The Obesity Crisis

I think a public awareness advertisement campaign on TV and social media about the benefits of the UK Traffic Light Food Labelling system (and how to use it) would help.

Having never been more than a few pounds overweight frankly I had paid little or no attention to it until very recently when it was explained to me by a nurse at my local doctor's surgery. I now find the Traffic Light Labelling really useful in deciding what food not to put in my supermarket shopping basket. It's usually pretty easy to pick a healthier alternative.

The UK Traffic Light Food Labelling system uses a combination of colour coding (traffic lights) and nutritional information to show, at a glance, whether a product is high (red), medium (amber) or low (green) in fat, saturated fat, salt and sugars, and how much energy (calories and kilojoules) it provides.

I agree its not always a case of eat less. I do not eat much at all - one meal a day is enough for me and i only eat that because my wife makes me have an evening meal. It may be down to the fact i forget to eat or dont seen to have sonething in me that tells me im hungry or thirsty if im occupied elsewhere. The only way i can lose weight is to eat more and regularly, but it takes a lot of planning, effort and actually doing it which i find difficult. I lost 3 stone last year on SW by making sure i had 3 meals and plenty to drink every day. Over the last 6 months ive put 2 stone back on by eating less My doctor said my body has learnt to store fat because i dont eat enough and that causes the weight gain.

Processed food is pretty much garbage often with high levels of salt and sugar with the salt there to extend the food's shelf life and the sugar there to mask the taste of the salt. It's designed around being the most profitable for the manufacturer and desirable for the consumer to eat rather than be healthy.

So much conflicting information too. One source says fasting will cause your body to go into starvation mode and drop your metabolism so you can gain weight but another place fasting is the cure for insulin resistance which makes the body rely on sugars from food for energy but fasting will allow you to use your own fat reserves. Both cases are backed up with scientific evidence and study that shows its true for the subjects they tested.

Ultimately though if you look at Africa and people starving to death you never see a big fat person with a slow metabolism amongst them.

I'm overweight but no excuses, I live for food rather than eat food to live. I can lose weight very successfully but I have to be in the mood to do it with will power at the time.

The simplest and easiest way to lose weight is just avoid processed sugar, you can have fruit but never have any sugar in a non-natural state even fruit juice. The calorific value of processed sugar is extremely high and sugar also triggers the mind's binge-ing mechanism which is why manufacturer's love it so much people will buy more of their food. In nature typically the only time you get chance to come across a very high level of sugar is fruit and it only stays edible for a short time so most animals will naturally binge on fruit when available so it increases your appetite but processed sugar takes this to a much higher level and creates a greater appetite in most people so if you are struggling with your weight try to avoid processed sugars for a while and see if that helps balance your appetite. You don't have to sacrifice much and try to combine it with having a eating window of only 4 hours per day, i.e. a 2pm lunch and 5.45pm evening meal and that's it with no snacking outside those times (6pm to 2pm). It would be very difficult not to lose weight with such a diet. Accelerate the weight loss by doing exercise too. Processed sugar is everywhere though so snacks will be more difficult and probably end up being apples, banana's, grapes etc. Those have their carbs in the fibres so fuel your stomach bacteria and are poorly digested by you so improve the health of your gut rather than add extra layers of fat around it.

A lot of child obesity is down to the parents imo.

When I was growing up, we had one bottle of pop, one bar of chocolate and one pack of crisps a week when my parents did a big shop. It wasn't down to money, but just being sensible. Of course, it wasn't the only treats that we ate throughout the week (especially when visiting Nana ).

But looking at family and friends bringing up kids now, they can't seem to say No. I don't know whether it's down to pester power or not.

I've noticed "healthy" fast-food is as cheap as 99p, but it's still unhealthy food. I guess, just let people eat what they want and hopefully they'll learn from it.

The McDonald's Plant Based Burger for 99p seems interesting as folks say it tastes close to genuine meat, however, I've not been to a McD in a few years and don't care to.

Anyway, remember New York's mayor talking about getting the shot and a "free" burger meal? It was weird because he was promoting unhealthy food if you'd get the jab (though he's creepy so not a huge surprise).

They also had other incentives in the U.S. like "free" Dunkin' (or maybe it was Krispy Kreme) donuts for a year if the person was vaxxed, and VIP access to a strip club, etc.

My point being, if something is good then there's no need to coerce people to taking it. Besides, even with those incentives it didn't really work.

Everyone is different it a case of finding balance to achieve what you want to achieve and as always education and choice availability play a role.

I’ve always said elephants are large they’re born that way plus vegetarian so why assume humans all have to be slim? We’re not.

I was looking at the British Heart Foundation website yesterday. There is so much useful information on there for anyone who would like to have a more healthy lifestyle. You can subscribe to the newsletter for recipes, information and advice. It is free, (although I’m sure they would welcome a donation!). It’s more about being healthy for life rather than crash dieting. I lost a couple of stone using their eating well booklet.

I think everyone should be aiming for healthy rather than being skinny. I would say though, that I think cars are also a major factor in obesity and nearly as bad as junk food. People need to walk more and not drive distances that take 5 minutes to walk, it is lazy unless their is a real need to do so such as an injury or being ill.

I have recently lost 2 stone and am trying to lose more. I was in no way obese but I was overweight. I had gained weight in pregnancy and then gained weight comfort eating when wee one was ill.

I don't think that everyone needs to be slim, they should aim for being healthy. I lost weight as I knew it wasn't healthy for me. Not everyone is designed to be thin, but being healthy is definitely achievable for everyone.

We have an obsetity crisis and the answer if you was to ask local authorities is HAVE MORE ! When I moved in our home in 2002 I found out there was 17 fast food restaurants ranging from the local chippies to a curry/chinese house within a 2 mile radius .

Today its now 30+

I have a house rule with everyone in our household .The snacks and shall we say the less healthy foods in the house are in the living room . If for example the boys want a snack I allow it but I then insist on healthier alternatives eg fruit the next time but I know what my kids are like they will have a chocolate bar then the fruit has to be of an equal size .

I worked with a girl who was very overweight and she blamed her mum for it not because her mum give her junk food because her mum would only give her healthy food and snacks so when she could buy her own food all she got was things she wasn't aloud growing up lol I couldn't believe it what a excuse