Uk Obesity epidemic discuss

A few people have mentioned that healthy eating etc should be covered in school. I teach in high sschool and through citizenship I teach about healthy eating, being active and the importance of a healthy heart and how to have a healthy heart. Now i cannot comment on all the school in the UK, but I just wanted to mention that most schools, like mine, will cover the basics. But i think that this shouldnt just be left to citizenship, it should also be included in food tec (i have noticed that all the things that the kids seem to make in food are unhealthy desserts...... not a great message and things that kids should be learning how to cook) and PE, to hightlight the importance of this subject, bringing in as many cross curricular links as possible

A few people have mentioned that healthy eating etc should be covered in school. I teach in high sschool and through citizenship I teach about healthy eating, being active and the importance of a healthy heart and how to have a healthy heart. Now i cannot comment on all the school in the UK, but I just wanted to mention that most schools, like mine, will cover the basics. But i think that this shouldnt just be left to citizenship, it should also be included in food tec (i have noticed that all the things that the kids seem to make in food are unhealthy desserts...... not a great message and things that kids should be learning how to cook) and PE, to hightlight the importance of this subject, bringing in as many cross curricular links as possible

I loved food tec at school! But we always made healthy stuff.. which was quite annoying at the time.. i only made one cake! Haha.. I made lots of vegetable curries, bolognese type foods, but i don't ever remember using oils, butter etc. Lots of vegetables, and taught how a balanced meal would look on a plate with pie charts etc.. clever! But not now.. my little sister in law is on about making cakes, and desserts and that type of thing.. not good!

Making healthy options cheaper might help but I doubt it. I didn't find it any more expensive to buy healthy foods than unhealthy, if anything it worked out cheaper because I didn't have all the rubbish in my basket. Organic is another matter, I can't afford that lol. Cooking from scratch is so much more time consuming than sticking a frozen meal in the oven or microwave and I think that's a big part of the problem. A lot of people just don't have the time to do it. Or the inclination after a long day at work.

People also don't know HOW to cook. I'm one of the generation who was never taught to cook at school. I was absolutely lost when I moved out and relied on things that came with cooking instructions such as frozen chicken nuggets, frozen chips, microwave meals etc. I've graduated to cooking meals from scratch but it's taken a lot of searching the internet for instructions and recipes. I'm all for bringing in life lessons in school, things such as shopping on a budget, cooking healthy meals, changing plugs etc. Personally I think it would make much more sense to teach things like this than to teach some of the things I had to learn!

Getting people off their backsides and exercising would help but how do you do it? Again, people don't have the time or the inclination after a day at work to go out and get some exercise. And for those struggling to put food on the table joining a gym or taking up a sport isn't an option, it's too expensive. Walking is free but most people seem to hate doing it.

I saw this on the breakfast news on TV this morning too...some reference was made to the fact that half the population in the UK would be classified as obese by 2030 if the government doesn't do something now..clearly this has to start with children being fed healthier diets and being encouraged to do more exercise and sport than they currently do both during and after school hours..I remember a while back when Jamie Oliver desperately tried to tackle this problem by encouraging schools to provide healthier school lunches....yet parents were shown on TV in some areas handing bags of chips from the local chip shop through the school railings at lunchtimes because their kids did not like the new food....I don't know how children can ever be expected to adopt a healthy attitude to food when their parents think it is clever to take this line of action.

Part of the problem is the word "obesity" itself. Once we stopped using the word "fat" we medicalised the condition and looked for causes other than our own behaviour. It's no wonder people look instantly for a medical solution such as surgery or pills without first trying to eat less and move more.

Fat is a feminist issue... or so we were told in the pre-PC 80s. :embarassed:

But Berry is right... we need to reclaim the word FAT and stop trying to make an excuse for our overeating. I affectionately call MFP "Facebook for fatties" when I talk to my real-life friends and family about it... because for me that's the best way to describe it. Of course MFP is much better than Facebook (the attraction for which I personally don't understand... but let's not go there :laugh: ) and it is most definitely a term of endearment :smooched:

I'm Kyle, I'm FAT... I want to stand up and be counted :bigsmile:

I have just listened to the Jeremy Vine show on listen again and I too was quite disappointed with it. It seemed to brush over the subject and much more time was spent on the next item. Although the next item was shocking, i would of liked more calls on the first item sometimes I feel they try to fit too much into the show.

Anyway, I wish I had been listening to it at the time because I would have called in. I do not normally call radio shows but some of the comments incensed me.

I have been fat for as long as I can remember. At school I was really bullied for various reasons but my weight was one of them. Once I left school, (which is something I could not wait to do) I started work and again, the bullying continued. For years, I was tormented, sometimes physically usually mentally.

I tried so hard to loose weight and I just couldnt. I did not know what to do. It along with other things sent me into a spiral of depresion but the taunts continued. I aksed for help from the management but they did not help. That made it worse. I left that place and went to another. The bullying was not as bad at the new place however, I was still "Teased" over my weight.

I was still trying to do something about it. My family are all big really and therefore, that did not help. My wife would tell me that I would die if I did not start loosing weight. It hurt. I was trying so hard and yet not seeing any results and the more people kept on at me the worse it got. I just could not do anything about it.

We had a competition at work between a couple of us to see who could loose the most weight each week. It worked for a short period but then the momentem of the others invovled dropped off and I had stopped loosing. Again, I became depressed.

I had joined a gym but was so tired from work that it was difficult for me to go. I would do my best to attend but I was still not seeing any results. I had various health problems, back, knees etc that the more I exercised, the more it hurt. I just could not see an answer.

I approached my doctors various times on the matter. They were not interested! All's they did was give me the weetabix diet and told me to take it away and do that. Needless to say, that did not work.

I was starting to find walking difficult, I would become breathless. I would have numerous pains and when I went to the drs, specalists with my knees etc they kept saying " well if you wernt overweight you would not have the problems" Again it made me feel really bad.

Earlier this year, my close friend had a heart attack. I was shocked. I went to see him in hospital and it hit me quite hard to think that he could have died. It made me think and made me more determined than ever that I was going to do something with myself.

I had discontinued my gym as it was costing me too much and I was not going that often due to time constraints etc so with what I was saving from the gym I brought a Wii fit.

I made sure that even if it was only 30mins, I would go on it as often as I could. I joined MFP in Feb and have religiously tracked my food since then. I have done my best to stick to the calories given even though at times this has been hard.
I have forced myself to exercise sometimes coming in from work late, having tea and then going for a short walk or even leaving the car at home and walking work etc or the shops etc.

At times I did not really feel like exercising but MFP spured me on. I made myself to go out and do it. Often I felt sooo much better for doing it. At times I am in a lot of pain when walking but I talk to myself and see the results I have achieved so far. I push myself through the pain and carry on. Sometimes I will give myself a rest day the next day but ensure that I only eat my cals for that day, no more.

So far I have lost 62lbs. I was 44waist trousers, I have just been out shopping a few weekends ago, and replaced all my trousers with 34 waist!!! And these are loose.

My wife no longer says when shopping for clothes that she is looking for size FAT but now says she needs to look for slim jim size.

My profile says "The journey has started" It has, but it is no where near complete. To contine I have to work at it. I do not want to loose much more weight now even though the doctor says I should loose around another stone and half. I am now working towards toning etc.

Sorry for such a long post, but I have heard so many people say, I dont have time, I cant afford, I havnt got this, or I havnt got that etc. We can constantly make excuses for ourselves or we can draw the line and say Right this is it. I mean it and I will do it!

It is by no means easy and if you are still reading this, I'm sure you will agree it has been far from easy for me. It brought a tear to my eye typing some of this stuff going over the history of my life and the pain that was there but I thought it might just spur someone on who is in the same situation. I think the most important point is not to expect to much too quick. Do it gradual.

I am no expert and I am still learning every day. I have some great friends here on MFP (You know who you are!) and I really apprciate the support and motivation they have given me. I have not found many people like that in my life. I am really grateful to the owners of MFP for providing this site and above all it is free. It is the only thing that has worked for me as you can see.

Feel free to add me as a friend as I do my best to offer support on the diaries etc and I value the feedback I get. Together we can crack it. Hold on in there.

Thanks for reading.