Agreed, but also in many societies different forms of social change also contribute. When I lived in S Africa I realised that country’s major obesity problems were most manifest in two very different social groups and had two very different, almost contrasting causes.
Firstly, middle class Zulus who’d switched from traditional foods to modern highly processed Western food which was an affirmation of their social rise and a reflection of traditional societies equating plumpness with wealth prosperity and power - one seldom sees a scrawny or underweight traditional leader… Secondly white people particularly with a rural Afrikaner background who continued to eat their traditional large carb-heavy meals, but were no longer burning it off through hard manual labour.
I rather doubt you are representative of a financially squeezed family with lots of mouths to feed and little time to do so! Lu noir would probably be the best quality thing in their baskets.
And it is quite obvious when people are doing a weekly shop that will get eaten.
It seems to be that British and French eating habits are going in opposite directions in recent years. The British used to quite rightly have a reputation for eating very badly, but are now learning to be much more adventurous in their eating habits. The French quite rightly had a reputation for eating well, but are eating more and more kebab and pizza now. Having said that there are still a lot of French people who still eat well and British people that eat badly, but the gap is closing.
and, to my mind, it’s hard to refute that the rise in obesity might (in part) be due to prolonged inactivity…
many youngsters (my grandson included) seem to be glued to their “whatever” devices nowadays… for hours on end sometimes.
In my GSons case, his mum has laid down some rules… a certain time on the “whatever” followed by a certain time doing some physical exercise/something completely different… and after some mumbles it seems to have been accepted… but we’ll see how it is in the longterm…
‘Eating badly’ is a pretty ambiguous description’ that can be read in different ways - depending on when and what you’re referring to. Fifty or sixty years ago most British main meals were fairly bland and traditional, but they were made from fresh ingredients, home -cooked and families sat down and ate tea/dinner/supper together. It can all seem a tad ‘grey’ today, but most families ate fairly healthily 5partly due to the legacy of rationing and Gov propaganda on healthy eating in the context of a wartime economy.
I also remember in my primary and grammar schools only one person in each of my cohorts who could be described as possibly just a little bit overweight (one went on to become an international opera baritone and didn’t develop Pavarottian dimensions).
In other words although British cooking of the post-War era might be looked down on by subsequent more cosmopolitan generations, perhaps in many respects people ate ‘better’ and ‘lived better’ than do the majority of Brits today. And I certainly don’t recall there being food banks!
If you jumped forward another 10 years I think you might see things changed. Vesta, boil in the bag meals, tinned stews and pies, angel delight, pink plastic puddings, fish fingers, smash. These were the processed ready meals of the 60s and 70s, paving the way for some of the present culinary horrors.
About France, I’ve made the observation here before that during our trip in 2021 we joked that pizza had become the French national dish, because away from tourist areas it was often all we could find to eat in the evening. COVID was partly the cause, but every small town seemed to have several pizza takeaways open but nothing else.
Dr.Mark says “In other words although British cooking of the post-War era might be looked down on by subsequent more cosmopolitan generations, perhaps in many respects people ate ‘better’ and ‘lived better’ than do the majority of Brits today.”
some years ago, there used to be a lovely little restaurant in Lalinde… where they did home-made pizzas… delicious.
and you could watch Grandad twirling the pasta base, absolutely fascinating…
The place was always busy and we were gutted when it closed after Gdad died.
I’m very picky about pizzas but there are some good artisanal ones around and they’re very popular, as you say…
but one needs to know what one is buying…
We stayed for a couple of weeks in a place called Vico Equense part way round the bay of Naples. The town had relatively few restaurants, but one was a Pizza a Metro (pizza by the meter) and what they served was sometimes dry and uninteresting - not expected. We were having to watch the costs, so couldn’t just go bananas every night on ‘nice’ food.
There have been many studies over the past 70 years examining the role exercise plays in weight management. Recent researchon the topic has predominantly found exercise alone has minimal impact on weight loss.
As Stella has said, cases of obesity can be from a combination of factors. So acting on multiple factors may be needed for remedial action too. Others here agree that although the factors linked with obesity may be multiple, some factors seem to be linked more strongly in more recent years.
Having read through several interesting reports…
It seems that the basic theory is… taking in more calories than one burns… causes the body to store the calories…
although there are (of course) variations on this theme…
the remedy should be simple… but, of course, it’s not quite as straight forward as that…
@letsmile Frankly, I’ll be quite happy to get back to the apero’s… but only in moderation, of course…
It’s clear that the ideal state to avoid obesity is simply good diet and plenty of excercise, and the worst state to risk obesity is poor diet and no excercise.
@Stella beat me to it re the calories comment, but it is in fact that basic. If one is in a calorie deficit i.e. consumes less calories than one burns, then hey presto you lose weight. And vice versa, if one consumes more calories than one burns, then one gains weight. There isn’t any black art to this, it is that simple. Of course, bodily function is aided by good diet and not eating a diet of poor nutrition, but ultimately it is the balance of calories that is the key.
If I don’t do as much excercise and continue to eat the same amount of calories, I gain weight. If I do more excercise and do not increase my calorie intake I lose weight. Of course I make sure I take a balanced diet, but sometimes I may indulge in far less healthy foods and it doesn’t make any difference at all to my weight. When I was slogging away at work in meetings and pressing buttons on my laptop, I had a very sedentary lifestyle, so although I had a healthy diet I gained weight. Why, because I was taking on more calories than I was burning.
I have studied diet and excercise alot and read many books and articles on the topic and I would say I am very much living proof that the theory is correct. This all obviously excludes anyone unfortunate enough to have a relevant medical condition that may impact normal bodily function making them more prone to weight gain e.g thyroid function, or e.g steroid medication, or physically unable to do the excercise to burn the calories to match their diet.
I am no longer doing 4+ hours excercise a day so do not need to take on as many calories, but when I was, I was consuming absolutely anything and everything!
It’s also worth considering that some are lucky enough to excrete a lot of the calories they don’t need, while others will naturally lay them down as fat.
I think my brothers had a fast metabolism as they would “eat like horses” yet looked like string beans… both as kids and throughout their lives…
Elder brother was into sports etc, very active
Younger brother was into books etc, very sedentary
I was nicknamed “Little Plum” for those of you old enough to have read the beano… as my tummy was somewhat rounded…
