Weekend Weight Loss Waffle

Hi folks,

I was struck by the idea that many people have been brought up on various ideas about what "good" food is. These range from magnificently well intentioned but now rather out-of-date ideas like "meat and two veg" to blatant commercial ambiguity like "A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play" or "Looks good, tastes good and by golly it does you good".

Along with ideas like, "Be a 'good' boy and I'll buy you some sweets", etc. (That kind of puts good and sweets together in a youngster's mind, doesn't it?)

No wonder people have mixed up ideas about what foods and/or quantities are "good" for them.

And, of course, modern dieticians and nutritionists know a lot more about things than they did say, ten years ago. We have much clearer ideas about the links between foods (and the lack of specific nutrients) and how they increase the risks of diabetes, heart problems and, in particular, various forms of cancer.

Indeed, both diet and being significantly overweight have significant impact upon disease risk too. Though the significant overweight is perhaps just an indicator of problems with a person's diet. (Though not always - there can sometimes be other reasons).

Maybe us lot living here and now in the twenty teens, should be trying to improve our understanding of what "good", healthy and nutritious food is nowadays and trying to leave past notions (especially those delivered via advertising agencies) behind.

For sure, its all quite complex and for complex reasons. The deprivations of WW2, caused a lot of people to over-compensate and believe that endless 'treats' were right and train the next generation in those ways. And very often, better food though more expensive, has better nutrition per £, than 'cheaper' alternatives. And very often poor nutrition products are being presented as being wonderful if not miraculously good for you. And we all have to live in the real world. And I'm not talking about fads, or fashions.

But every journey starts with a first step.

And perhaps we could through education and awareness bring increasing changes to our food industries through customer power.

Big food manufacturers and Jo Public are always going to be at conflict with each other. The manufacturers and retailers have a prime objective to make money. Jo Public's prime objective is to live and be healthy - as much as is possible. They are quite simply conflicting interests.

[gingernut49]

Certainly I think one of the biggest ways I went wrong over the years was to show what a good wife and mother I was by piling up plates with food. Now I eat from small plates and far less and my waistline shows the difference - and of course it's cheaper to eat less!

I do think the major cause of obesity are all the fast food restaurants that there are nowadays. We only had the fish and chip shop. We also were never allowed to eat in the street but had to take even sweets home to eat.

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Hi gingenut49,

Can't help but think that many things we grab for a quick bite just didn't exist a few hundred years ago - all those cakes and biscuits and bread things and chocolate things.

A few hundred years ago, they'd have eaten fruit, or veg, or perhaps meat.

Is that perhaps where so much of the carbs and calories that modern people eat come from? And of course, the modern ones would likely be refined foods without the fibre and many of the other "good" things in them.