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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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 Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 12:11 am Post subject: Obesity in the UK |
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/11/why-our-food-is-making-us-fat
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| We are, on average, 3st heavier than we were in the 60s. And not because we're eating more or exercising less � we just unwittingly became sugar addicts |
We're not eating more. We're not less active. But we are 3 stone heavier than we used to be (for those unfamiliar with the British system, 1 stone = 14 pounds, 15 stone = 210 lbs).
Could this be true of the U.S. as well? (despite the acknowledged fact that the U.S. as a nation love to drive and is king of junk food)
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| By the mid-70s, there was a surplus of corn. Butz flew to Japan to look into a scientific innovation that would change everything: the mass development of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), or glucose-fructose syrup as it's often referred to in the UK, a highly sweet, gloppy syrup, produced from surplus corn, that was also incredibly cheap. HFCS had been discovered in the 50s, but it was only in the 70s that a process had been found to harness it for mass production. HFCS was soon pumped into every conceivable food: pizzas, coleslaw, meat. |
Corn syrup - not fat - is the culprit, and you can even find it in 'low fat' foods. Since it's in so many things - even 'diet' foods - it's hard to avoid. It also looks like it might be addictive (read the article).
The problem is we (i.e. U.S. food inc.) have a huge industry devoted to the mass-production and sale of high fructose corn syrup. Could this, and not consumer choice, be the real reason for the rise in obesity over the last 40 years?
Speculatively, I think the other reason is the lack of a tradition of food culture in the anglosphere as opposed to Europe, where people appreciate what good food is, and Korea too, which places its own high value on food with flavour. Yet if we had a revolution in attitudes to food and a mass-education of our palates - even then, would we win out against the overriding commerical interests involved? |
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fermentation
Joined: 22 Jun 2009
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| Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 12:44 am Post subject: |
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Can't speak for the UK, I do think the US should focus more on feeding people and livestock real food, instead of making everything with corn.
I do think it has something to do with it, but I have a hard time believing that how much and how people eat along with physical activity (or lack thereof) doesn't have a lot to do with it.
Of course I'm not researcher and didn't do any actual studying, but I'm seeing more fat kids in Korea than I used to. I don't know of any corn subsidies like in the US. Plus sugary products here have actual sugar in them whereas the same product in the US would have HFCS instead.
Also personally, I was weighed less in the US on average than in Korea. I didn't eat healthier stuff or work out more, but I did eat less. |
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nero
Joined: 11 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 1:49 am Post subject: |
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Sugar is bad. Anything that spikes your blood sugar is bad. We know this. But just like alcohol and cigarettes, knowing the facts and changing your lifestyle are two different things.
Back home the problem is groups of fat friends who justify their binges as a pack of barflies would.
It has become the norm to be overweight in many areas of the developed world. |
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JustinC
Joined: 10 Mar 2012
Location: We Are The World!
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| Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 3:12 am Post subject: |
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Dishwashers, elevators/lifts, moving walkways, computer games, dvd players, satellite/cable tv, service (sedentary) jobs vs manufacturing or coal mining, selling off of school fields, driving kids to school, more money to buy food, shopping in one supermarket instead of multiple shops in a high street, greater choice of snack foods high in fat and/or sugar, smaller gardens, ubiquitous (and multiple in families) car ownership, beach holidays etc. We don't exercise less but we do far, far less day-to-day.
You can't blame food additives when you can buy so many natural foods that are barely changed since being harvested or cut from a (tasty) cow, chicken or fish. You can blame ignorance, though, and the lack of education in schools in how to cook proper food. |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 4:29 am Post subject: |
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^
I think you're missing the point that - no matter what kind of lifestyle we pursue - it's become hard to avoid foods with HFCS content.
The food industry has its claws in our school meals as well. Check out this story about a school dinners blog banned by the local council (and why would a local council concern itself with people's personal blogs and how do they even have the authority to ban the girl from taking pictures?) |
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JustinC
Joined: 10 Mar 2012
Location: We Are The World!
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| Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 2:41 am Post subject: |
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| Privateer wrote: |
^
I think you're missing the point that - no matter what kind of lifestyle we pursue - it's become hard to avoid foods with HFCS content.
The food industry has its claws in our school meals as well. Check out this story about a school dinners blog banned by the local council (and why would a local council concern itself with people's personal blogs and how do they even have the authority to ban the girl from taking pictures?) |
I don't disagree about the chemistry, just the social engineering. Maybe we should be protected from cancer-causing additives, but fat people have little excuses apart from being dumb/stupid. |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 12:33 am Post subject: |
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| Lack of self control. If its there and its pleasurable do it. |
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sml7285
Joined: 26 Apr 2012
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| Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 12:37 am Post subject: Re: Obesity in the UK |
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| Privateer wrote: |
| Corn syrup - not fat - is the culprit, and you can even find it in 'low fat' foods. Since it's in so many things - even 'diet' foods - it's hard to avoid. It also looks like it might be addictive (read the article). |
High fructose corn syrup became the economically feasible alternative to sugar due to the high tariffs on sugar in the US (I remember reading that sugar costs in the US are 2-3x more than the world cost) and the absolutely ludicrous policy where farmers get paid not to sell their corn (less corn in the market = higher margins; fewer farmers go bankrupt). |
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KimchiNinja
Joined: 01 May 2012
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 6:04 pm Post subject: |
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People eat what's there, that's how humans work.
* US - junk food is available on every street so people eat that.
* KR - healthy food is available on every street so people eat that.
If people want to change how things are they need to change the environment, because people will always eat what is readily available in their environment. That's how humans work. |
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cj1976
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 9:26 pm Post subject: |
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| KimchiNinja wrote: |
People eat what's there, that's how humans work.
* US - junk food is available on every street so people eat that.
* KR - healthy food is available on every street so people eat that.
If people want to change how things are they need to change the environment, because people will always eat what is readily available in their environment. That's how humans work. |
Not that simple. British supermarkets offer a far wider range of fruit, veg, herbs and spices than in Korea. British people just go for what they like ie instant food, frozen dinners etc. Britain simply doesn't have the food culture of countries like France, Italy or the Asian nations. Food and dining is more functional in the UK, where people want the quick gratification of junk food, rather than taking their time to prepare and enjoy a decent meal. |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 10:20 pm Post subject: |
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| young_clinton wrote: |
| Lack of self control. If its there and its pleasurable do it. |
But it's everywhere. |
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12ax7
Joined: 07 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 2:48 am Post subject: |
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| KimchiNinja wrote: |
People eat what's there, that's how humans work.
* US - junk food is available on every street so people eat that.
* KR - healthy food is available on every street so people eat that.
If people want to change how things are they need to change the environment, because people will always eat what is readily available in their environment. That's how humans work. |
Actually, although South Korea has a relatively low obesity rate (the lowest amongst OECD nations, apparently), it's still over 30%. |
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flakfizer
Joined: 12 Nov 2004
Location: scaling the Cliffs of Insanity with a frayed rope.
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| Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 2:51 am Post subject: |
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| KimchiNinja wrote: |
People eat what's there, that's how humans work.
* US - junk food is available on every street so people eat that.
* KR - healthy food is available on every street so people eat that.
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Is this is joke? Twigim, ddeok bokki, ho ddeuk etc. are not particularly healthful and I see them near almost every school and every fairly busy subway station. No matter where people are they can find healthful or unhealthful foods. |
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fermentation
Joined: 22 Jun 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 3:15 am Post subject: |
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| flakfizer wrote: |
Is this is joke? Twigim, ddeok bokki, ho ddeuk etc. are not particularly healthful and I see them near almost every school and every fairly busy subway station. No matter where people are they can find healthful or unhealthful foods. |
Most of Kimchininja's posts are a joke. |
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KimchiNinja
Joined: 01 May 2012
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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| flakfizer wrote: |
| KimchiNinja wrote: |
People eat what's there, that's how humans work.
* US - junk food is available on every street so people eat that.
* KR - healthy food is available on every street so people eat that.
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Is this is joke? Twigim, ddeok bokki, ho ddeuk etc. are not particularly healthful and I see them near almost every school and every fairly busy subway station. No matter where people are they can find healthful or unhealthful foods. |
It is not a joke you just aren't intelligent enough to comprehend.  Let me go thru it in mind numbing detail...
The American way is it keep taking about "personal choice" and "education" and all this nonsense, but if that was the way nature worked it would have worked by now. And it didn't work. We have a case study called the USA, so now we know.
So why didn't it work? You can't put McD on every corner, and pack the local QFC with 80% junk food, and say "well you should just work extra hard picking thru all the junk to find a few edible things". It is close to impossible to find anything in the USA that is not toxic, loaded with sugar, salt, etc. People eat what is there.
Let's examine what works. Here in Korea I paid $2 for a vegi kimbop this morning; ready in 10 seconds, no tax, no tip. Lunch is vegi bibimbop, fast, $6, healthy. It's everywhere, it's great, it's cheaper than McD. People eat what is there.
Is it that hard to understand? 
Observation: people in US are not healthy, people in KR are healthy.
Conclusion: alter the US landscape to be like the KR landscape, ie do what works.
Why this will never work. The problem you get in the US is that corporate profits are introduced to the equation. And the formula is profits > human health. So it�s always going to be a messed up deal and there's nothing you can do about that...except move to Korea.
Peace |
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