this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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I just watched a HBO doc series on obesity . The scientists and doctors talk about all the changes in society that have caused this new epidemic. They describe our food environment as hostile!! The food we buy now is different to what was sold 30 years ago, it's much higher in calories.
Watching the series of course led to self reflection. I'm over weight, about 15-20 kg overweight. So how did I get this way. I grew up eating very little junk food. We never ate out, treats were rare, snacks were generally healthy.
I pretty much do the same. I rarely eat out, cook healthy meals at home. So little junk food. I do get lollies sometimes. ( I used to buy treats at least once a week ) I bake a cake once a month. I do like creamy yoghurt , have it once a week. I think I eat too big portions, and that is something the documentary talked about too.
Just for the record I have never been to kfc, to subway, to hungry jacks, to pizza chains, haven't been to maccas in a decade and then it was just to get an icecream, no taco bell, I've never had a hsp or bahn mi. Local fish and chip shop once a month and I wouldn't over eat.
Yet I'm fat. I've cut down portion size a lot, say no more often, I don't buy trouble. Hope I lose weight.
What's your activity levels though? I eat like a racoon, but i also do a lot of physical labour. It's not just intake, it's expenditure as well.
I exercise/walk between 5 and 10 hours a week. For my age that's really good.
I'm also 62, my metabolism is slowing down, my hormones are lower than they used to be.
Obesity rates are climbing in all western countries. Hostile food environment is a good way to describe it. People are told to blame themselves, eat less exercise more, but our environments are not conducive to it. I read somewhere that our microbiomes have changed and that could be a contributor. I don’t think people 50 years ago had more will power, and plenty of people had sedentary jobs back then too. Who knows.
exactly, and when I look at how I live, I do a lot of walking, I generally eat healthy , I'm still fat. I make so few mistakes yet the consequences are severe.
A while ago I watched a doco with the UK twin doctors Xander and Chris. One ate sugar/carbs the other fats for a month. Neither of them put on weight. They start talking to scientists who said that it's only when the two are combined that the mice put on weight. Think chocolate, icecream, doughnuts etc.
I eat very little of that.
But then past me ate more of those things and I am still paying the price.
My point is my diet was mostly good. It was just a few treats a week ( I might get 2 donuts from qvm or some lollies each week or have a few icecreams )
with even so few mistakes over the years I still put on a lot of weight.
Oh I'm not saying you do I just found it really interesting. I'm trying to find the show for you to watch. It talked about diabetes and other stuff. It was just fascinating and easy to follow.
I'm wondering how much exercise do you get? That could potentially be the other piece of the puzzle.
I wonder if some of it is just genetics though. Even going back centuries there have always been people who were heavier. I think of poor Mama Cass.
all my grandparents were thin/normal. My parent's generation and the generation after that are fat. Could be that my parents grew up in a war induced famine. That messes you up .
And starvation messes up the next generation too. There was some research done a while back comparing obesity levels over several generations - I forget the name of the institution that sponsored it but it was something like Harvard or Oxford or Cambridge. A respectable one. They based their research on the Dutch famine during the closing stages of WW2. Where a huge cohort of people starved almost to death in Amsterdam. One of the findings was that the famine victims' subsequent offspring had a much higher level of morbid obesity and sub-morbid obesity than the offspring of other towns/regions in the area who had a limited diet but didn't actually starve. And also much higher than children produced before the famine. Like, their children's bodies got re-set to "pile on the fat just in case this happens again" status. Irrespective of diet. The third and fourth generation of descendants are currently being periodically monitored to see if 'normal' weight recurs or the re-set to obese persists further down the generations. Don't know the results for that bit but it's probably available online somewhere.
I understand Audrey Hepburn was one of the famine victims - lived through it as a teenager.
Yes, she'd wanted to be a ballerina but due to the starvation she went through and its effects on her body, even after, she was deemed not strong enough to continue.
This was the famine my parents lived thru. Many cities were blockaded by the nazis, some cities worse than others.
Here's an article for you Sugar vs fat