Are Irish people fat? If so why?

supermouse · 04-01-2012 10:57AM

I think weather has a lot to do with it. I live in NZ and every hour of the day there are people out running with their dogs or power walking. That's on top of their normal team sports that they play as well as the trekking and outdoors activities that they do on the weekends.

That and our love of processed food and not being allowed leave the table until our plates piled high were empty.

Leftist · 04-01-2012 10:58AM

It is the bread, I'm telling you. The white bread especially. None of it is fresh either, it's full of crap to keep it preserved.

Also there is very little places to walk. In other countries you can take off on a cross country. Here all the land is private and the farmer joes lace every where with electric/barbed wire.

even in dublin where you would expect a little more, there are very little options for a good walk. You have to take a bus towards the mountains, past marley park and even then you have to walk about an hour to get to a trail.

biko · 04-01-2012 11:01AM

Title fix because OP didn't have any sources to back up his claim of that Irish people are fat.

double GG · 04-01-2012 11:02AM

Lay off us fat Irish people OP, We already have too much on our plates.

Leftist · 04-01-2012 11:04AM

biko wrote: »

Title fix because OP didn't have any sources to back up his claim of that Irish people are fat.

23% of Irish people are obese. I think it's fair to say Irish people are fat, especially by world standards.

reprazant · 04-01-2012 11:05AM

flyswatter wrote: »

www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-feeling-unhealthy-it-could-be-what-youre-eating/

That article is incorrect.

According to this article, we are the second fattest in the EU, not the world.

Leftist · 04-01-2012 11:08AM

reprazant wrote: »

That article is incorrect.

According to this article, we are the second fattest in the EU, not the world.

More proof, Can we have the orig title back please?

sbsquarepants · 04-01-2012 11:10AM

Leftist wrote: »

23% of Irish people are obese. I think it's fair to say Irish people are fat, especially by world standards.

Where do these figures come from?
23% of people i see going about my business are not obese or anything like it.
I'd say well under 10%, thats just basing it on what i see in work and out and about shopping, socialising and so on. There is no way praticaly a quarter of irish people are obese. Absolutely not.

seamus · 04-01-2012 11:10AM

reprazant wrote: »

That article is incorrect.

According to this article, we are the second fattest in the EU, not the world.

I've been looking at articles about obesity all morning now. Why, oh why must every single one of them use stock photos showing morbidly obese arses and bellies? It's enough to make you vomit.

Leftist wrote: »

It is the bread, I'm telling you. The white bread especially. None of it is fresh either, it's full of crap to keep it preserved.

It's not the bread. The bread existed well before we had an obesity problem.
White bread has just recently become a scapegoat because the no-carb zealots have held it up as the poster boy of starchy foods.

There is nothing wrong with white bread. Just don't eat so bloody much of it

Also there is very little places to walk. In other countries you can take off on a cross country. Here all the land is private and the farmer joes lace every where with electric/barbed wire.

even in dublin where you would expect a little more, there are very little options for a good walk. You have to take a bus towards the mountains, past marley park and even then you have to walk about an hour to get to a trail.

I'm not going to get into the larger debate on this, but these are all just lame excuses for not getting off your arse. Us Irish also seem to be really good at making up baseless excuses for why <insert social problem here> occurs in Ireland more than anywhere else and it's all the gubberment's fault, not the individual's.

Wibbs · 04-01-2012 11:14AM

g'em wrote: »

Economic constraints for families which leads to buying cheap foods with dubious nutritional value.

The joke is that it's nearly always cheaper to eat more healthily. That's where education comes in of course.

A de-emphasis on exercise as cars and public transport become the norm for long-distance commuting.

Very true. Our spread out cities don't help there. The weather really doesn't help either. Walking or cycling to work in say Rome is a much nicer mental prospect than doing similar in say Cork. You need more specialised clothing to healthily commute in our climate. So given the choice between cycling to work in the pissing rain, after putting on the layers of goretex to keep most of the elements off and arriving to work damp and sweaty, versus hopping into a living room with wheels, it's not really a difficult choice for most. It's less a pleasure than a task.

Lack of nutritional educational for parents which will, by proxy, lead to undereducated future generations.

In a big way.

The social acceptance of overweight/ obese bodyforms to the point of praise and the misuse of the word 'curvy' in popular media.

In a very big way. While I'd be well dubious of some of the Latin and eastern European attitudes which can go to the other extreme (leading too often to eating disorders), there must be a middle ground. Being heavy here is much more socially acceptable, even praised. OK there can be the extreme "Virgins posting in AH" attitude particularly aimed at women in the general world not so much. Look at our media, with the notable exception of TG4 there's a fair gallery of stodgy men and women beamed into our houses every day.

norrie rugger wrote: »

It is grand saying "go to the pool early in the morning" but that is not realistic, for people with kids. People used to do their exercise (be it running or team sports etc) in the evenings but if you finish work at half 5 and do not get home until 7-7:30, I imagine that it can be hard to get time to exercise while still having some downtime

Oh sure NR, but how do the Latins do it with the whole siesta breaking up a long working day thing? And those are good reasons for folks with kids, but people without kids? You can get parental or middle aged spread anywhere, but that's little excuse for 22 year olds.

I'd agree with Leftist re bread. Pretty much muck. Not unless you're growing, grinding and baking your own. Given a large proportion of humans can't digest it very well and some are specifically and actively allergic to gluten(the Irish have one of the highest rates of Coeliac disease in the world), removing bread from your table is likely to have big effects and benefits.

reprazant · 04-01-2012 11:21AM

Leftist wrote: »

Also there is very little places to walk. In other countries you can take off on a cross country. Here all the land is private and the farmer joes lace every where with electric/barbed wire.

even in dublin where you would expect a little more, there are very little options for a good walk. You have to take a bus towards the mountains, past marley park and even then you have to walk about an hour to get to a trail.

It truly is a shame that we can only walk in fields and up mountains.

it is terrible that there is absolutely no where else to walk at all if you really wanted to. No other places at all.

BrensBenz · 04-01-2012 11:22AM

Obesity in both UK and Ireland is a cause for concern. So, could there a common cause? At the risk of repeating myself: constant, wall-to-wall cookery programs on TV. We even have programs reviewing cookery programs and (God help us) televised cookery competitions! I still think my previous suggestion of using cookery show hosts as organ donors is valid. It would be a win-win and I commend this to the house.

Leftist · 04-01-2012 11:25AM

reprazant wrote: »

It truly is a shame that we can only walk in fields and up mountains.

it is terrible that there is absolutely no where else to walk at all if you really wanted to. No other places at all.

Yes because walking along a road is always pleasant, where it's a high density traffic road and you can enjoy the sweet arome of exhaust pipes, or a winding country road where we can expect some lunatic to take the corner at 70mph at any moment.
Or perhaps an idyllic stroll around a housing estate.

Beautiful.

Nothingbetter2d · 04-01-2012 11:30AM

Leftist wrote: »

Is it the bread? lack of an outdoor culture?

It seems to be getting worse. We're more american than european in this aspect imo.

Please discuss.

we eat too much junk food... most notibly american style fast food.

mcdonalds, burger king, eddie rockets, dominoes pizza, 4 star pizza, etc

all american multinationals feeding us corn syrup based junk food.

corn syrup should be banned imo.

Add that to all the booze we drink and it will never end well

wobbles-grogan · 04-01-2012 11:31AM

Yes because walking along a road is always pleasant, where it's a high density traffic road and you can enjoy the sweet arome of exhaust pipes, or a winding country road where we can expect some lunatic to take the corner at 70mph at any moment.
Or perhaps an idyllic stroll around a housing estate.

Beautiful.

Or you could, you know, just walk to the shop instead of drive. Or walk to school with the kids. Or walk to work if you live within ~2-3 miles.

Its the mentality that we have to go somewhere to get exercise that has us where we are. We should be just getting exercise by....living!

sensibleken · 04-01-2012 11:32AM

seamus wrote: »

I'm not going to get into the larger debate on this, but these are all just lame excuses for not getting off your arse. Us Irish also seem to be really good at making up baseless excuses for why <insert social problem here> occurs in Ireland more than anywhere else and it's all the gubberment's fault, not the individual's.

+10. theres plenty to do outdoors. you can get to the dublin mountains from the city very easily, we have the largest urban park in europe and plenty of smaller ones, theres good rock climbing and mountain biking areas. if you dont fancy outdoors theres plenty of indoor stuff activities too.

its just looking for excuses to be lazy

holystungun9 · 04-01-2012 11:32AM

I agree with the bread theory.
During the 'good times', I was flahout working on the sites and I had a breakfast roll every day for about two and a half years.
Jaysus, I can only imagine the mountain of bread I ate.

gothictwilight · 04-01-2012 11:33AM

A larger proportion of the population is leading a sedentary lifestyle (working in offices and not exercising outside work) while eating quite heavy, calorie rich food. This is a first world problem.
When I was younger there wasnt so many cars and you had to walk, cycle everywhere (I'm 35) and there was very few overweight people around really.

Been overweight, most times, is a lifestyle proble.
Eat less, move more.

Hannibal Smith · 04-01-2012 11:33AM

Leftist wrote: »

Good points well made. Although the high-cardio exercise is almost neccesary in order to keep your weight down. That is not natural imo.

IT has to be the food and bread.

Also just lack of regular walking.

Everyone takes taxis. You leave a city and people start getting very round. No walking at all.

There are very few people I know now who take taxis, except for when they're out late at night maybe. And hi cardio is extremely natural. It's the most natural thing in the world for us to get out there and get the heart pumping, it's what our bodies were designed to do to burn off the carbs.

You leave a city and people start getting very round? I don't understand that part of your post at all

04-01-2012 11:33AM

the groutch wrote: »

it's not necessarily the bread, it's the lashings of butter that go on it, or even worse mayonnaise.
and even reduced fat butter/mayo still has a whole heap of fat in it.

Fat is fine. Bread is not.
Eating fat does not make you fat.

Azureus · 04-01-2012 11:35AM

Pretty much every urban area has some form of a park close by for a nice walk-its what you make of your surroundings. Or if thats not good enough, go for a cycle-the majority of towns and cities are in cycling distance of somewhere relatively tranquil. I think we make excuses not to exercise, but I do agree its hard when you're working full time with a long commute. Travelling to and from work aswell as a say 8 hour day drains you and all you're fit for is the couch.

I think little lifestyle changes are what's needed-walk up the stairs instead of getting the lift, get off the bus 3-4 stops early and walk the rest, go for a stroll with a friend instead of going out for lunch etc.

Leftist · 04-01-2012 11:35AM

wobbles-grogan wrote: »

Or you could, you know, just walk to the shop instead of drive. Or walk to school with the kids. Or walk to work if you live within ~2-3 miles.

Its the mentality that we have to go somewhere to get exercise that has us where we are. We should be just getting exercise by....living!

Well done.

Walking 2-3 miles to do your shopping and dragging plastic bags back with you may not be the ideal option.

In addition to this some people actually do go out especially to walk. The facilities for this are inadequate.

gothictwilight · 04-01-2012 11:38AM

bluewolf wrote: »

Fat is fine. Bread is not.
Eating fat does not make you fat.

Do you mean cheap white bread full of sugar and preservatives you buy in lidl or brown, yeast free, home made soda bread?

jinxremoving · 04-01-2012 11:38AM

White bread is absolutely muck, no nutrutional value at all.

Prevlence of weight watchers 'low fat crisps therefore healthy' food and 'being good' then treating yourself to chinese and wine. Plus little to no exercise.

04-01-2012 11:40AM

gothictwilight wrote: »

Do you mean cheap white bread full of sugar and preservatives you buy in lidl or brown, yeast free, home made soda bread?

One's better than the other, but I'm going to assume the person I was quoting was on about your average white or brown loaf you buy in the shop.

Katgurl · 04-01-2012 11:40AM

We are a nation of drunks and alcohol is like liquid creamcakes due to it's high sugar content.

We love our carbs which is fine except for the amount of processed food on Market and creamy high fat accompaniments. A lack of cooking is a lack of control over what goes into food.

Portion sizes are far too big and now restaurant sizes have become the norm in our minds.

Despite relentless awareness campaigns people still do not incorporate regular exercise into their diets. The amount of people who do nothing at all is beyond shocking - out of bed, drive to work, sit at desk, drive home, citing lack of available time as the reason. I find it disgusting. Exercise should be as essential as eating or sleeping. Walk to work. Find a pool and stop off for a swim on your way home.

Being overweight is acceptable, high street shops now selling massive sizes is standard, people are in denial. As a size fourteen teenager I was always big among my group of friends and definitely not naturally slim. Food awareness and exercise have resulted in me being in much better shape in my 20s and 30s. I look at teenagers for the last ten years and literally half of them seem to be sporting double chins, three bellies, bingo wings, love handles, I probably would have thought I was fine and be twice te size by now.

Leftist · 04-01-2012 11:43AM

Katgurl wrote: »

We are a nation of drunks and alcohol is like liquid creamcakes due to it's high sugar content.

Being overweight is acceptable, high street shops now selling massive sizes is standard, people are in denial. As

That won't be taken lightly.

Are you pro British?

bleg · 04-01-2012 11:44AM

Drink makes you hungry. Drunken hungriness makes you eat kebabs.

BraziliaNZ · 04-01-2012 11:45AM

How can we blame the climate? We would still be fat if we were in a nice climate. The Australians are the fattest people in the world right now if I recall correctly. They're pretty much just Irish/British people in the sun and they're still fat. So climate is not an excuse!

Katgurl · 04-01-2012 11:46AM

Leftist wrote: »

Katgurl wrote: »

We are a nation of drunks and alcohol is like liquid creamcakes due to it's high sugar content.

Being overweight is acceptable, high street shops now selling massive sizes is standard, people are in denial. As

That won't be taken lightly.

Are you pro British?

No, defo not. They are as bad anyway.

Are Irish people fat? If so why?

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