Who should take responsibility?

ickihun said:

I wanted to quote this from the tweeter post about how obesity is treated in the UK.
"There is bias in the health system and huge provider bais against obesity" he asserted.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticl...012_mscpedt_news_mdscp_overweightreport&faf=1

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A real eyeopener, thanks for posting. I do like the way some countries are trying to help their people and within the workplace too. with incentives. Unfortunately Costa, Starbucks, KFC, Greggs, McDonalds to name a few, are everywhere now.

If you are sat at your desk for eight hours a day and turn into a couch potato the minute you get home, you could be playing fast and loose with death.
Apparently, sitting for more than three hours a day could shave two whole years off your life.
If those two years let us take back the last two seasons of Lost, we don’t mind that much.

According to Harvard boffins, watching just two hours of telly can lead to a whole bunch of nastiness.
After the age of 25, for every single hour of TV you watch, your life expectancy drops by 21.8 minutes.
This is less to do with the TV being evil and more to do with you parking your rear and not moving for three hours at a time.

Most of us sleeping beauties out there love our shut-eye, but too much sleep isn’t that good for you – the same goes for not getting enough sleep.
Harvard research found that lifespan can significantly decrease in those who average less than five or more than nine hours a night.
You’re also likely to be more irritable in the office the next day, and nobody likes that person.

It's been found that men who didn’t have sex at least once a month experienced twice the mortality rate of those who were getting lucky once a week.
And women who had enjoyable sex lives lived eight years longer than those who didn’t.
So if you want to have a longer life expectancy, get more active under the sheets.

those who travel to work – more than 31 miles each way – have shorter lifespans than those that live closer to the job.

If you add up all the things we do that can shorten life spans then it's suprising any one makes it past thirty.

The problem I have with reports like this is that they are still promoting the eating habits that gave me T2D. As in:

"On average, 50% of people have an unhealthy diet, 40% of waking time is spent in sedentary activities, one in three people don't do enough physical activity, and two in five don't eat enough fruit and vegetables."

I was eating a recommended High 'good' Carb, Low Fat for over a decade and slowly putting on weight (I was a TOFI) and gaining visceral fat until my body could no longer cope.

When will they realise that their advice can make even slim people diabetic!

I think that everybody has a responsibility but even though people may not understand the role of carbs (ie fruit) they all understand that overeating on absolute rubbish (cakes/biscuits/crisps/pastry/sweets et al) might make you obese. I am sure there are plenty of people who know full well that they did not become obese by eating an apple and wholemeal toast (albeit those items may not be great for people with diabetes and of course if you are glucose impaired in any way that in itself may help you become obese, or a medical issue). This is exacerbated by the fact that everywhere you look it is fast food/shelves full of sugary items/two for one offers on family size bags of crisps and on and on and on.

ianf0ster said:

The problem I have with reports like this is that they are still promoting the eating habits that gave me T2D. As in:

"On average, 50% of people have an unhealthy diet, 40% of waking time is spent in sedentary activities, one in three people don't do enough physical activity, and two in five don't eat enough fruit and vegetables."

I was eating a recommended High 'good' Carb, Low Fat for over a decade and slowly putting on weight (I was a TOFI) and gaining visceral fat until my body could no longer cope.

When will they realise that their advice can make even slim people diabetic!

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Hi Ian, I agree but they only really refer to the 'majority' of the public rather than those with specific conditions or exceptions to the rule. I wonder if the average person ate only those 5 fruit & veg and didn't accompany that with the rubbish that a lot of people seem to eat, whether they would be ok?

Ultimately we are all responsible for our own health.

A bit of everything in my opinion

We all know not to eat junk eg sweets, cakes, sugary drinks etc. So that’s personal. We all know that by and large veg are safe and good so that bit is personal. Resorting to processed food rather than real food is also personal responsibility

The fact that sugar is in a huge amount of food unnecessarily is on manufacturing and lack of gov limits.

Without all this extra sugar addiction creation in otherwise normal food maybe many current type 2 would not have reached the carb saturation point of becoming type 2 in the first place despite having the genetic ability to do so.

Non diabetics (and most diabetics!) have no idea of the impact of carbs and that’s on the health educators and policy makers. As are the ridiculous current guidelines for eating. Can hardly blame an individual doing what those who are supposed to know best tell you to do, even if it rubbish advice

We in here look at guidelines about carbs with our diabetes goggles on. Maybe the limits we impose are more extreme than people not yet insulin resistant need to employ. But that doesn’t mean it’s healthy to eat the mind boggling levels many do either.

ickihun said:

I often blame my 'feeder'. Then I just realise my genes haven't helped but I'm the tallest female in our family so I guess it could be worse.
An underactive thyroid diagnosed at 22yrs old tells me alot too.
I agree that psychology and sociology with gene factors all contribute.
I guess that's what makes us human.

The bias against obesity though shames young people into hiding away and making their obesity worse.
Society does have some responsibility with shift work, long hours worked or encouraged and fat shaming.
Processed food is under the microscope, currently.

I love new incentives in infant schools to keeping children active and even buying outdoor rambling/running routes. (Tyne Tees TV article yesterday). All to undo Thatchers selling of school fields etc.

I agree with @JohnEGreen. We all have to take responsibility.

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Yep, as if life isn't already hard enough.

JohnEGreen said:

Ultimately we are all responsible for our own health.

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After we realize the extent to which we are brainwashed. Before that we are taught to trust the experts.

As I burnt all the diet sheets the day after diagnosis I don't have any to hand, but they were all about carbs - cereal with skimmed milk, baked potato, and baked beans make a good filling lunch, or a sandwich - and for dinner - well avoid red meat - pasta bake is good.
For years if I had any reason to visit the doctor it was all about my weight, nothing else mattered - I went for years with a failing thyroid as all the symptoms were dismissed as being overweight, with all the negative assumptions which go with being seen as fat and lazy.
The fact that I had been very muscular was never factored in, even though I worked as a roadie and could hoist a dead drunk guitarist off the floor any day of the week.
I used to run around in the mountains quite a bit too. When my GP booked me in to do some exercise classes I missed a session and got a roasting - where were you that was more important than doing some exercise he asked.
Kinder Scout, I said.
At least that shut him up.

JAT1 said:

After we realize the extent to which we are brainwashed. Before that we are taught to trust the experts.

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A story my father told me when I was but a lad goes something like this.

A father instructs his young son to stand on a table.
Then tells him to jump from the table.
The boy says but father I will fall and hurt my self.
The reply don't worry my son I will catch you and you will be safe.

The boy Jumps the father steps back the boy lands in heap on the stone floor and begins to cry.

The father says there you are my boy today you have learned a valuable lesson.

Never trust any one not even me.

I was never taught to trust experts or any one else with blind faith.

When all is said and done, obesity skyrocketed when we started telling people what to eat. I'm no rocket scientist but I don't think it's hard to reach a reasonable conclusion without the need of a calculator.