Obesity

[nailit]

Is obesity a modern day phenomena?
Was having a conversation today with a person of some years who says that when she was young it was rare to see a fat person.
Is obesity caused by greed or the fact that most people today (often unemployed) can only afford cheap, calorie laden junk?

[Bathsheba]

Plus there's so many more food outlets...when I was growing up, I can only think of Wimpy Bars for hamburgers etc ;)

x x

[Prudie]

I don't think it's so much that junk food is cheap but that it is so available everywhere day and night. I'm sure there would have been just as many obese people around when we were young if we had the convenience of take-aways. When I was young a Chinese meant going out and sitting in a restaurant, it was a special treat.

[gingejbee]

I was told by a nutritionist that there is no such thing as junk food...only a junk diet.

[nailit]

divebuddy //Obesity is not a disease like, say, cancer.// nobody said it was. //yes, it is caused by greed.// so greed is a modern phenomena?
//Oh,and the poor of yesterday didn't eat junk food.// because it wasnt cheap, available and sometimes the only option (foodbanks...)

Not 'dissing' your reply, just trying to understand this. I have had 2 members of my own family who have had to have gastric band surgery because of their weight issues. (Im overweight myself but not yet classed as obese)

[nailit]

Thank you for clarifying divebuddy. As I said, I wasnt 'dissing' your reply.
I agree that there wernt any fat people in Auschwitz.

[nungate]

Why is it always assumed that obese people are that way because they overeat, and or eat an unhealthy diet? As someone who is clinically obese, let me tell you that I am not this way because I overeat nor is it because I have an unhealthy diet. My movements are restricted because of severe arthritis and gout (no I do not drink alcohol either) I eat a very healthy diet, and seldom eat junk food, or sweets or anything of that kind. I monitor what I eat because I am unable to move as much as I'd like owing to the pain I'm in. My doctor has said I am caught between a rock and a hard place as I cannot exercise, and I eat a very healthy diet. I also have hypothyroidism which leads to weight gain I used to be very active, I played a fair bit of sport in my time which has probably caused the wear and tear of my joints. So just remember that not everyone who is obese ate all the pies!

[nungate]

I got that part Divebuddy, I just get fed up, when people simply assume that obese people are that way because they overeat or eat junk. I just felt a need to sound off a bit and put across that it's not always down to "who ate all the pies". It seems to be a general assumption, particularly in the media that obesity it all down to bad diets or over indulgence. I'm glad that I have a G.P. who understands me and knows how much I'd like to get back to the active healthy person I was, and be able to get through a day without swallowing a handful of pills to dull the aches and pains

[cazzz1975]

I think obesity that isn't illness related is caused by poor diet, not necessarily eating lots of pies but just generally eating too much poor nutritional fat/sugary junk.

That's just an observation I have made based on people I know with serious weight problems.

[naomi24]

Apart from the unavailability of junk food years ago, it's likely that your friend walked everywhere when only the well off possessed a car. I don't think there were many 'couch potatoes' in those days.

[Khandro]

There are definitely more fattypuffs in the UK than in continental Europe, it always comes as a shock when I return. We always look to junk food as the culprit, true, but also junk drink doesn't get much of a mention, fatties always seem to be drinking coca-cola and suchlike; calorific dynamite.