Obesity crisis in Ireland Mod Note post 1

Macy0161 · 06-02-2019 1:16pm

Wanderer78 wrote: »

so theres no complex psychological issues at play?

For most overweight/ obese people? No. A similar minority as those with underlying health conditions that may cause obesity.

xi5yvm0owc1s2b · 06-02-2019 1:20pm

Wanderer78 wrote: »

so theres no complex psychological issues at play?

The people citing "complex psychological issues" as an excuse probably need to take a long, hard look at their lifestyle.

Where were these "complex psychological issues" in the 1980s when the average Irish person had a BMI in the normal range and only 8 percent of adults were obese?

Today, the average person is eating far too many fatty and sugary foods, not exercising enough, and spending too many hours plopped on the couch glued to one screen or another. That's the core cause of the obesity crisis. It's unhealthy lifestyle choices, not "complex psychological issues."

Wanderer78 · 06-02-2019 1:20pm

Macy0161 wrote: »

For most overweight/ obese people? No. A similar minority as those with underlying health conditions that may cause obesity.

i beg to differ, complex social and psychological issues are at play here, and we re no where near sorting them

AudreyHepburn · 06-02-2019 1:21pm

Wanderer78 wrote: »

we ve been experiencing this project thus far, is it really working?

We haven’t though and that’s the problem. In this country we are very good shifting the blame and waiting around for others to fix our problems for us.

If you are obese then you must take responsibility and make the effort to change your lifestyle and choices. Waiting around for the government or the state to magically make the weight disappear won’t work.

Wanderer78 · 06-02-2019 1:22pm

Amaris Repulsive Golfer wrote: »

The people citing "complex psychological issues" as an excuse probably need to take a long, hard look at their lifestyle.

Where were these "complex psychological issues" in the 1980s when the average Irish person had a BMI in the normal range and only 8 percent of adults were obese?

Today, the average person is eating far too many fatty and sugary foods, not exercising enough, and spending too many hours plopped on the couch glued to one screen or another. That's the core cause of the obesity crisis. It's unhealthy lifestyle choices, not "complex psychological issues."

is the availability of these problematic foods an issue?

valoren · 06-02-2019 1:22pm

My sister in law, who is obese with type 2 diabetes, gave my wife and me a bag each of Tortilla chips from Tesco. She said they were nicer than Doritos. They were only 35c a bag.

The calorie content of the 200g was a little over 1000 calories.

I wouldn't normally eat these. Wouldn't go out of the way to get them but it being a Saturday night and the fact they were bought for us, I had a handful. ****ing hell, they tasted like cardboard but interestingly whatever they were laced with was like crack cocaine. I had a handful, then another and another until the bag was gone. Whatever they're putting on them is very alarming, I'm convinced they must be deliberately making them so that the reward centre of our brain goes ****ing ballistic, looking for more and more of cardboard tasting rubbish like ravenous addicts. It was an eye opener with 1,000 empty calories, which cost all of 35c, ingested easily within 20 minutes and tellingly I felt in no way satiated. If I'd eaten 1k calories of lean meat, veggies and spuds then I'd be full for a very long time.

I could easily have had another bag. I'll make sure that was a once off but imagine doing that every few days, even having a second bag. Couple that habit with a sedentary lifestyle and over time you will inevitably gain weight.

Wanderer78 · 06-02-2019 1:23pm

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

We haven’t though and that’s the problem. In this country we are very good shifting the blame and waiting around for others to fix our problems for us.

If you are obese then you must take responsibility and make the effort to change your lifestyle and choices. Waiting around for the government or the state to magically make the weight disappear won’t work.

have government policies being causing an effect of the access of foods?

AudreyHepburn · 06-02-2019 1:24pm

Wanderer78 wrote: »

have government policies being causing an effect of the access of foods?

Not to my knowledge - healthy food is perfectly easy to purchase if you really want to.

I’ll say it again - stop making excuses.

neris · 06-02-2019 1:29pm

radharc wrote: »

I think McDonald's is the easy target and if they were gone in the morning it wouldn't make the slightest difference to the level of obesity in the country.

How many people cook any more, everything is convenience now. Our local supermarket sells ready made dinners and they are feeding half the town. They are a great solution (and fine nutritionally) but it just illustrates the death of households cooking a dinner themselves every day.

I would disagree that they are nutritionally fine. Theyre pumped full of added salt, oils and preservatives (and who knows what else) that if you made the same dish from scratch at home you wouldnt be using half the stuff that the factory puts into it

Outlaw Pete · 06-02-2019 1:30pm

valoren wrote: »

My sister in law, who is obese with type 2 diabetes, gave my wife and me a bag each of Tortilla chips from Tesco. She said they were nicer than Doritos. They were only 35c a bag.

The calorie content of the 200g was a little over 1000 calories.

I wouldn't normally eat these. Wouldn't go out of the way to get them but it being a Saturday night and the fact they were bought for us, I had a handful. ****ing hell, they tasted like cardboard but interestingly whatever they were laced with was like crack cocaine. I had a handful, then another and another until the bag was gone. Whatever they're putting on them is very alarming, I'm convinced they must be deliberately making them so that the reward centre of our brains goes ****ing ballistic, looking for more and more like addicts. It was an eye opener with 1,000 empty calories, which cost all of 35c, ingested within 20 minutes.

Both Aldi and Lidl have 12" Pizzas for €0.65 too.

Then there's packs of fake Snickers and Mars for around €0.80 or so.

I'd say you could easily buy 5000 calories for €3.

I regularly see families buy rakes of this stuff so they can then spend the rest on alcohol.

Macy0161 · 06-02-2019 1:30pm

Wanderer78 wrote: »

i beg to differ, complex social and psychological issues are at play here, and we re no where near sorting them

As someone who was 22 stone, and has essentially halved my weight over a number of years, I really couldn't disagree with you more.

I was fat because I overate crap, but mainly because I overate "good" foods in big portions. On top of a sedentary lifestyle. I really don't believe there's widespread social or psycological issues at play, bar a failure to take personal responsibility.

Like so many areas of our society, just add obesity to the list that is "someone else's" fault, up to "someone else" to fix and "someone else" to pay for.

FutureGuy · 06-02-2019 1:31pm

Wanderer78 wrote: »

so theres no complex psychological issues at play?

Not in the VAST majority of cases.

xi5yvm0owc1s2b · 06-02-2019 1:32pm

Wanderer78 wrote: »

is the availability of these problematic foods an issue?

The fact that there's plenty of chocolate and cake and biscuits available in Tesco doesn't mean that I have to go and stuff my face with unhealthy food.

But I think you'd rather turn any number of cartwheels on this thread than acknowledge the role of individual responsibility when it comes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

You want to blame the government, blame "complex psychological issues," blame anyone and anything other than people who are choosing to eat unhealthily and not exercise.

The government can't stop people from munching through cake and biscuits and tins of Roses. The government can't make people get up at 6am and go for a run.

Stop blaming others and take a look at your own habits.

How Soon Is Now · 06-02-2019 1:33pm

There's no point making excuses for most overweight people they know they are overweight and they know how they got to that point.

The vast majority of people in Ireland have some kind of choice over what there eating and a lot would rather not educate themselves on food or nutrition in general.

I mean everyone eats crap now and again that's life your not always in mood of cooking good food or eating it for whatever reasons!

Thing is I have been overweight myself at some point in my life but I knew It was my own fault and I knew I could change if I really wanted to.

As usual theres to much excuses made for people who take the easy route in life and blame everything but themselves.

Eating well and being active is not hard and it doesn't cost a lot either!

At the end of the day there's nothing wrong with being overweight people can make there own choices in life we do it every minute of every day!

Just take responsibility for yourself and anyone's life your actions affect and don't make excuses!

Dakotabigone · 06-02-2019 1:40pm

Good news for the Hiace and golf gtd boys and girls.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2019/0206/1027808-mcdonagh-jobs/

FutureGuy · 06-02-2019 1:43pm

What's making things much worse is that if you try and point some of this online, you'll be accused of fat shaming. If you admit that you don't find a 20-stone woman as attractive as leaner and fitter women, you're a pig.

We are now being told that it's ok to be fat.

It's not ok. It's damaging. People need to take some responsibility for themselves.

Wibbs · 06-02-2019 1:49pm

FutureGuy wrote: »

If you admit that you don't find a 20-stone woman as attractive as leaner and fitter women, you're a pig.

In some places online. Offline not nearly so much. To be fair around here the impression I've gotten about this are people objecting to calling fat women ugly as a statement. I can't recall anyone, man or woman, suggesting you had to find fat women attractive.

How Soon Is Now · 06-02-2019 1:55pm

FutureGuy wrote: »

What's making things much worse is that if you try and point some of this online, you'll be accused of fat shaming. If you admit that you don't find a 20-stone woman as attractive as leaner and fitter women, you're a pig.

We are now being told that it's ok to be fat.

It's not ok. It's damaging. People need to take some responsibility for themselves.

You can be whatever the **** you want if you take responsibility for your actions!

You don't force your lifestyle or life choices onto anyone else.

If your not willing to look after yourself and you know what your doing is wrong you have no grounds to bitch when someone tells you it's not healthy!
You know well it's not ffs!

TheBoyConor · 06-02-2019 2:05pm

GAA Beo wrote: »

I think Lithuania has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, think it's a problem. Russia also.

Life expectancy in Russia and Ukraine = 71
Lithuania = 75
Latvia = 74
Ireland = 82

Although if our obesity keeps going through the roof that may change.

They might be healthy hearty eaters in eastern europe and russia but that whole region has a culture of heavy smoking, heavier drinking and a crazy insane culture of dangerous risk taking amongst men. Ever see the mental Russian highway videos on youtube? Also, probably much higher levels of workplace fatalities. And very high rates of suicide.

All of the above conspire to give the healthy eating easterners a lower life expectancy than their fat arsed western counterparts.

TheBoyConor · 06-02-2019 2:09pm

GAA Beo wrote: »

Yeah I think the BMI thing is overplayed. Most rugby players and weightlifters would be called overweight/obese on the BMI scale.

That's true. But BMI is a quick and easy tool for assessing the average Joe and Jane soap on the street for a healthy weight.
It is not intended to classify elite athletes on very strict training and nutrition regimes. They are outside of the BMI system's scope of application to a degree because they are not your average joe or jane.

BMI is a useful indicator. It is not a definitive statement of health or healthy weight.

FutureGuy · 06-02-2019 2:19pm

Wibbs wrote: »

In some places online. Offline not nearly so much. To be fair around here the impression I've gotten about this are people objecting to calling fat women ugly as a statement. I can't recall anyone, man or woman, suggesting you had to find fat women attractive.

Yeah, it is some places online but you can post in one place and have it dragged up elsewhere.

TheBoyConor · 06-02-2019 2:29pm

ceadaoin. wrote: »

I think they still teach kids the food pyramid which is totally wrong.

It might not be great, but it is certainly far far better than fizzy drink and sugary cereal for breakfast and fast food for dinner and snacks in between.

Zorya · 06-02-2019 2:33pm

Amaris Repulsive Golfer wrote: »

The people citing "complex psychological issues" as an excuse probably need to take a long, hard look at their lifestyle.

Where were these "complex psychological issues" in the 1980s when the average Irish person had a BMI in the normal range and only 8 percent of adults were obese?

I generally agree with you that a lot of people can make excuses. But that 8% figure in a time with less fast food, sugar, disposable income, drink, more exercise etc., suggests that there are a core of people who get over weight for what might be called complex issues. Some due to medication, some due to traumatic abuse, some due to illness, some due to grieving, and so on. So, one can't know looking at a person what is the reason they are overweight. Some people when desperately sad or worried will fade away and others will balloon up. There but for grace go I.

_Brian · 06-02-2019 2:36pm

Wanderer78 wrote: »

so theres no complex psychological issues at play?

In occasional cases but not the majority.

Bigbagofcans · 06-02-2019 2:36pm

pwurple wrote: »

Change to a 4 day working week.

Office workers are expected to do two or three jobs... Their paid work, look after their homes and families, and also exercise and keep healthy. The third gets dropped because there aren't enough free hours to get it all done.

Why the feck, in this age of automation, are we all working such ridiculous hours behind desks.

We should be on 10 hour weeks at this stage.

I agree that we should all have a 4 day working week. 5 days is too much.

I disagree that we don't have the time to exercise. If we can spend 3 hours sitting watching Netflix each evening then we can spare 30 mins to go for a walk/run or do a home workout.

GAA Beo · 06-02-2019 2:48pm

Dakotabigone wrote: »

Good news for the Hiace and golf gtd boys and girls.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2019/0206/1027808-mcdonagh-jobs/

Seen that on the news, they are obviously doing very well. Says it all doesn't it! The amount of take aways in our town is ridiculous, I assume it's the same in most others: subway, kfc, mcdonalds, 4 chineses, "italian" roma chippers, apache pizza, mizzoni, several kebab takeaways, indians, then several independent Irish outfits. No supermacs funny enough, they will probably throw in one soon.

Unreal the amount people are eating, most of these places are doing great business. Back in the day there was maybe 2-3 places. Thats not even counting the places now with deli counters and people getting the breakfast rolls etc.

SusieBlue · 06-02-2019 3:24pm

I just checked my BMI,out of interest.
According to the chart, I'm very overweight, and very close to becoming obese.

I'm a size 8-10 and have 17% body fat. My shape is lean and in proportion.
I'm not an athlete, I go to the gym 3/4 times a week, eat relatively well and get my 10k steps in.
I wouldn't consider myself to be super fit or anything like that.
Its no wonder people end up with complexes and eating disorders if they're using tools like that to determine whether they are at a healthy weight or not.

Its a very poor indicator. Body fat levels are so much more important than how much you weigh when you step on the scales.

I can only imagine the result it would have given me if I had used it last year before I changed my lifestyle a little bit and lost weight.

Wibbs · 06-02-2019 3:27pm

SusieBlue wrote: »

I just checked my BMI,out of interest.
According to the chart, I'm very overweight, and very close to becoming obese.

I'm a size 8-10 and have 17% body fat.

How are you a size 8-10 with 17% body fat and that high up on the BMI scale?

SusieBlue · 06-02-2019 3:34pm

Wibbs wrote: »

How are you a size 8-10 with 17% body fat and that high up on the BMI scale?

I weigh more than I look, I can only presume its because I do a lot of weight training rather than cardio, so I've built up a good bit of muscle.

Wibbs · 06-02-2019 3:40pm

SusieBlue wrote: »

I weigh more than I look, I can only presume its because I do a lot of weight training rather than cardio, so I've built up a good bit of muscle.

Makes sense S as muscle is heavier than fat. So you're kinda like the rugby guys who would register as "obese" on BMI scales. If someone is shorter or taller it tends to go a bit off too.

Obesity crisis in Ireland Mod Note post 1

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