How Do We Solve a Problem Like Obesity?

[BFTD]

6 minutes ago, Shandon Par Decorator said:

Music, mirror, smooth floor, leggings. 

Mmm...not quite what I had in mind.

What's the mirror for?

[Shandon Par]

14 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Mmm...not quite what I had in mind.

What's the mirror for?

Eye contact.

[BFTD]

1 minute ago, Shandon Par Decorator said:

Eye contact.

There something very Dennis Reynolds about this.

[Hedgecutter]

39 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Kudos to anyone who managed to master skipping.

Especially if you live in a flat and somehow manage to avoid getting your **** kicked in by the neighbours below.

[BFTD]

3 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

Especially if you live in a flat and somehow manage to avoid getting your **** kicked in by the neighbours below.

Surely you just stick on some bangin' techno to cover up the sound of the bangin' floorboards?

I might genuinely try to get hold of another rope and try the skipping again, although I'd been hoping for a mentor, and Shandon Pah clearly is not that man  

[vikingTON]

2 hours ago, Cosmic Joe said:

You could argue, however that excessive eating can become an addiction, in the same way that drugs, smoking, alcohol and gambling can. 

Nicotine and alcohol are biochemically addictive compounds: a portion of chips is not. You can eat excessively and increase activity to compensate for this: you cannot undo the hold of nicotine or alcohol addiction through other activities alone. 

The 'food addiction' lobby of course know this fine well - which is why they don't try to stretch their absurd comparison to crack cocaine and heroin. It's simply a whataboutery exercise to put a lack of diet regulation on the same pedestal as other widespread social vices. 

Edited March 6, 2021 by vikingTON

[Gaz]

1 hour ago, Shandon Par Decorator said:

Music, mirror, smooth floor, leggings. 

Story of my nights

[Cosmic Joe]

7 minutes ago, virginton said:

Nicotine and alcohol are biochemically addictive compounds: a portion of chips is not. You can eat excessively and increase activity to compensate for this: you cannot undo the hold of nicotine or alcohol addiction through other activities alone. 

The 'food addiction' lobby of course know this fine well - which is why they don't try to stretch their absurd comparison to crack cocaine and heroin. It's simply a whataboutery exercise to put a lack of diet regulation on the same pedestal as other widespread social vices. 

I don't recall asking for your opinion on the matter

[vikingTON]

6 minutes ago, Cosmic Joe said:

I don't recall asking for your opinion on the matter

You're posting on a public forum so your permission is completely irrelevant champ. 

[Jambomo]

4 hours ago, Aufc said:

Yeah i appreciate it came across harsh.

I have that as well. It is probably worse the now due to lockdown. There is absolutely nothing with having days like that. That is normal. However, it is everything in moderation.

Not harsh, just utterly ignorant of any circumstance out with your own experiences.

[throbber]

1 hour ago, virginton said:

You're posting on a public forum so your permission is completely irrelevant champ. 

You have a great lack of empathy.

[NotThePars]

3 hours ago, BFTD said:

Kudos to anyone who managed to master skipping. I've tried a few times over the years, and never had the coordination for it, despite intensive lessons from the girls at nursery when I was 4.

It was the same for most of the other boys, thinking about it. Do you have any tips for the cack-handed?

You hit X when the exclamation mark appears above Vivi's head

[Aufc]

Not harsh, just utterly ignorant of any circumstance out with your own experiences.

Maybe. However, for the vast majority of people, there is nothing stopping them from losing weight apart from themselves.

[101]

4 hours ago, virginton said:

Nicotine and alcohol are biochemically addictive compounds: a portion of chips is not. You can eat excessively and increase activity to compensate for this: you cannot undo the hold of nicotine or alcohol addiction through other activities alone. 

The 'food addiction' lobby of course know this fine well - which is why they don't try to stretch their absurd comparison to crack cocaine and heroin. It's simply a whataboutery exercise to put a lack of diet regulation on the same pedestal as other widespread social vices. 

What about gambling as per Cosmic Joe's post?

I would imagine that food especially fast food releases dopamine which is something people will fuel and do so by eating crappy food, I would say that once in that loop it's difficult to break free.

[Jambomo]

2 hours ago, Aufc said:

 

Maybe. However, for the vast majority of people, there is nothing stopping them from losing weight apart from themselves.

 

Imagine thinking you have even the smallest idea about the lives and needs of all of the overweight and obese people in the world.The point is that you don’t have a clue.

Obese and overweight people tell us the reasons they struggle, even on P&B people have talked about the challenges. The first step in tackling obesity is listening to those people rather than dismissing what they say as excuses and thinking you know better.

[Aufc]

Imagine thinking you have even the smallest idea about the lives and needs of all of the overweight and obese people in the world.The point is that you don’t have a clue.
Obese and overweight people tell us the reasons they struggle, even on P&B people have talked about the challenges. The first step in tackling obesity is listening to those people rather than dismissing what they say as excuses and thinking you know better.

Which is why i didnt say all obese people

[jamamafegan]

Thoughts on this? Lassie says she lost nearly 9 stone at one point, was pretty happy with how she looked...but then says “I thought that was the answer” and doesn’t explain how she put the weight back on again? She’s blaming it on her biology it would seem.

Is obesity a disease that makes people balloon for no apparent reason or, dare I say it, is this lassie making excuses - did she change something that was working for her before and she simply put the weight back on?

[vikingTON]

 

1 hour ago, 101 said:

What about gambling as per Cosmic Joe's post?

I would imagine that food especially fast food releases dopamine which is something people will fuel and do so by eating crappy food, I would say that once in that loop it's difficult to break free.

It's quite clearly not that difficult to break free from, given than the world has had countless variants of cheap 'crappy food' for thousands of years, yet is *only now* dealing with an epidemic in obesity. The main things that have changed since the Second World War are:

- an abundance of choice (in the Western world) and

- greater permissiveness of greedy behaviour that would previously have not been deemed socially acceptable 

The fundamentals of human biology and biochemistry have not changed a bit, so the 'addiction' argument doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Over 60% of the UK population are not dependent on dopamine hits from fast food: over 60% are overweight or obese though. Since we're unlikely to favour returning to food scarcity as a solution, that only leaves personal self-control as an important variable that we should deal with.

I suspect that one of the reasons why people find it difficult to 'break out of the loop' right now incidentally, is that the fat lobby are desperate to pathologise their relationship with food groups as an 'addiction' over which they (by definition have little to no control over); when in reality an entirely realistic combination of moderation and doing regular exercise would solve the problem instead. 

Edited March 6, 2021 by vikingTON

[vikingTON]

49 minutes ago, Jambomo said:

Imagine thinking you have even the smallest idea about the lives and needs of all of the overweight and obese people in the world.The point is that you don’t have a clue.

Obese and overweight people tell us the reasons they struggle, even on P&B people have talked about the challenges. The first step in tackling obesity is listening to those people rather than dismissing what they say as excuses and thinking you know better.

The first step in tackling obesity does not actually involve healthy people listening to the personal anecdotes of overweight people. This isn't post-apartheid South Africa: we are not trying to unite a fractured nation here. 

The onus is on the overweight and obese to resolve their own personal health problems - with of course the support of public health authorities and in an ideal world using economic incentives as well (a fat tax).

People might not like that message, but that's just tough. A public health epidemic is not resolved by avoiding hurt feelings. 

Edited March 6, 2021 by vikingTON

[Thistle_do_nicely]

On 04/03/2021 at 20:37, ICTChris said:

Smoking is now a low status signifier.  It used to be universal and, to an extent, a high status signifier.  Then it became alternative and rebellious and had cache through that.  Now people just look down at smokers as being stupid and poor.  I assume this is reflected in school children as well as the general population.

 

On 04/03/2021 at 20:30, Gaz said:

It was maybe cool years ago. What I'm saying is that the majority of kids I know who smoke are not in the 'cool club' at school.

I'm approaching Principal Skinner levels of being out of touch and I'm not sure if this is covered later in the thread (some pace its going at ) but afaik it's vaping/those e-cig pen things that are more popular with teenagers than cigarettes.