The Men who Made Us Fat

bound4beauty

But you're wrong.. it isn't difficult if you want it bad enough.

For a start, you can eat McDonalds, you can drink soda and still lose weight - you don't have to avoid ANYTHING.

MODERATION, WILL POWER, CALORIE CONSUMPTION.

Three simple things that change it all.

Yep. I've lost my weight eating at McDonalds and several other places. It's not all I eat and I fix the majority of my meals at home with ingredients that help me achieve my macro nutrient goals but I thoroughly enjoyed the McDonalds double cheese burger and diet coke I had for dinner last night.

The real issue, IMHO, is that a lot of us who have struggled with our weight for a long time, became desperate and latched on to every new idea that got introduced. Many of those "new" ideas were just a way to sell diet books, diet food, pills and potions. Reading labels, counting calories, creating a deficit...doesn't line anyone's pockets so it will never be touted as the "next big thing". No matter how well it works.

Some of us needed to try and fail multiple times until we finally got it. These types of documentaries may help people who are totally clueless about what's in food, how misleading labels can be and what really constitutes a serving size. But at the end of the day, only you can decide what to put in your mouth and when to get off the couch.

hedgiie

thanks for sharing, i'll watch this later

StillStrugglin

Title alone assures me the makers of documentary are ding dongs

*LOL* Taco, you never fail to make my day.

hedgiie

But you're wrong.. it isn't difficult if you want it bad enough.

For a start, you can eat McDonalds, you can drink soda and still lose weight - you don't have to avoid ANYTHING.

MODERATION, WILL POWER, CALORIE CONSUMPTION.

Three simple things that change it all.

Yep. I've lost my weight eating at McDonalds and several other places. It's not all I eat and I fix the majority of my meals at home with ingredients that help me achieve my macro nutrient goals but I thoroughly enjoyed the McDonalds double cheese burger and diet coke I had for dinner last night.

The real issue, IMHO, is that a lot of us who have struggled with our weight for a long time, became desperate and latched on to every new idea that got introduced. Many of those "new" ideas were just a way to sell diet books, diet food, pills and potions. Reading labels, counting calories, creating a deficit...doesn't line anyone's pockets so it will never be touted as the "next big thing". No matter how well it works.

Some of us needed to try and fail multiple times until we finally got it. These types of documentaries may help people who are totally clueless about what's in food, how misleading labels can be and what really constitutes a serving size. But at the end of the day, only you can decide what to put in your mouth and when to get off the couch.

true, when i talk to my friends who doesn't lose weight, they will tell you to avoid this and that. in my experience, i've lost weight eating food that i have been avoiding before. so yes, it's all about understanding this nutrients and balance and management in food choices, and not the avoiding part in at all cost

hookilau

People being misinformed and uneducated is what's made people fat. If you knew 10 Years ago what you know now I doubt anyone of you would be here trying to lose weight.

That's not what happened to me. Everything I did 10 years ago is what I'm doing now, with the notable exception of increasing fat to a ridiculous amount (by the standards of the 80's and beyond) and cutting out starches & sugars. Shrug.

For me, it had nothing to do with being either misinformed or uneducated about fitness & nutrition, I am neither. Twas an underlying medical issue exacerbated by USDA food pyramid & low fat diet dogma.

It's just not the same for everyone. :ohwell:

Thanks OP for the link...looking forward to having a look :drinker:

stefjc

I know, and my bad for putting it wrongly, just pointing out how ridiculous it is to say ANYONE is responsible but you.

Once you get past the presenters inadequacies, that is the basic premise of both documentaries. Once he stops being belligerent for effect the info they highlight is sometimes well known or obvious, but others are weird, government endorsed madness.

Anyone who got the point and wants to know more could read Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. A gross book in more ways than one. It doesn't only apply to America, although European food laws are different, and the sociological links are fascinating. But if anyone thinks they are immune to advertising this book may change their minds - even if it os a bit old and we know most of it now

Then again the 1* reviews of it are amazing..."I got board there is no plot" "I would not recommend it to children"????!!! Chew on This was the kid friendly(?) version

It is heavy going and Schlosser does have an agenda. But the workings of big industry is still fascinating and the more info you have the better choices you can make.

Though I still have to find the report/book on the reduced quality of food grown in intensive farming, meat or veg. Maybe I'll get The End of Food or The Walmart Effect for a US centred read or maybe Bad Food Britain or Shopped for a UK one - I love the question "How can a country with that many cookery books/telly programmes cooks so little/badly?"

With the ever growing list of non food foods you can buy (that fluff stuff or non dairy cheese etc) young people are getting ever more divorced from their food. It can't hurt to have a little light thrown on the subject.

StillStrugglin

Okay, I haven't watched the movies and I likely won't, but I feel compelled to reply to all the many posts about "Only you made you fat". My story is a bit different than that, and unfortunately, I don't think my story is all that uncommon: sexually abused from age 4-6ish, physically and emotionally abused and raised in an alcoholic home; obese by age of six; doctor ordered diet pills by age of ten (which caused my hair to fall out in clumps); family imposed diet of lettuce and tuna by age of 11 (Oh Dr. Scarsdale, you let me down!); 300 lbs by age 16. So... although I can take responsibility for my choices now, as an adult, I find it hard to blame 11 year old me for sitting down and scarfing an entire row of Saltines, all the while crying 'cuz I knew I'd take a beating for it.

I'm just sayin', we're not "all the same". At least I hope.

maegmez

The men who made us fat is a BBC documentary done in 2012 with a wealth of information concerning the food industry the food itself and how we became obese
It is a three part series you can find by going to You Tube
Part 1, 2 and 3

How you became obese:

- Not caring about what you ate
- Not exercising
- Blaming anyone but yourself.

I smell a scape goat and a lot of rushing to blame someone for their lack of common sense and moderation.

If you watch it you can see why people were shoving food down themselves when it was labeled as healthy and low fat. People assumed that fat would make them fat. In reality the companies just upped the sugar. It's actually interesting to see the lengths the food companies have gone to stop reports coming out.

As I said earlier people were misled and uneducated and that has played a part whether you want to believe it or not.

Surpriseeeeee! Companies are out to make money, and you believed what they wrote on the labels! I'm sorry, I was wrong. Your own stupidity made you fat. Not what you ate.

Back to the common sense and moderation bit I mentioned before. You musta missed that part.

These tactics started before the Internet was available in home and research wasn't as easy as turning on your computer or swiping your I-whatever. People aren't stupid for wanting to believe in humanity and trusting the food industry. People want to believe they have their best interests at heart. That is NOT stupidity.

These companies were and still are deceitful and young people won't have the maturity to understand it all.

Personally, I blame my mom for making me fat. I grew up in a home at a time where you ate everything on your plate and then had a huge dessert after. I blame myself for keeping me fat when I left home. That lifestyle of eating was what I knew and I wasn't interested in what was in my food. It wasn't until I knew it was time to change that I finally started to research. It's harsh to call someone stupid for what they ate, ignorant, yes, but not stupid.

Bottom line is though, people naturally want to trust what the label says.

This program is about blaming these companies for making us fat, you can't deny that if you watch the program. You see the news footage of people flocking to buy these low fat cookies because they were told they were healthy when in fact they were loaded with sugar. However, it goes on to say that the sugar industry fought with money and politics to keep the truth about sugar out of the media. Since we all didn't have access to the truth, we believed what we were told. In that respect, yes, these men are partially to blame.

brevislux

Liked it a lot

sunglasses_and_ocean_waves

I don't know about you, but there's only one person that made me fat...myself. There's only one person making me skinny too. It's pointless to blame the food industry for making you fat, that's like blaming spoons and forks for making you fat. The didn't force the food into your mouth, only one person decided what you eat...

Totally agree (and are there no women in the food industry???). There may be temptation out there, but use your common sense people.

shearnerve

I don't know about you, but there's only one person that made me fat...myself. There's only one person making me skinny too. It's pointless to blame the food industry for making you fat, that's like blaming spoons and forks for making you fat. The didn't force the food into your mouth, only one person decided what you eat...

And that is the plain truth. Own it & you have a chance of being free.

stefjc

Oh dear!

Please do watch the programme. You will see that you are responding to the title and the other people who did not watch it!

bahls24

lol
:laugh:

brevislux

The title doesn't do this film justice. It's very important and you will definitely learn much from it.

etoiles_argentees

No money left from the tobacco suits, there's been groups of attorneys+ chipping away at big food for 20+ years now.

michellelhartwig

Bump

westie007

Thank you.

stefjc

Ah! An American perspective. That one hadn't crossed my mind, to be honest!

And has anyone else got the krispykreme ad at the top of the page? Unexpected item in bagging area, indeed!

Inshape13

I don't know about you, but there's only one person that made me fat...myself. There's only one person making me skinny too. It's pointless to blame the food industry for making you fat, that's like blaming spoons and forks for making you fat. The didn't force the food into your mouth, only one person decided what you eat...

Totally agree with this post.

stefjc

And repeat... that wasn't what the documentary was about!

Mother_Superior

No money left from the tobacco suits, there's been groups of attorneys+ chipping away at big food for 20+ years now.

To be fair though, unless you can unhinge your jaw, you really do have to chip away at the big food if you want to eat it.

etoiles_argentees

How much is that scientist in the window? :P

Yanagibashi

Yeah, I made myself fat and I enjoyed every minute of it (or at least the eating part of it). And Nacho Cheese Doritos and various baked goods from my part time job were my weapons of choice. Still 100% my fault but I kind of doubt I would have done the damage I did if junk food was things like grapes and cherries and carrot sticks.

parys1

No money left from the tobacco suits, there's been groups of attorneys+ chipping away at big food for 20+ years now.

To be fair though, unless you can unhinge your jaw, you really do have to chip away at the big food if you want to eat it.

I need a new chisel.

cargilb

This isn't about blaming other people, it's about exploring what changed in our political and cultural history which made the supermarket culture which we all experience come to be.

I find it validating to be able to look at what is marketed right now as "healthy" and know that I'm not crazy for having tried to lose weight for years and not being able to because I fell into the traps that have been set and now that I've dug myself out and can see it clearly, it becomes easy for me to see where I went wrong, and know that it WILL be an uphill battle, probably more than past generations, because of how difficult it really is to avoid certain ingredients. Nowhere in it does it say that you don't have to put the work in in order to lose the weight, it's saying "this is what is and has been in our culture which adds to why it's so difficult to lose weight." Films like this one are what helped me finally see that it really is as difficult as I think it is and why. From there, I was able to explore how to make changes that have helped me lose a lot of weight.

Taking responsibility for your part in your own weight gain doesn't negate that our daily lives are, in fact, affected by the decisions made which are shown in this film. It doesn't take the responsibility off of the individual to learn the pitfalls, in a way, it helps show potential pitfalls are that the viewer may not have been aware of (that's certainly what films of this nature did for me), so that they may be conscious of them in the future.

The title and a lot of the phrasing in the narration is a bit sensationalized, yes, but a good deal of the information in it is valid.

right on point.

People arguing against this documentary obviously did not see it, or did not understand it.

dpwellman

I think I am all the dumber for having read this thread.

Why not have a documentary on The Wives Who Made Us Hit Them?

PJ64

You made my day, thanks Brother!

ndj1979

what about the woman who made us fat? Betty Crocker, Aunt Jamima, etc...?

hookilau

You made my day, thanks Brother!

that was a really funny gif, albeit kinda gross :laugh:
ETA: lost my appetite

Debbie_Ferr

They're going to do whatever they can to make money, that should be expected, if you're informed and you pay attention to what you put in your mouth, it shouldn't matter.

This.