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Monbiot: increase in obesity due to food industry

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  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
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    fishgutzy wrote: »
    No. The rise in obesity coincides with the government subsidising grains then faking a study to justify pushing more grains in one's diet.

    I think the recommendation that we should lower fat and increase grains will not workout well. It seems that very little quality sound peer reviewed research went into pushing this out to the masses. Adding sugars to "Low Fat" products isn't helping either.
  • Fuzzipeg
    Fuzzipeg Posts: 2,298 Member
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    I found it frightful when I heard the other day, the NHS considers it good to put overweight diabetic patients on a daily 800 calorie low fat diet for 6 months. It simply flies in the face of so much we read in scientific papers. It was not April 1st either. I can't remember where I heard this.
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
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    It's not the processing...for instance, think about how much work is required in making french fries from scratch as opposed to boiled/mashed or oven roasted. Back before you could pop into a pub/fast food place and grab them quickly and cheaply or buy them in the freezer section ready to toss in the oven/microwave→how often do you think people ate them. Probably nowhere near as often. Did many people even own deep fryers back then? They were probably hesitant to throw cups and cups of oil into a frying pan that they would need to use for something else later (meaning having to discard or transfer, store the used oil). i.e. it would have been a p.i.t.a. and not the nearly ubiquitous (easy) side dish it has become today. And what they did make would have been shared amongst a larger family - so smaller portions out of necessity (you can only fit so much in the frying pan).
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
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    Fuzzipeg wrote: »
    I found it frightful when I heard the other day, the NHS considers it good to put overweight diabetic patients on a daily 800 calorie low fat diet for 6 months. It simply flies in the face of so much we read in scientific papers. It was not April 1st either. I can't remember where I heard this.

    This may happen because so many people underestimate their intake by a huge amount (and the medical staff have probably realized it). ie many of these patients will think they are eating 800, but actually eating 2000+.
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
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    Fuzzipeg wrote: »
    I found it frightful when I heard the other day, the NHS considers it good to put overweight diabetic patients on a daily 800 calorie low fat diet for 6 months. It simply flies in the face of so much we read in scientific papers. It was not April 1st either. I can't remember where I heard this.

    Also, in the case of serious medical complications from being overweight (ie where the obesity has become an imminent threat to life), it is sometimes considered best to get it off as quickly as possible.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    suibhan6 wrote: »
    lmsaa wrote: »
    George Monbiot looks at the increase in obesity in the last four decades and concludes that it isn't that people are eating more, have less activity, or lack willpower. He puts the blame on the food industry. Article has lots of interesting links, including one on the use of subliminal scents to manipulate us.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/15/age-of-obesity-shaming-overweight-people

    Possible, but I have to note one experience with subliminal messages that were piped into a now-defunct "department store" back in the early 80s left me with an incredible urge to SHOPLIFT. I was in my early 20's or some such, and really had a strong urge to walk off with stuff that really did not interest me. I rather freaked out, and left the place as fast as I could, without even purchasing the item I'd gone in to get. Not long later I heard about subliminal messages being embedded into the "muzak"... since I loathed the "muzak", the message apparently got reversed in my mind to : STEAL, Baby, STEAL. TAKE!!!


    So.. I am curious about subliminal scents. Some few years before that, I waited for the bus back to college campus outside a bakery. If the weather outside was inclement, I and others waited inside. I learned early and quickly that the aromas were wonderful, but that I just wasn't quite so interested in the actual taste. I was satiated there on aroma alone, no need to buy and eat. (The owners of the establishment probably hated me...)

    I'm trying to understand how a department store makes money by using subliminal messages to make people steal their stuff instead of paying for it?
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    NorthCascades wrote: »
    suibhan6 wrote: »
    lmsaa wrote: »
    George Monbiot looks at the increase in obesity in the last four decades and concludes that it isn't that people are eating more, have less activity, or lack willpower. He puts the blame on the food industry. Article has lots of interesting links, including one on the use of subliminal scents to manipulate us.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/15/age-of-obesity-shaming-overweight-people

    Possible, but I have to note one experience with subliminal messages that were piped into a now-defunct "department store" back in the early 80s left me with an incredible urge to SHOPLIFT. I was in my early 20's or some such, and really had a strong urge to walk off with stuff that really did not interest me. I rather freaked out, and left the place as fast as I could, without even purchasing the item I'd gone in to get. Not long later I heard about subliminal messages being embedded into the "muzak"... since I loathed the "muzak", the message apparently got reversed in my mind to : STEAL, Baby, STEAL. TAKE!!!


    So.. I am curious about subliminal scents. Some few years before that, I waited for the bus back to college campus outside a bakery. If the weather outside was inclement, I and others waited inside. I learned early and quickly that the aromas were wonderful, but that I just wasn't quite so interested in the actual taste. I was satiated there on aroma alone, no need to buy and eat. (The owners of the establishment probably hated me...)

    I'm trying to understand how a department store makes money by using subliminal messages to make people steal their stuff instead of paying for it?

    They are saying the subliminal message was telling you to "buy", but because they hated the muzak it was embedded in, they heard "steal".

    I'm not sure that detour on the workings of subliminal messaging is a known issue, and if hating muzak made a person hear "steal" I'd think the store would have been stripped bare!

    Anyway, the suggestive power of scents isn't really controversial. Scents can trigger powerful emotions and memories. You still have to make the conscious decision to buy the Cinnabon and stuff it in your piehole. A decision I have made more times than I should and was totally my responsibility. :blush:

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