Obesity 'not individuals' fault'

Obesity 'not individuals' fault'

news.bbc.co.uk

Individuals can no longer be held responsible for obesity so government must act to stop Britain "sleepwalking" into a crisis, a report has concluded.

The largest ever UK study into obesity, backed by government and compiled by 250 experts, said excess weight was now the norm in our "obesogenic" society.
Obesity, the authors concluded, was an inevitable consequence of a society in which energy-dense, cheap foods, labour-saving devices, motorised transport and sedentary work were rife.

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The Land of the Obese?

This has been an issue for some time now, but to say it is not an individuals fault is disingenuous, to say the least.
The study lays the blame frimly at the door of modern lifestyles and sedentary work, but this takes away individual responsibility.

Of course the reasons stated are mitigating factors, but there are many ways to have a lifestyle healthy enough that obesity should not be a problem.
Instead of coddling people, why not educate? How to eat, what to eat and even when to eat.
Exercise remains a big factor in tackling obesity, and people are not doing enough of it - how many people do you know that jump in the car for a two minute drive to the shops, instead of walking?

There are many reasons for obesity, and many ways to tackle it - giving people a pat on the head and saying "there there, it's not your fault", is not one of them.

And don't forget, this is not a UK or US only problem, the problem is worldwide and likely to get worse.

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Absolutely ridiculous. Another sidestep away from any personal responsibility what so ever. There's a mile wide gap between inevitability and lack of responsibility.

We are our own keeper.

Originally posted by budski
There are many reasons for obesity, and many ways to tackle it - giving people a pat on the head and saying "there there, it's not your fault", is not one of them.

Couldn't agree with you more. The individual should not only be educated, as you mentioned, but also should know their own limitations via common sense and practice self-control. If you come from a family whose members have a tendency to become overweight, PUT THE HAMBURGER DOWN!

Oh, by the way, did you read this? Another scapegoat to diminish individual responsibility :shk:

but at the same time..

at least here in the US, the government could help alot by just making a few changes as to what foods they chose to subsidize...
fresh friuts and vegatables, ya know those healthy foods...the farmers don't get subsidies for growing those, and the prices are really getting rediculous and the quality is going down fast.
they do subsidize the beef, the corn, the pork.....they seem to subsidize the things that are now unhealthy for us...

they subsidize corn and well, this had made corn very cheap. cheap enough that the manufacturers have been using corn syrup to sweeten everything.....I mean, it's in everything. the problem comes in when the body tries to digest the stuff, can't, and ends up storing it in fat tissue, thus people get fat.

there seems to be a tendancy to preach personal responsibility to death. we should be financially responsible, we should be responsible healthwise...

but, well, that's where the preaching ends, with the individual. meanwhile, over half of our apple juice is being shipped into the country in concentrate form from places like india and CHINA. My husband's been a trucker on and off for years. he's carried fruit concentrate to one of the big juice manufacturers right into the heart of one of NY's biggest areas for apple growing...
the reason he was told was that the company would lose the gov't handout if a certain percentage of their juice wasn't made from imported ingredients.
so, the company is being paid by our government for importing juice concentrate from countries that don't adhere to any environmental rules...who knows maybe the soil the apples are being grown in is contaminated with all those things that we have decided pose a danger to us.

but, of course, it all comes back to "personal responsibility"...

the companies would prefer to take profit over our health any day of the week.
the government would prefer to take their campaign contributions over the health of the people any day of the week...
and then they sit and tell us....we're responsible??

reply to post by dawnstar


Well, yes we are, at least here in the UK.
OK, I'm lucky in that I live in a rural area, where local produce is reasonably cheap - cheaper than the supermarkets.

I don't believe that eating a big mac meal is cheaper than buying fresh produce and making a healthy meal at home, in fact I know it's not.
Or any other fast food chain for that matter.
If you go to a supermarket, you can find plenty of healthy food at a reasonable price, saying that people don't have time is a cop out - if they have time to sit in front of the tv, they have time to make a meal - it takes 30 minutes max.

reply to post by budski


sa basicaly all those fat people out there that stuff their face in with fast food can now blame someone else.
this countries gone bonkers, we are getting retarded rules and views daily now,

Originally posted by Beachcoma

If you come from a family whose members have a tendency to become overweight, PUT THE HAMBURGER DOWN!

this? Another scapegoat to diminish individual responsibility :shk:

Absolutly! Brovo! People have lost all sence of "self control" and "will power". It sickens me! I found that it really is NOT THAT HARD to lose those extra pounds, it realy is as simple as Beachcoma put it "Put the hamburger down".

p.s. sorry I screwed up the quote thinggy, my bad 'yall!

[edit on 17-10-2007 by tetsujin420]

[edit on 17-10-2007 by tetsujin420]

(quote tags)

[edit on 10-11-2007 by Jbird]

reply to post by budski


Trust me. As a vegan with a prodominately raw diet... It's INCREDIBLY more expensive to buy quality ingredients for your meals than it is to buy into fast food. The price of produce is outrageous in the states. We're talking $1.19 per lemon here or $.89 for a lime. They gouge the prices as they do other staple foods like milk and eggs. You should see the difference in price compared to organic items and conventional. Boggles the mind.

reply to post by DeadFlagBlues


just curious
to everyone thats saying everything is over priced
ever thought about growing some of these in your garden?
Lemons,Apples,Cabbage,lettice and so on easy to grow

obesity is self inflicted and to lay the blame elsewhere is just denial and a bit of an insult to those of us who aren't gluttonous. the media or whoever shouldnt be giving these people an excuse it should be saying "right its all your fault so get off your backside and give me 50 star jumps"

reply to post by DeadFlagBlues


i do agree with this...i think you could eat a 'filling' meal(that don't mean best for your health) from mcnasty for cheaper than you could cook a decent, healthy meal.
food is insanely expensive...i complain about it every time we go to the store.
the more healthy stuff you try to buy, the more it costs too.

i don't get too crazy with our diet but we buy ground turkey or lean meat, we try to by fat free and reduced sodium items and they are more expensive.

i can definately see/understand people that eat fast food often..that said, the blame still lays with them.
even if you're going to mcnasty, they have salad. they have grilled chicken sammy's.

not great but better than a mcheart attack you know

Just like alcoholics passing the blame calling it a disease. They are passing the blame here too.

I had to give up football and put on a lot of weight after, guess what? I adjusted my diet and lost 15lbs and have another 15lbs to go.

I didnt blame anyone but myself for this and took the responsibility to rectify it.

The only people who arent responsible are kids when their parents make them overweight even then its the parents fault, not the state.

I would like to remind people that all these chemicals and pesticides and msg’s, and hormones they put into our foods do help a lot for people being overweight. I personally believe its what the government puts into our daily foods as well as our drinks which causes a lot of people to be overweight. They have proven with mice that they can make them eat and eat and eat and the mice don’t gain weight. They have also made them eat normal and they gained and gained. So they are now doing the same with our foods. The government loves to use people as it’s own guinea pigs. I personally believe when you see these people who are 500 plus pounds then they had a type of allergic reaction to something they put into our foods. So I blame the government.

Originally posted by DeadFlagBlues
[It's INCREDIBLY more expensive to buy quality ingredients for your meals than it is to buy into fast food.

I've actually added up eating fast food vs. buying groceries and believe it or not it is slightly cheaper to buy your own food than to eat a "value" meal at one of these joints. One of the main roadblocks that people run into is that it's inconvenient to fix your own food. It takes time to prepare food and people just don't want to spend the time or the effort to do it. It should be no suprise that people to lazy to fix their own food are too lazy to count calories and exercise. It's a lifestyle issue and their weight is only a symptom.

I will agree with you that healthy food is more expensive, but it is still cheaper than buying into the fast-food lifestyle. That doesn't even take into consideration the health costs. Obesity causes a lot of health problems. What does diabeties treatment cost? My dad had this issue and was spending over $450 a month in medicine to counter his weight related health problems. That's enough money to buy some good food.

The reality of it is, there were no fat people in WWII concentration camps. You're fat because you consume more calories than you use. Weigh yourself weekly and adjust your diet accordingly.

[edit on 17-10-2007 by dbates]

reply to post by dbates


Well, I've said this before - I can make a tasty nutritious stew with fresh produce, which will break down into 5 meal sized portions for just over £5.
Freeze it, take it out when youu want some, re-heat and hey presto.
Same goes for curries, pasta sauces etc.

It's a myth that fast food is cheaper - it's not. It's about time, and most people would rather sit in front of the TV after work than spend 30 minutes making something fresh.

BTW mcsalads contain MORE sugar than mcmeals, and nearly as many calories.

On the other side of the coin, some people really struggle with weight and have a constant battle to keep it down - not all overweight people are lazy slobs, but there is a proportion of people where it is self inflicted.

I posted a link to a thread in the OP where you can read about members who have this trouble.

reply to post by bodrul


My family has an orchard and we grow, tomato, yellow squash, corn, zuccini, sometime lettuce depending on if they go that far. We have all types of fruit. Apricots, apples, peaches, cherries, etc...I'm in Utah so we have a very short growth season and a very harsh winter. The prices here for organic vegetables are out of control!

reply to post by dbates


I've also done my own local factoring and it's no where near cost effective for a full sized family to eat from scratch. Not even close. Especially when you consider the shelf life of vegetables and fruits.

reply to post by budski


There is a good point too about freezing foods and what not. I'm coming from a bias because I eat raw. Try to stay away from cooked or even frozen foods. You definitely have a good point about hot meals. I didn't even think of that because I haven't eaten that way in so long. You can make a huge curry for 5-10 dollars that will last you intermittently throughout the week.

I concede your point.

I take offence to some of these posts. I was in high school and I was skinny, still I weight 200lbs. today i'm 245lbs and it's not coming down. it has to do with my genes, my dad was a diabetic and he was overweight too. I can't help this..I believe that it has to do with the genetics and not what you eat. So this research is true.

if the government wants us to loose the weight, they should supply the food to us in packages and follow thru.