Unpopular opinions.

[Honest Saints Fan]

2 years ago I was 7 stone 6lbs, with help from a dietician, who told me to eat as much full fat foods as possible, I've put on quite a bit of weight. Taken it too far and gone the other way I definitely have an issue with food now, after hating it whilst I was on chemo I've eaten so much in the last year because I'm worried I'm going to go through that same hating it feeling again. 

I actually felt more self conscious at my thinnest than I do just now. Probably because being overweight has become a cultural norm. I always felt people were staring at me when I was skin and bones.

 

[19QOS19]

I just had the giant baked beans on toast. Delicious. 

Aye that was a personal favourite early days for me as well. I've always loved butter beans.

I didn’t know there was more than one! I got the blue one. Will have a look for the others. It’s out of stock so if the others are available I’ll get them now. 

That's probably the one we've used less purely because we have the other two as physical copies and that one is a Play book. It's the one with Tuscan Chicken though and it's incredible. Put that recipe to the top of your list. We do the chicken in chunks rather than whole breasts though as the recipe suggests.

I hadn’t heard of Pinch of Nom, the website looks good though - the recipes look pretty decent. 

£10 a book, you won't be disappointed. A lot of the recipes use the same core ingredients as well which makes it very affordable for your weekly shopping. A lot of spices but used in small doses so once you have them stocked you're good to go.

[DiegoDiego]

Fatties are a popular target, but what happens when they decide anyone who drinks more than 10 units a week should be subject to humiliation until they improve?

We know what happens, the temperance movement was pretty well documented.

I think targeting currently obese people isn't the best use of resources, the issue is education. People should be accountable for their own bodies but so many are put on the wrong track from a young age by ignorant parents. If you grow up eating unhealthily then you're very likely going to eat unhealthily as an adult. It's so cheap and easy to make a vegetable soup but people haven't been taught the basic skills and there are still misconceptions about cost. All these cookery programmes help but they're generally preaching to the choir.

[Bairnardo]

We know what happens, the temperance movement was pretty well documented.

I think targeting currently obese people isn't the best use of resources, the issue is education. People should be accountable for their own bodies but so many are put on the wrong track from a young age by ignorant parents. If you grow up eating unhealthily then you're very likely going to eat unhealthily as an adult. It's so cheap and easy to make a vegetable soup but people haven't been taught the basic skills and there are still misconceptions about cost. All these cookery programmes help but they're generally preaching to the choir.

Absolutely. So many of society's problems are caused by a compounding effect. Young adults getting launched into adult responsibility having been given absolutely no chance by their parents.

[ICTChris]

I think the number of factors in the increase in obesity is so large it makes framing policy to tackle it exceptionally difficult. Someone mentioned above taxing high fat food - that will have a knock on affect on food producers and retailers as well as the question of whether high fat food is the main cause of obesity. These interventions have unintended consequences as well - I think there is due to be a ban on junk food advertising on public transport in England but it’s just been realised that under the laws definitions then it bans the advertising of butter as its high in fat. 
 

There are powerful societal forces that have contributed to the rise in obesity. Fewer people work jobs that are physically demanding, more people have sedentary hobbies, more people eat on the move or out than they did in years/decades gone by. 
 

I don’t really have any evidence for this but I get the sense that for many people diet and eating have become almost stuck in immature eating patterns which leads of becoming overweight. I know and have worked with so many people who have weird, fussy and picky food habits that I think it’s a contributory factor to a lot of this. It’s just a random thought I have though. 

[Jambomo]

I’ve been doing calorie counting for the past (almost) year since I’m getting my weight down.

What surprised me is that it’s perfectly easy to overeat the calories you need even when you are eating healthy food and even when you are weighing portion sizes correctly. The wrong combination of what dishes you have for breakfast, lunch and dinner can put you a few hundred calories over what you need.

Equally I am noticing how many fucking Just Eat adverts are on TV now I am trying my best not to order them!

[coprolite]

1 hour ago, DiegoDiego said:

We know what happens, the temperance movement was pretty well documented.

I think targeting currently obese people isn't the best use of resources, the issue is education. People should be accountable for their own bodies but so many are put on the wrong track from a young age by ignorant parents. If you grow up eating unhealthily then you're very likely going to eat unhealthily as an adult. It's so cheap and easy to make a vegetable soup but people haven't been taught the basic skills and there are still misconceptions about cost. All these cookery programmes help but they're generally preaching to the choir.

In my experience cookery programs are part of the problem.

I was quite happy with only a little butter in mashed tatties until Heston Blumenthal came on saying 50% butter was the optimum ratio.  

I can cook low calorie food perfectly well but Masterchef always has the sauces finished with a nob of butter and tatties rosti instead of boiled. 

I do appreciate that there are folk that go to the chip shop for every meal because they can't boil an egg, but that's far from the only situation. 

[19QOS19]

I’ve been doing calorie counting for the past (almost) year since I’m getting my weight down.
What surprised me is that it’s perfectly easy to overeat the calories you need even when you are eating healthy food and even when you are weighing portion sizes correctly. The wrong combination of what dishes you have for breakfast, lunch and dinner can put you a few hundred calories over what you need.
Equally I am noticing how many fucking Just Eat adverts are on TV now I am trying my best not to order them!

Similar to your last point: my favourite food is pizza. I reckon I could eat it exclusively. When we first started, every programme we watched seemed to have characters ordering pizza! How to get Away with Murder was, pardon the pun, murder for this!

[Shotgun]

When my Mum retired from nursing in the late 80s, she took a volunteer job teaching low income / unemployed people how they could shop, cook and eat well on a limited budget. Fresh fruits and vegetables, preparing cheaper cuts of meat, homemade desserts and so on. She  had to give it up because it was just so soul crushing trying to get through to so many of them. The standard practice was to phone a taxi, give them the takeaway order and wait for the driver to deliver it. They saw no reason why they should go to all the trouble of making food themselves.

The children of those people will have families of their own now, maybe even grandchildren. It's hard to see the cycle being broken.

On another note:

[vikingTON]

You can still order a hamburger if you want, they're not like-for-like products so that's a daft comparison really.

Another attempt by the obese lobby to blame everyone else for their own failure of self-control IMO. 

[Rugster]

1 minute ago, virginton said:

You can still order a hamburger if you want, they're not like-for-like products so that's a daft comparison really.

Another attempt by the obese lobby to blame everyone else for their own failure of self-control IMO. 

And the hamburger has actually been reduced in size according to that. 
 

[Ludo*1]

7 minutes ago, Shotgun said:

 

'Progress' has been made on the only remotely comparable food item there.

Must have been fat b*****ds back in the 50s.

[Shotgun]

Hmm. That wasn't really the point I thought I was making. Just that as a society, obese or otherwise, we tend to eat larger portions today than our grandparents did.

 

[RH33]

I bought the lunch nom book but never got round cooking anything from it. I’ll need to have another look and find recipies that will work with allergy child.

[D.A.F.C]

7 hours ago, Aufc said:

 

I am genuinely not trying to look down on anyone and i am sorry if you feel like that. However, there needs to be a serious discussion within the UK regarding obesity. I realise it is an awkward conversation for a lot of people but the spend on obesity and diabetes is greater than the spend on police, the fire service and judicial system combined.

 

Same, I was responding to someone saying crimes were being committed which was a daft puerile post.

 

[Cosmic Joe]

4 hours ago, Honest Saints Fan said:

2 years ago I was 7 stone 6lbs, with help from a dietician, who told me to eat as much full fat foods as possible, I've put on quite a bit of weight. Taken it too far and gone the other way I definitely have an issue with food now, after hating it whilst I was on chemo I've eaten so much in the last year because I'm worried I'm going to go through that same hating it feeling again. 

I actually felt more self conscious at my thinnest than I do just now. Probably because being overweight has become a cultural norm. I always felt people were staring at me when I was skin and bones.

 

As someone who has always been a skinny person, I can relate to this. 

Also taught me not to judge morbidly obese people. To crave food 24-7 must be hellish. 

How to get around this is almost impossible. Like any other addiction sadly... 

[D.A.F.C]

On takeaways, local area back in late 90s had the usual chippys and mcdonalds and a burger King in the town centre. Few pizza shops and Chinese/indians.

Within the last ten/fifteen years they've built 

KFC

X2 mcdonalds with another getting built 

Papa John's

Domino's 

Starbucks 

Smashburger

Tony macaronis 

Subway 

Tim Hortons

Nandos

Curry pot

Chiquitos

Frankie and bennys

Pizza hut

X2 cake shops

Plus added another half dozen Indian restaurants, several italians, turned the ballroom nightclub into a giant restaurant.

Add this together plus apps like just eat etc and its far too easy just to eat shite. You can get nutritious meals from the places above but most dont.

Somewhere, somebody is allowing this to happen and making money from it.

 

 

 

[Rugster]

1 minute ago, D.A.F.C said:

On takeaways, local area back in late 90s had the usual chippys and mcdonalds and a burger King in the town centre. Few pizza shops and Chinese/indians.

Within the last ten/fifteen years they've built 

KFC

X2 mcdonalds with another getting built 

Papa John's

Domino's 

Starbucks 

Smashburger

Tony macaronis 

Subway 

Tim Hortons

Nandos

Curry pot

Chiquitos

Frankie and bennys

Pizza hut

X2 cake shops

Plus added another half dozen Indian restaurants, several italians, turned the ballroom nightclub into a giant restaurant.

Add this together plus apps like just eat etc and its far too easy just to eat shite. You can get nutritious meals from the places above but most dont.

Somewhere, somebody is allowing this to happen and making money from it.

 

 

 

Lucky b*****d. 

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

9 minutes ago, D.A.F.C said:

X2 mcdonalds with another getting built

I'm sure I've read it's a Burger King.

[19QOS19]

As someone who has always been a skinny person, I can relate to this. 
Also taught me not to judge morbidly obese people. To crave food 24-7 must be hellish. 
How to get around this is almost impossible. Like any other addiction sadly... 

I think a big problem is that the cravings aren't real or rather, it's boredom than actual hunger. Used to do this late at night, go and rummage in the fridge. I wasn't hungry I was just eating for the sake of it.

I'd say food addiction is a real thing though and folk need to get their head in the right place if they are wanting to lose serious weight. But we really are a greedy nation.