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Ooh BBC Breakfast News

The GP seemed to be implying we are all too stupid to understand and should therefore stick to eating the stuff that is killing us.
Yes this was the message I also got from the GP. If you are obese / over weight then you are too stupid to be told anything more complicated than eat carbs and not fat. I found her really patronising. Not all fat people are thick!! Surely GPs have a duty of care to give their patients all the available information and discuss the options available to them.
 
There is an interesting comment in there.

“Before we had the obesity epidemic do you think our grandparents were counting calories?"

Mine certainly didn't

Far too busy walking everywhere, carrying the shopping home, getting the washing done in the dolly tub with the posser, cleaning the grate out, getting the coal in, scrubbing the doorstep, pushing the hand mower, tending the allotment..........

I also remember a load of spuds, bread, carrots, parsnips, gravy with flour, bread and butter puddings with lots of currants, raisins, coated in golden browned sugar, homemade custard sweetened with sugar, cakes, pastry, and even some meat occasionally.
My grandpa ate loads of sweets and was never overweight. Unfortunately he also got type 2 diabetes and was eventually on insulin.
 
I'm pleased to say mine didn't.

Carbs, starchy foods, root veg, spuds, stodgy puddings, into their 90's.
And as you say, boiled sweets to excess.

But it's interesting to see, even the 'diet of old' still gave rise to diabetes, so maybe it's not entirely the fault of modern foodstuffs in your opinion then?
 
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This is from back in March - I'm always a bit behind the times - but I've just listened to the download and it was interesting on how the low fat diet came about in the 1970s.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054t9hn
(You can listen online or download as an MP3 to listen later - listened today while I was off out on my daily walk.)
 
Just glad he said the eatwell plate was the causation of problems!!
 
People ate more real food previously and especially after the war knew about rationing... Ie portion size.
I look at what friends and neighbours eat and sorry, its just processed, huge portions of junky food.

Something has gone wrong since the introduction of all the ready meals and junk food.

Its only when you actually get something wrong with you that you get introduced to the NHS eatwell plate.... And then this advice of eating food is too late because people are hooked on processed and junk food.
 
There is an interesting comment in there.

“Before we had the obesity epidemic do you think our grandparents were counting calories?"

Mine certainly didn't

Far too busy walking everywhere, carrying the shopping home, getting the washing done in the dolly tub with the posser, cleaning the grate out, getting the coal in, scrubbing the doorstep, pushing the hand mower, tending the allotment..........

I also remember a load of spuds, bread, carrots, parsnips, gravy with flour, bread and butter puddings with lots of currants, raisins, coated in golden browned sugar, homemade custard sweetened with sugar, cakes, pastry, and even some meat occasionally.

Our grandparents didn't have cars... And limited TV etc and even with the puds and flour etc with their physical activity didn't have too worry about the types of food etc...

Nowadays.. I see grandparents sending kids home where I live with absolute junk food. The parents and grandparents live one road away from each other. The children get sent home to their parents with literally bags of crisps, cakes, chocolate and cans of fanta or dr pepper etc... Then at home the mother doesn't know how to cook and they get brought up on ready meals or takeaways.

Sure this is a bad example - but it is real. I know of weightwatcher groups having to give lessons on cooking to younger persons as they just don't know how to cook...

Its ok to blame the eatwell plate ... But thats from the NHS and people generally don't even get to hear about the eatwell plate until they are ill.. And their eating habits are really poor well before having to see the Nhs eatwell plate..
 
Our grandparents didn't have cars... And limited TV etc and even with the puds and flour etc with their physical activity didn't have too worry about the types of food etc...

Nowadays.. I see grandparents sending kids home where I live with absolute junk food. The parents and grandparents live one road away from each other. The children get sent home to their parents with literally bags of crisps, cakes, chocolate and cans of fanta or dr pepper etc... Then at home the mother doesn't know how to cook and they get brought up on ready meals or takeaways.

Sure this is a bad example - but it is real. I know of weightwatcher groups having to give lessons on cooking to younger persons as they just don't know how to cook...

Its ok to blame the eatwell plate ... But thats from the NHS and people generally don't even get to hear about the eatwell plate until they are ill.. And their eating habits are really poor well before having to see the Nhs eatwell plate..
Mine weren't.
 
There is an interesting comment in there.

“Before we had the obesity epidemic do you think our grandparents were counting calories?"

Mine certainly didn't

Far too busy walking everywhere, carrying the shopping home, getting the washing done in the dolly tub with the posser, cleaning the grate out, getting the coal in, scrubbing the doorstep, pushing the hand mower, tending the allotment..........

I also remember a load of spuds, bread, carrots, parsnips, gravy with flour, bread and butter puddings with lots of currants, raisins, coated in golden browned sugar, homemade custard sweetened with sugar, cakes, pastry, and even some meat occasionally.
You are so right that was how life and diet was and especially when I was a child during WW2. Bread potatoes and other root vegetables were the staples to bulk out a meal that had very little meat it was certainly not a high fat diet then but much more high starchy carbs, kids were given sugar on bread and margarine they got more sugar on their ration books than adults yet obesity and T2 diabetes was almost unheard of so what has changed now to cause the diabetes and obesity epidemic it can't just be carbs and overweight. It is more a sedentary lifestyle now people just don't get the exercise that they did then when for a woman housework washing cooking was really hard work and they did not get a lot of rest
 
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You are so right that was how life and diet was and especially when I was a child during WW2. Bread potatoes and other root vegetables were the staples to bulk out a meal that had very little meat it was certainly not a high fat diet in those days but was very much more high carb yet obesity and T2 diabetes was almost unheard of so what has changed now to cause the diabetes and obesity epidemic it can't just be carbs and overweight
I think diet still plays a huge part. Margarine or low fat spreads were not in their fridges. They ate butter. There was very little processed foods. Yes, they ate carbs but far fewer than nowadays. Most food was fresh and prepared from scratch. They didn't eat carby takeaways. They were also much more active. They didn't drive their kids to school.
 
You are so right that was how life and diet was and especially when I was a child during WW2. Bread potatoes and other root vegetables were the staples to bulk out a meal that had very little meat it was certainly not a high fat diet in those days but was very much more high carb yet obesity and T2 diabetes was almost unheard of so what has changed now to cause the diabetes and obesity epidemic it can't just be carbs and overweight

Too much food, continuous snacking, processed food, and lack of exercise must be a large part of it.
 
I think diet still plays a huge part. Margarine or low fat spreads were not in their fridges. They ate butter. There was very little processed foods. Yes, they ate carbs but far fewer than nowadays. Most food was fresh and prepared from scratch. They didn't eat carby takeaways. They were also much more active. They didn't drive their kids to school.

Butter?
Stork margarine was introduced in the 20's.
It was a staple of my nan's cooking, butter was a complete luxury.

Fewer carbs?
Less food, but the food was a majority of carbs.

My past may not be as rose tinted as it could be I guess.
 
Butter?
Stork margarine was introduced in the 20's.
It was a staple of my nan's cooking, butter was a complete luxury.

Fewer carbs?
Less food, but the food was a majority of carbs.

My past may not be as rose tinted as it could be I guess.

There was just me and my mother during the war my father was in the army. Our butter ration was 2oz a week each so to have it with bread and jam on a Sunday was a treat
 
I think diet still plays a huge part. Margarine or low fat spreads were not in their fridges. They ate butter. There was very little processed foods. Yes, they ate carbs but far fewer than nowadays. Most food was fresh and prepared from scratch. They didn't eat carby takeaways. They were also much more active. They didn't drive their kids to school.

I'm trying to remember the fat.

No oils, it was normally boiled, of fried in marg.
Nothing 'foreign', maybe a bottle of 'vegetable' oil though.
Lamb chops were fatty.
Pork chops weren't that fatty, in fact the butcher used to trim them off if you could afford the better cuts.
No beef
Bacon and sausage.
No cream, apart from the top of the milk, on the cornflakes, with a spoonful of sugar or two.
Or in the porridge, with maybe sugar, syrup, and jam.
The jam sandwiches.

Any dripping was kept, but wasn't wasted. It was eaten with an awful lot of bread.

Beyond that, I can't really remember any other, but then nothing kept well without a fridge, so most food was eaten the same day.
 
There was just me and my mother during the war my father was in the army. Our butter ration was 2oz a week each so to have it with bread and jam on a Sunday was a treat

I remember a lot of bread and jam!

There was always a pot out.
 
I've read estimates that manual labourers (medieval and Victorian) probably required around 4,000 calories a day to fuel their labour and maintain body heat in unheated workshops or outside labour.

With metabolisms working at that rate, day in, day out, carbs would have been burned up very quickly - and would have been the only way to get enough calories.

I agree that people have eaten carbs in recent generations. But without all the exercise, and with recent increases in processed foods, sugar, etc, the situation is very different from even 40 years ago.

- added to which, we are the result of several hundred years of dietary changes. Sugar and fruit have become increasingly common. Highly processed bread has become the norm.

If you feed any species poor food over several generations you see progressive declines in health, immunity and a rise in cancer and degenerative disease. They have done this with cats and rats.

Me? I think the problems started with the introduction of farming, thousands of years ago, increased with sugar becoming widely available, with industrialisation and processed foods just adding to it.

My grandparents were already eating badly. Bread, fruit, sugar. They were coasting on the legacy of their ancestors - and they still got T2 on both sides of the family!

Lucky me. I am just the generation when it completely fell apart, and my every dietary choice is damage control for their legacy.
 
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Butter?
Stork margarine was introduced in the 20's.
It was a staple of my nan's cooking, butter was a complete luxury.

Fewer carbs?
Less food, but the food was a majority of carbs.

My past may not be as rose tinted as it could be I guess.
We did not have much butter when I was bringing up my children in the 60/70's it was expensive so a real luxury and we had far more margarine and yes I agree the majority of foods that we ate then was very carby lots of bread and root vegetables in the stews and casseroles to stretch the meat we had a lot of pastryand pies and the only takeaway was carby fish and chips
 
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.............Me? I think the problems started with the introduction of farming, thousands of years ago, increased with sugar becoming widely available, with industrialisation and processed foods just adding to it.......

I must admit, I don't mind killing, skinning and gutting the odd rabbit, or preparing fish or wild birds.

Would I go back to hunter/gatherer days?

I wouldn't like to, particularly if not only did I have to catch it and kill it, it stood a good chance of killing me.
I think maybe there were a fair amount of vegetarians then as well.
 
An interesting read is Wheat Belly by Cardiologist Dr William Davies where he pin points the start of the obesity epidemic to when wheat was introduced as a necessary element for a balanced diet. He also goes into the history of wheat, how it has been modified over the years, what our Grandparents ate is not the same strain that we now consume.

Don't know about you, I've developed a habit of looking at the content of Joe Public's supermarket shopping trolley. I can't help but feel the majority possibly have some form of vitamin deficiency and malnutrition based on their selection of foods, which then relates to the social and economical affordability structure. Another thought I have often nurtured, if everyone ate healthily turning away from the bulking agents, fillers, addictive additions would there be a global food shortage?
 
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An interesting read is Wheat Belly by Cardiologist Dr William Davies where he pin points the start of the obesity epidemic to when wheat was introduced as a necessary element for a balanced diet. He also goes into the history of wheat, how it has been modified over the years, what our Grandparents ate is not the same strain that we now consume.

Don't know about you, I've developed a habit of looking at the content of Joe Public's supermarket shopping trolley. I can't help but feel the majority possibly have some form of vitamin deficiency with their selection of foods. Another thought I have often nurtured, if everyone ate healthily turning away from the bulking agents, fillers, addictive additions would there be a global food shortage?

Nothing is healthy.

Possibly if you relied solely on completely organic, but then there would be only enough food for a very small percentage of the population.
I certainly would be priced into death.
But then, so would everyone when the first natural crop failure happened.
You could move down the chain, to reared meat, with the associated drugs, feeds, factory farming.
Or the crops, with the associated fertilizers and chemicals and pesticides.
Or fruit and berries, with the same.
Or eggs, from factory farmed, barn fed, free range, drug fed chickens.

All food is bulked up, be it carbs, or fats, or proteins.
All we can do is decide what we choose to draw our own personal line at.

As to the wheat argument, that is very true.
But then, if you believe all carbs turn to sugar, so no carb is ever good, or was ever good, it makes no difference it the strain has been altered over time.
It would still have had the exact same affect if it was the original strain.
 
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