratch and eat real food.



The article in full can be found here

RiderOnTheStorm

The low fat + fruit n veg diet has been promoted since the 50s, and obesity + diabeties is higher than ever. millions of dollars gone into trying to prove it works...an failed.

Sugar (and carbs) are the enemy. Plus "grazing" eating. Cut out sugar (in all its forms) and stick to 3 meals a day.

bladespin

RiderOnTheStorm wrote:

Sugar (and carbs) are the enemy. Plus "grazing" eating. Cut out sugar (in all its forms) and stick to 3 meals a day.

Neither are the enemy really, the big issue is people not giving a fiddlers, very few can genuinely claim ignorance to what causes weight gain or what good/bad foods are.

Chancer3001

The writer (George Monbiot) suggests that in comparison to the 1970s (when obesity levels weren't as high), we eat fewer calories now, we exercise more, which is irrelevant anyway as he claims there is no relationship between exercise and weight gain and that really, the whole obesity surge is down to what we are eating now in comparison to then


He can suggest what he likes but hed be wrong

Irishcrx

So many articles , theories and doctors...fitness experts , bloggers have claimed at one point that everything is the enemy.

Carbs are bad , no wait it's just sugar...no fat is bad...too much protein is bad...

Exercise is bad if you do too much...no wait it's bad...weight lifting is healthy...weight lifting is bad...

It's insane but pretty simple and always has been when broken down...calories in vs calories out, less = weight loss , more = weight gain that's the way we are genetically and if that's being tracked correctly it'll happen , sure balanced diet is best practice but you could lose weight on big mac diet alone and gain on veg if the calories added up.