Stunned I am; Stunned!

[Gluestick]

It seems as usual, it takes a battery of "Expert" academics, to reach a conclusion, which anyone possessed of much of a brain has known for many years.

See here:

That said, it seems they missed an even more obvious causal factor, which is crucial to the core analysis and end result: namely, the utter processed and chemically infused muck which far too many people consume, today and have done for many a year.

By the way; did anyone else here actually eat from what looks rather the same as a tacky aircraft dinner?

Clearly, even then, Mrs Gluey and I must have been really posh: we had a dinner service and etc!

[nomoss]

The meal shown simply gives an insight into Sarah Knapton's upbringing.[:)]

[Jonzjob]

I agree totally Gluey! If Mc DoDos were cut out and the like, then that would be a great start. There are far too many over processed so called foods on the market that weren't there when our parents fed us. Man made fats that the body has no idea what to do with cause untold problems. As do drinks that are mainly sugar. But, they are profitable to the clowns that make/market them.

“It is probably no coincidence that the UK has one of the highest rates

of obesity in the world, while it is also one of the world’s most

globalised, advanced economies,” added Dr Costa-Font.

No worries there, it ain't going to be for long init [:-))]

I love the idea of diets, in fact I'm on 3 or 4 at the moment. Well there just ain't enough on one is there [8-)]

[woolybanana]

But, Goostick, surely even you who relies on research, figures, statistics, and whatever for debate and even career (I suspect), must admit that research has to be undertaken to prove something before it can acknowledgement and thus be dealt with. Populist intuition may be useful as an indicator but it is rarely accurate or reliable as data or evidence. As an example, the belief that black cats are lucky (or unlucky).

[Gluestick]

Wooly; Simply put, I use my eyes; and my brain, what little remains.

I have watched young kids turn from healthy, active, vibrant young persons, to evermore obese blobs. As for supposed "Adults"............

As a co-opted county council secondary school governor, I fought a bitter fight over sale of a large sports ground for housing, depriving a school of nearly 900 pupils of the opportunity for decent exercise and character building.

I lost.

Additionally, I have observed, the preponderance of crap junk passing along the supermarket conveyor belts when I have had the misfortune to visit local supermarkets.  (i)Plus, in 14 years, In France, I have also cottoned on to the increase of ready meals and pre-processed crap, an increasing number of younger shoppers are buying: (France; the eponymous home of haute cuisine!): (ii) The accelerating market penetration of take-away fast-food providers is yet another causal factor: (iii) Since I am at root a scientist, I have been aware and concerned about the massive increase in chemical additives in all components of the food chain; from farmers to processors and the deleterious impact of this reality on human (and animal) physiology.

Please consider:

State of the Science of

Endocrine

Disrupting

Chemicals - 2012

Published by the WHO.

What more research ought I to have completed?

[8-)]

[Judith]

Saw the report - thought, another example of research telling us what we already knew.

Much depends on what you did actually eat as children, and though I know my mother fed us as heathily as she could, and prided herself on giving us a good home cooked meal, meals were certainly not as healthy as now,  because we did not have the same choices of foodstuffs available.

But the biggest difference is, I am sure, the lack of physical activity.  Even for those of us born after the war, the physical activity was less than that before the war, and it has been decreasing ever since.

And, I am still amazed, especially at this time of year, but nearly always, how little fresh veg the French eat ... usually a tidgy bit of lettuce or ONE veg (which is often only potato) with the  main course.

[woolybanana]

Gooey, you are right that observation is a useful tool in research, but it would take a huge sample of 'watchers' to draw sound conclusions which are useful for informing policy decisions. Backed up by decent field research, it is perfectly valid.

Of course, your observations inform your own opinions but one swallow does not make a summer. And I do largely agree with them from my own expeience of examining what people put into the ir shopping trollies and spotting fatties round about.

But I also saw Go this week, in a cloud formation, therefore everyone shout admit that he does exist!!

Personal observation is notoriously subjective, as you doubtless know.

The piece of research which kicked all this off is very one dimensional IMHO in that it does not really look at different social groups, particularly the 'heating poor' who might need a lot more calories than the better off.

[Gluestick]

[quote user="Judith"]

Much depends on what you did actually eat as children, and though I know my mother fed us as heathily as she could, and prided herself on giving us a good home cooked meal, meals were certainly not as healthy as now,  because we did not have the same choices of foodstuffs available.[/quote]

Since I was born at the beginning of WWII, then I have experienced the step-changes, occurring.

Clearly, during and indeed post War, the average British diet was pretty basic. Lack of citrus fruit, bananas, sugar, fats were obvious. I still remember the wonder of my first orange (The smell!!!) and banana.

Sweets were virtually non-existent; came off ration for a very short time in the late 1940s; then back again in the shops in 1953. Thus we didn't eat any; I still rarely do.

Interestingly, at the Junior School I attended for one year after my parents moved to a new area, the school dinners were very good and well balanced; proper real food.

As was the food at my grammar school, which enjoyed its own large kitchen.

Clearly, the enemies have been;

1.  The motor car: personal car ownership grew rapidly in the 1960s; exploded in the 1970s; and became quasi-ubiquitous in the 1990s, on:

Prior to this most people cycled, walked and exercised. The School Run? Nope not when I wert nobbit but a lad.

2.  Foodstuffs: the new sliced white bread phenomenon commenced in 1961. See here:

A particular cause célèbre of mine. Today, supermarkets pride themselves in selling a "Loaf" which is cheaper than the competition. It is utter junk and causes a range of diseases.

Sugar: Brits are addicted to huge quantities of sugar; in soft drinks, soups, cakes, whatever. And indisputably this is a major causal factor behind the epidemic of Type 2 Diabetes.

Trans-fatty acids: health time bombs.

Add a range of nasty noxious chemical additives to food. Another serious causal factor which will son haunt the Western world.

3.  Laziness: far easier to buy a nice ready meal or order a take away. Increasing numbers of kids have actually never eaten at a table using correct cutlery!

[quote]But the biggest difference is, I am sure, the lack of physical activity.  Even for those of us born after the war, the physical activity was less than that before the war, and it has been decreasing ever since.[/quote]

Agreed: couch potatoes either watching end-to-end dumb bunny TV, DVDs or playing games. rather than actually playing real sport or even simply walking.

[quote]

And, I am still amazed, especially at this time of year, but nearly always, how little fresh veg the French eat ... usually a tidgy bit of lettuce or ONE veg (which is often only potato) with the  main course.

[/quote]

Has regularly amazed Mrs Gluey and I, Judith! As our old specialised greengrocer (he delivered; great and was a chef too) used to say, "You two are veggie freaks!"

In France one tends to be served up a main course, perhaps a micro-spud and possibly a tiny strip of carrot Julien!

Yet Pas de Calais is awash with farmer's fields growing, er, veggies!

Still fortunately, we have our local market and a nice lady who owns a small holding and sells lovely fresh legumes of all types sorts and sizes.

[Gluestick]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Gooey, you are right that observation is a useful tool in research, but it would take a huge sample of 'watchers' to draw sound conclusions which are useful for informing policy decisions. Backed up by decent field research, it is perfectly valid.[/quote]

Well, Wooly, for many professional years, one of my core tasks has been "Trend Spotting"; advising clients what product offerings are likely to work in the near and longer future.

Indeed, well organised corporations have what are called APD departments; means Advanced Product Development. They observe what their competition are doing; even to the point of buying their products, anonymously, destruction and performance test them and send them to the crusher.

Yes, of course, they employ Market Analysts; run consumer focus groups; polls, whatever.

Now, what they do not do, is await a bunch of bloated academics to play and eventually produce a wordy report, by the kilo, informing them what they were analysing two or ten years ago. 'Cos if they did, then they would probably be skint!

Governments at all levels are simply wonderful; at developing strategies and policies (They adore these expressions; more excuses to form Committees and Sub-Committees and Steering Groups et al. Beats working any day!) to "forecast" which horse will probably win last year's Derby...

The report I cited would have enjoyed, I suggest, greater value if it had been prepared by a leading medical authority, as against, a bunch of Marxist nutters, whose discipline (Economics) is not even a real science!

(Bearing in mind my original study was er, economics!)