A message to fat people -

Don't eat so bloody much and get more exercise. It's your body, just stop shoving food down your throat. If it's your kids who are the problem, stop over feeding them and get them into more exercise too.

Try this simple pseudo script -

var "fuel intake" = "food";
var "fuel expenditure" = "exercise";
var "fat" = "poor health";

If "fuel intake" > "fuel expenditure", then "fat" happens;

If "fuel intake" = "fuel expenditure", then "fat" doesn't happen;

If "fuel intake" < "fuel expenditure", then "fat" goes away;

It's just that simple folks. And for crikey's sake, stop blaming good food manufacturers for your own gluttony. There's nothing wrong with a yummy Maccas and Coke in moderation.

Good luck.

sajo: I'm not knocking you, and in fact I agree with you in many ways. All I'm saying is that there are two ways to change specific or general business practices. One is to legislate. The other is via the market. I always prefer the latter (for a number of reasons that I won't go into now), which is why I say as expensive as it may be, it's important to support the businesses one likes and make the rest suffer or change. A case in point as to how the fringe gained acceptance into the mainstream is how most eating establishments now offer some sort of vegetarian cuisine (even if the options and quality are poor). Those in the food industry realised there was a market and responded accordingly.

There have been two recent articles in the Herald on obesity. One reports that a study of more than 5000 NSW children revealed "conclusive evidence that excessive eating - not lack of exercise - is behind rocketing levels of childhood obesity, challenging the Federal Government's refusal to restrict food advertising aimed at children", http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/shocking-truth-of-childhood-obesity/2006/04/21/1145344273755.html

Dr Michael Booth and colleagues found that children are tending to exercise not less, but harder than they used to:

"This flies in the face of what I think was an urban myth that children were inactive," said Dr Booth, who was so surprised that he ordered a recalculation. "Like everyone else, I believed the urban myth …"

The other article was by SBS economics correspondent Peter Martin. He writes at SMH when economics editor Ross Gittins is on leave, http://smh.com.au/news/opinion/out-of-the-frying-pan-under-fire/2006/04/25/1145861346925.html

Martin drew findings from researchers at the Harvard Institute of Economic Research. He writes:

QUOTE
Forty years ago most of our food was prepared laboriously at home. In 1965 it took a married woman who was not in paid employment two hours a day to cook, and then clean up after, a family meal. After decades of innovations, including vacuum packaging, deep-freezing and microwave cooking, it now takes half the time.

And the food is more processed.

As an example, Cutler says that Americans ate large quantities of potatoes before World War II, but the potatoes were usually baked, boiled or mashed. Chips were too hard to make, even for most restaurants. Now french fries can be peeled, cut, cooked and frozen in a few central locations using sophisticated technologies. Today the french fry is the dominant form of potato and America's favourite vegetable. Since 1977 potato consumption in the US has climbed 30 per cent, almost exclusively in the form of potato chips.

Cutler reasons that if it takes less effort to do something we like, we will do more of it. Only about a third of Americans reported eating two or more snacks a day in 1977. By 1996 it was almost a half.
END QUOTE

The HIER paper is at http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/dcutler/papers/Why_Have_Americans_Become_More_Obese.pdf

When I was a young boy, my mother [after having 3 children] was openly proud of her size 10 figure. She told me to stand up straight and be proud of myself. I was encouraged to be body conscious.

I always "listened to" my body. When I was 3, I refused to eat butter. when I was 6, I refused to drink milk. I enjoyed lean meat, but would not eat fat. I didn't want white bread, I preferred brown. My mother let me get away with this, because I always ate plenty of fruit and vegies.

As I got older, I gradually went off cake. I think my body was telling me something.

My father was a heavy smoker. When I was 13, he explained to me how smoking was harmful to health, expensive and very addictive. I didn't want to start something which took away my freedom to choose for myself. My elder sister was also a heavy smoker. Our house stank. My mother hated the smell and so did I.

When I was 16, my mother told me that the best way to meet girls was to learn to dance. How right she was. Because I knew how to dance, I didn't need to go to the pub with my mates before the dance to get some Dutch courage. So I never became a habitual heavy drinker.

I think dancing should be taught at school. Not everyone can be great at sports, but anyone can learn to dance. There's a style for everyone, Latin, rock-n-roll, line-dance, it's endless.

I have always lived a very active life and have never been overweight. About a year ago, I put on one and a half kilos and 4 cm around my waist. I talked to a natural therapist. She advised me to stop eating wheat products. In 3 weeks I was back to normal. I have gone back to eating wheat, but in moderation. If I couldn't wear the trousers I've been wearing for years, I would be horrified.

[Cont]

One of my friends commented on my flat stomach. I don't know what metabolic type he is, but I suggested no wheat, just for 3 weeks and to see how he went. He said it would be too hard. We make our own choices, don't we?

I go dancing 4 or 5 times a week and I swim a fast 100 metres every morning. Apart from gardening and home maintenance, which I enjoy, that's my regular exercise. Some of the dances include supper. As I don't like white sandwich bread, butter or margarine, cake, sweet biscuits, sweet pastry, little pies or sausage rolls, I usually go without supper and it doesn't do me any harm. Sometimes one of my overweight friends will notice that I'm not eating and ask me what's wrong with me.

I don't give myself a hard time. I like chocolate, a couple of glasses of wine with my dinner, fish and chips and pizza. And I'm having a glass of Coke right now. But these things are treats, I don't live on them.

I think we need to stop pretending. People, particularly young people, need telling straight. A person can be big and have a beautiful nature, but big is not beautiful, it's unhealthy. If you smoke, tobacco or pot, then you have an unpleasant smell. If you give in to peer pressure, then you're being gutless.

Before I retired, I had term insurance. Because I didn't smoke, I got a 40% discount. I have no-claims bonus on my car. And discount on home and contents because I have deadlocks and an alarm system. But the govt will not allow health insurers to give discounts for healthy lifestyles.

So what do we do? I don't deny a person an unhealthy lifestyle if that's what they choose. But they should pay for their unhealthy choices by paying extra tax on them,to be put straight into health and education funding. And we should stop pussyfooting around and tell it exactly how it is.

Shorbe – your theory is fine except should we accept that the healthy ones are the fringe and the overweight the mainstream? Market forces adapt to popular demand which at the moment is leaning towards the obese. If that is what we want then fine but if not we have to do something to alter the balance.

I am not sure what the answer is – if having healthy children isn’t enough incentive then I am not sure what is. Schools and childcare centres are generally quite good at providing or ensuring mostly healthy food is eaten (except for chocolate and doughnut fundraisers!). The problem lies squarely at home. The only way to make a difference is to play to people’s inherent laziness and make the easiest or cheapest options healthier. If this requires legislation then so be it.

It also needs to be recognized that it is very easy to fall into the trap of overeating and underexercising. Like many others I found the weight piled on through pregnancy and find it requires far more effort to keep the weight off than before I had children. Being at home with babies can be a lonely and sometimes depressing time and many mothers find themselves comfort eating. They don’t smoke or drink or take drugs or even sleep properly and their social lives become essentially non-existent. Many people respond to stress or depression through eating and it may be that for some people we need to address these issues rather than just calling them irresponsible