Rachel posted a deeply personal and thought provoking article last week and its been on my mind ever since I read it. This post isn't about Rachel though, I should make that clear. There are 30,000 deaths in the UK due to obesity and 1 in 5 are obese, this is due to increase to 1 in 3 within 5 years. Scary figures but like early anti-smoking campaigns the figures alone don't stop you from feeling hungry and when there are so many fast food outlets that offer cheap and tasty (but fatty) food, it just doesn't help. I struggle with food myself, every day I think about what I'm going to do in relation to the food I want to eat - this is my primary driver. As I've got older I find it easier to put weight on, I'm overweight now and am trying to lose more than I've ever needed to before. If I restrict my fat intake I know I'll lose the weight, I haven't been overweight all my life: I was very thin and skinny well into my twenties. As a child I remember my mom worrying and asking the doctor about my lack of appetite. I didn't like vegetables very much, I'm glad I've grown out of that. I eat food for comfort, it helps to know where I can find a burger or a sausage roll in a hurry. Eating between meals is tough too, whether it's biscuits someone brings into work or just helping myself to a bag of crisps or a piece of chocolate that goes nicely with a cup of tea. Nothing goes as well with tea as a nice chocolate biscuit. I love cheese too: melted cheese, tomatoes, pizzas you name it and anywhere you can have cheese I love it (except in pizza crust or inside sausages! yuk). All the marketing images you can imagine apply to me, I love food. These food connections have been implanted in my head since childhood. Every time I see an ad featuring someone reclining with a cuppa and a chocolate bar a spark jumps between synapses in my brain, reinforcing the memory that I need something chocolatey with my cuppa to give me comfort. This kind of subliminal message has been reinforced a trillion times over the course of my life, much more so than any healthy eating message. I think if we're going to tackle obesity as a society, its a responsibility that has to be shared. We have to make healthy food cheaper than fatty equivalents (the opposite of now) and better ways of supporting people who want to lose weight are needed, to make it easy for them rather than leaving people to feel alone and isolated in their struggle against what's in their own cupboard. Or to help us all walk past a fast food outlet without feeling the pull and the need for a quick and cheap meal every single time we happen by.
I don't know if I'm right in any of this though, sometimes too much society can be a dangerous thing. People should be allowed to do stuff they want, I'm not advocating laws to control us as individuals. I just think we need new types of help to tackle new kinds of problems and that includes tackling some of the subliminal ways that patterns are formed. I don't think there is a quick and easy way to do this for my generation but I hope it starts now for a new generation.
As for the lovely Rachel, I don't know her but she strikes me as being an intelligent, beautiful and brave person to write on the topic as she has. I wish her every success in what she decides to do and when, and in the meantime I'll continue reading her wonderful writing.
8 comments:
I had a fast food burger the other day.. and it had absolutely no flavour..But there a couple of places here that are more restaurant style of fast food and the meat in the burger at least has some flavour.. Places like McD's is not one of them.. I found out how they and most others cook the meat and I can say I won't be going there ever again..They use used grease to cook the meat..that's an example.. If obese people have a weight problem they need to stop going to these places..They choose to go back over and over again.. they have to make the choice to not eat that crap.. But I don't eat out every single day either.. I eat pretty healthy and I would rather make my own burgers on the grill..
I love my wife's spinach and beef burgers, they're really tasty. I know that some restaurants here in UK have been told to clean up their act on the cooking oil front. I didn't mean to concentrate on fast food. We're all different and people put on weight differently. Some people are able to eat unhealthily and stay slim. I'm not one of those. Others eat healthily but can't seem to lose weight below a certain level. In an ideal world, everyone would have their own personal trainer but in reality only the rich can afford one of those.
Great post, FW! It was always the office snacks that got me. I worked at McDonald's and ate their food for lunch...but at the same time I was always running food to the back where the cars were ordering take-out, so some of that was burned off.
Then I would work in offices where someone was always bringing in pizza or tacos or whatever. Even now, I catch a smell of pizza, and here it is in the conference room.
I'm able to control it more now, and when I smell the pizza, I walk past it and go home to eat, and that's usually a sandwich, some skim milk and maybe a fruit cup or something. I still cave, though.
Thanks for the Comp T! I'm really into pitta bread at the moment so I have that crammed with red onion, coleslaw, ham or chicken and tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber wih a touch of sweet onion dressing. Yum! That's my home made lunch. It's hell trying to stay on your own food at work, I don't like to seem anti-social but sometimes its just easier to be on your own for meals when you can eat stuff you won't feel guilty for eating afterwards.
Wow..Thank you for the really kind words and it is very humbling to realize that something that I wrote has affected you that you are still thinking about it 5 days later.
There were parts that were extremely personal and things that I was ashamed of and embarassed to admit. Once I put it out there I was expecting all sorts of rude and insensitve comments. Instead I received a flood of support and people who were able to relate to my situation.
Revealing the deepest parts of who you are is incredibly liberating.
I agree that eating healthy is difficult when the cost of eating better is so much higher than eating trash. When I was on that restrictive diet I spent double the amount that I usually did and at a lot less.
There are times when I have wished to lose my sense of taste. I bet I would lost tons of weight if I couldn't taste anything. I would eat mostly veggies and be super healthy.
Why do the bad things taste so darn good?
I'm glad it was a liberating experience for you because I certainly got a lot out of your honesty. I think when we write what we know from personal experience people can tell it's genuine and they respond warmly to it in the most part.
I also thought about how its very very rare to see a curvy lady portrayed as a beauty. I think larger ladies can be sexy and beautiful. But we're mostly force-fed a constant diet of skinny models prancing about with their ribs showing, their bony arses jutting out and miserable, sallow expressions on their faces. Give me a lady with curves, a hearty laugh and a big smile on her face any day.
Chinese takeaways are my worst temptation. Especially when I'm tired and haven't been shopping or I've forgotten to defrost some meat. Chinese food is so tasty and yum!
I am not skinny and I was as a kid and until I was about 20 something I noticed my eating habits had changed.. I try to eat healthy now.. but after having TCP it's been hard to get the motivation to lose most of what I gained.. I could lose about 20 lbs.. I've done it before.. Smaller portions and no sweets and lots of exercise..And funnily enough I had fruit and yogourt smoothies everyday and a small dinner.. I lost 27 lbs.. before getting preggers.. So I can do it again.. I know I can.. I have a huge sweet tooth so its hard to stay away from baked goods...
I've a pair of new trousers that I've worn once. They are a size down from what I normally wear, I'd like to fit into them before the end of June. Comfort food is my worst enemy in this, I'll have to find comfort in vegetables I think.
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