Obesity - How have we got ourselves in this mess and how do we get out?

Obesity - How have we got ourselves in this mess and how do we get out?


A controversial subject I know, and before anyone tunes out or thinks this is a dig at the larger ladies and gentleman of this world I can assure you, it's not. I have no issue with people who carry a little extra weight - hell I like cake as much as the next person and I'm more comfortable with curves than without - but the obesity 'epidemic' we are seeing in the UK and US is a very different problem, thats not about having that naughty doughnut or losing those extra Christmas pounds. Its not even about being a healthy active size 18 when you'd rather be a 16. This is about morbid obesity. 


There are enormous economic consequences to the rise in obesity, most notable to the NHS with the increased risks of cardiovascular problems, diabetes, preventable cancers and so on. The obesity trend is set to rise by 11 million more adults by 2030, and with current cost of obesity related illness and disease to the NHS estimated to be running at £4.2 billion per year, this is set to rise by a further £2 billion per year by 2030 - a cost the NHS simply can not absorb. Sadly the rates of morbid obesity are rising at the same rate in our children, leading to a new generation of obese adults. In addition to the costs to the NHS, there are the predicted increase in those who are unable to work due to weight related ill health, a further burden on our crippled and broken benefits system. 


You probably think by now this is just a rant at how 'fatties are costing us money' - its not. I am deeply saddened by it, particularly because so many of our younger generation are growing up with unhealthy attitudes to food and exercise. The fast food, take away, have it now culture that has been growing for generations is partly to blame, poor education in good old fashioned Home Economics - i.e teaching children to cook, detached families with no 'traditional' role models. All of these things are to blame along with lack of exercise, fear of leaving our children to play outdoors and the rise in computer game culture. These children then grow up to have their own children, still with little or no understanding of how cook, or knowledge about nutrition. And so the cycle continues, and deepens.


That said, I don't believe schools or the government' can be held entirely to blame. Somewhere, adults - parents - need to take responsibility to educate themselves. To realise that eating crisps and chocolate and take away alone is bad for them and their children. That having cream and sugar on cornflakes, followed by 2 chocolate bars, 3 packets of crisps and a can of Redbull at 2am (as seen on C4's Supersize v Superskinny) is indeed going to make you fat. There is a belief that it is cheaper to eat processed fatty, salty food than home cook healthy food. This has been proven to be nonsense. It is perfectly possible to feed a family of 4 on a VERY frugal budget without buying a single frozen, processed, pre packaged, ready prepared item. I do it every week out of necessity. Make your own sauces, make your own pastry. It costs very little and you know what is in it - it may take longer but isn't your health and your children's health worth that sacrifice? Get outdoors, get your kids outdoors, walk to the shops, take the stairs not the lift. All the things we KNOW we should do but often don't. 


Back in my parents generation before the explosion of supermarket culture the concept of the weekly 'big shop' was still almost alien and shopping was done locally in greengrocers, butchers and bakers. Food was locally produced and seasonal (are you all sensing that I have veered back onto my old bugbear) and most people walked to and from the shops. Now we drive or get lifts, or take taxis. Waking home from Tesco with the 'Big Shop' is not possible, and so another element of exercise is lost. Now we have dishwashers, washing machines, tumble driers, vacuums. In our grandparents generations floors were swept by hand, washing up was an hour spent standing at the sink, and laundry was done by hand and pegged out in the back yard. Such small things, yet they all contributed to an active lifestyle. So over time the explosion of technology to make life easier has made life more sedentary. And at the same time our diets have become filled with saturated fats, processed meats and cheese. 


What is the answer then? Jamie Oliver (love him or hate him) tried hard with his 'food revolution' to change eating habits in schools and to make school dinners healthy and nutritious. To some degree this was a success yet overruled by cost and some parents who were unwilling to accept, or even try, change. The government launched its Change For Life campaign to try to highlight the links between diet, exercise, weight and disease. Our televisions are flooded with shows about weight loss, and diet products stack our shelves. Yet it is evident by the continued rise in obesity rates that none of these things are working. I'm not suggesting there is a quick fix, but somewhere, somehow this problem needs to be tackled for the sake of our future generations. 


It seems that in this day and age we have developed an unhealthy relationship with food, and it is no longer viewed as an essential sustenance for a healthy life. On the other side of the coin rates of teen anorexia are rising as young adults feel they need to compete with an unrealistic view of perfection or they seek to 'control' the only part of their life they can. While food is also used by many as a reward for a bad day, a treat when your feeling low or a pick me up. I can only compare this to addictions like smoking or alcoholism and perhaps it needs to be recognised and treated as such. 


I wish I had the answer - I'm just one person trying to do the best for her own children, to educate them in healthy eating and to make an active lifestyle the norm. How can this message be effectively heard by the masses? 

Eat Meat - but do it right.

Vegetarianism: A matter very close to my heart which I generally shut up about as it is one of those inflammatory subjects that get my goat. 


I have not eaten meat or poultry since 1985. OK, I realise that technically this makes me a Pescetarian but people tend to look at you like a pedantic fool if you clarify this. My reasons for not eating meat were multiple. Initially, as a child, I had health problems that made it difficult for my body to process protein rich red meat. So I began by eating only chicken and fish, substituted with pulses, grains and vegetables. As time went on I realised that actually, the texture of any meat is, to me, a little disconcerting - to put it bluntly I could equate it to gnawing a lump off my own arm (not that I have ever tried). So from that day on I never ate  meat, other than fish, again. In all honesty, I barely missed it. OK, so for a while I hankered for McChicken Nuggets and I'll always have a tiny weakness in the presence of really good Italian salami but steak, roast dinners, burgers, even bacon I never looked back at. 


Now, I have never been a sanctimonious vegetarian - I always claimed that my reasons were choice as opposed to morals but as time went on, as I got older and spent more time researching vegetarian foods and meat substitutes I realised that actually, ethically, I wholehearted supported myself (self congratulatory silent smug pats on the back - that kind of thing) but still I kept quiet about it in public. At school I tolerated all the "ahhhh but you wear leather" comments, and the "Why eat a meat substitute if you don't agree with eating meat" (I mean seriously, that statement is self explanatory surely? Asking "why eat a meat substitute if you don't like meat" makes more sense doesn't it?) not to mention "humans are meant to be carnivorous" (actually, No, man was meant to be omnivorous and predominantly ate fruit, veg and pulses in a far greater proportion than he ate meat on account of the fact that berries tended to run slower than sabre toothed tigers but anyway)  I am drifting away from my point. 


I still have no issue with people eating meat. I have no issue with using the bi-products of meat production in clothing and goods - if it is done with morals and ethics and respect. What I do have an issue with is the complete lack of thought for the animals that produce our food, and the complete unwillingness from a vast majority to find out. It is a head in the sand attitude that has grown from our cheap supermarket culture - you kind of know that somewhere in the chain someone, or something is suffering for those cheap prices but that bargain is just too tempting to stop and find out more. When I see someone in a nameless frozen food store buying a BBQ pack of burgers, chicken legs and sausages containing "over 50 items for £3.99" I want to go and shake them and yell. A lot. I want them to try to understand how it is even possible to produce that amount of meat, package it, transport it, store it for that kind of money. When I see someone choosing the 2 chickens for £5 in Tesco, despite having knowledge of the appalling conditions in which they were produced, yes I want to get on the biggest highest soapbox about it. But until now, I haven't. 


Eat meat, by all means but show it some respect. Buy well. Buy British, locally produced meat and cook it well then enjoy it. Enjoy the peace of mind of knowing that that animal had a good, happy life. That it wasn't kept in a filthy pen, isolated, unable to fulfil even the smallest natural instinct before it was shipped off, terrified, to be slaughtered. Oh, and to wind up on a plate, tasteless, bland, bulked up with water and displayed under a blue light to attempt to make it look, well, like proper meat.


Oh, I know the argument "I'd buy local organic meat if i could afford it". You CAN afford it. Buy it less often, eat vegetarian four days of the week then enjoy - no - cherish that delicious, juicy, succulent, well produced piece of chicken. 


So if you want to find out more, here are some links. 


http://www.chickenout.tv/
.http://www.ciwf.org.uk/

An introduction

Ahhh, so here I am in the world of 'blog'. This is my second venture into blogging, the first having been abandoned after my motivation, inspiration and ability to string a coherent sentence together left me. It's still out there somewhere, my 'other' blog, unpublished, floating amid the flotsam and jetsam of abandoned blogs. I wonder how many witterings of how many minds are out there in cyberspace, bobbing around sadly. 


So before I get completely carried off by my ramblings I suppose I better offer a brief introduction, and a little about where I intend to go with this. 
I am firstly and foremostly Me - something I often forget when I feel compelled to start introductions with 'I am a mum of two girls, age 1 and 2' . Of course, I am a mum to two (may I say) beautiful girls, but primarily, somewhere inside I am still Me. I am the grand old age of 36, and  prone to negative thoughts like 'I am perhaps closer to the end of my life than the start' but you will no doubt see that often my world is quite black. 


I work in the accounts department of a fashion/sportswear distributor. Its fine, but like being a mum, that alone doesn't define me. I am, like every other person, a complex soup made up from 36 years of experiences. I have been a happy child, a angst ridden teen, I have been in love maybe 3 times (4 if you include my love for Mr Alexander Skarsgard) I have run a pub, worked as a Sales Manager for an international electronics company, sold cars, photocopiers, paper and petrol, got married, renovated a cottage, relocated twice. I drink, I smoke, I swear. I like to argue, debate and laugh. 


And I have strong opinions. Some of which are controversial. Some of which I chose not to flaunt all over social networking sites. So I will be opining on here, on subjects that have got my goat, riled me or made me chuckle. 


Enjoy, or not :D