Where are you on the UK 'fat map'?

www.dailymail.co.uk...

Newly published,showing the country's worst areas for obesity.
It's apparently higher in old mining and steel towns..which I can vouch for.
I'm in the North East and I have to agree although I've never been aware of that correlation.. Unemployment perhaps?.

But the south,known to 'be healthier' is now reporting higher numbers.

How accurate is it for your local area?
What are your observations?

I live in Berkshire and I can support your suspicions that it seems to be more prevalent in low-income area's.

Those that are well off tend to be healthier, as they are better educated and can afford better food.

Those in the council estates and what have you tend to be the low-educated ones with crappy jobs who buy crappy food and feed their kids chicken nuggets everyday.

I don't buy that being poor means you have to eat poor, hence why I have linked the fact they tend to be poorly educated as well. I was once quite poor and had little disposable income, but I have never ate a diet of junk. But alot of people on these poor estates could be outwitted by a hedgehog, so it isn't surprising they don't know how to live a healthy life.

[edit on 28/8/08 by stumason]

reply to post by stumason

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It's crazy.. IS it really 'poor families'? or just laziness?.
We're pretty 'poor' on the UK wage scale but let me run this by you.

Local shop..won't say which..

200g cooked ham 99p
fresh peppers 33p each
field mushrooms 400g 79p
grapes 500g x 2 £1.49

Just some of the random items in a flyer through the door.
Now no-one can tell me it's more economical or practical to load up on fast 'food'.

I could understand busy working/career people eating the 'fast' options.
But if it's unemployed households,then surely someone in each one could find the time to prepare a healthier meal for the rest of the family.

Surely people cannot be THAT uneducated too..not to know when they're stuffing disease promoting crap down their throats.

You know when you have an unhealthy 'blow-out' once in a while how bad you feel for ages afterwards.
That in itself is an incentive to spent 20 - 30 mins preparing something a little wiser.

Coming from a genuine 'miners row' I know everyone in the street was in the same boat 30-ish years ago.. We had ONE overweight girl in the whole street.. Even she'd be classed as slim nowadays.

On another computer I saved a "fat map" for over here in the US. Of course we don't have nationalised health care here, and the fattest states also happened to be the ones with the highest poverty.

EDIT to add: Here's some of my study on obesity in Western society...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

[edit on 8/28/0808 by jackinthebox]

reply to post by AGENT_T

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In the UK, I think "poor families" (read council eastate tax-dodgers) go hand in hand with laziness! I do not find it surprising that the highest prevalence of obesity (especially childhood obesity) is concentrated in areas of high unemployment, which are usually the council estates filled with Karen Matthews- alikes!

For anyone not aware of the whole Shannon Matthews saga, please follow the link for a brief rundown. Karen matthews was her mother and had 5 children by 3 different fathers.

The family tree was so warped by the inbreeding that is prevalent on these estates that two of the siblings were also each others cousins!

[edit on 28/8/08 by stumason]

Well, the wife is Scottish. (the good kind)

As for me, you might as well paint me Welch and hand me some of that mutton.

Actually, Scotland doesn't look "too" bad on that map, considering our national diet consists of cheese, steak, chips, chips and cheese, deep fried Mars bars (true!), deep fried cheese, Irn Bru and more cheese.

It's definitely a poverty thing...and a foodie thing. Wealthy people tend, in my opinion...I could be wrong...to go for less food, but much better quality, and are more willing to cook, instead of just heat up. Poorer families are allowed to believe that their only option is freezer food and low end mass produced products, when actually they would be much better off nutritionally and financially buying the raw ingredients and cooking their own. I find it very sad and incredibly frustrating.

Cait

reply to post by stumason

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This street fully qualifies with all your points

EXCEPT for the obesity..Maybe they have to keep fit running from the cops constantly.
Certainly the level of ermm.. I hate to say the word even.. 'education' is practically non-existent.

But the town in general,certainly.
I just wish they would learn about dress sense too though..That belly-tops and mini 'ra-ra' skirts DO NOT look good when there's 50kg of tyre hanging from them.. .

reply to post by AGENT_T

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I am in the USA and deal a lot with kids out in the public. I have notice people eating a diet high in starch: bread, noodles, rice, potatoes and sodas are much more likely to become fat. The above is a poormans diet filled with empty calories that fill one up but do not satisfy for long. You get hungry because you are missing the nutrition your body craves so you keep eating. I think this is the correlation between poverty and obeisty. Instead of buying meat, fruits, veggies, milk and juice which cost more, Mom trys to stretch the dollar/pound by buying lots of low cost starch not realizing the kids would eat less on a better diet.

I am on the lowest.

The very lowest super nice and slim side of the map up in Scotland...You down south...

Stop eating all the pies!

Hmmm, I noticed that the map was made by using the Body Mass Index (BMI).

Well, I have to break it to you but the BMI is NOT an accurate scale to measure obesity by.

Another anomaly is ....... Look at the high areas and you will find that they also have very high population densitys with only a few exceptions.

Plus, its the Daily Mail ...... enough said.

"Now no-one can tell me it's more economical or practical to load up on fast 'food'.
Surely people cannot be THAT uneducated too..not to know when they're stuffing disease promoting crap down their throats.".......


Agent T....you're right....it's absolutely NOT more economical to load up on fast food, and I wish I could show people...maybe I should...post a shopping list for a week for a family of 4 as I would shop for them....they would be in for a few surprises, I promise!!

And sadly, yes, some people ARE that uneducated. I've had a few jobs in supermarkets over the year while at uni, and I've always found it shocking when I have to deal with a family shop of a trolley load of economy burgers, pies, cookies, ice cream, gallons and gallons of fizzy drinks, every crappy kind of processed junk imaginable, tinned everything...even potatoes...how easy is it to cook potatoes, for god's sake...and these poor kids are growing up thinking the stuff they get out of packets is what real food is. People DON'T know it's crap. Sometimes I think they don't want to know. And this stuff cost a fortune! A mindblowing amount of money!

Just too sad and frustrating really....and storing up huge long term problems, I'm sure.

Cait


[edit on 28-8-2008 by caitlinfae]

[edit on 28-8-2008 by caitlinfae]

reply to post by Wotan

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If that held true, then London would be bright red, no? Seeing as it holds 1 in 6 of the UK's population, at least. Whereas Wales, the least densely populated area of the UK is positively glowing with fat people! The area's what have a high percentage of fat bastards are the area's with higher than average "poverty".

And BMI is accurate enough to do a comparison, although you shouldn't rely on it for a precise indicator of your individual circumstances.

The Mail may be the source of the article, but surely the study was done by a reputable source? Here is the organisation that did the study:

www.drfosterintelligence.co.uk...

[edit on 28/8/08 by stumason]

Starred because you're so right..Frustrating is not the word.
It makes you want to scream out.



You're right.That sounds like the diet I was fed as one of four brothers in a miner's family.
The difference being,we would fight non-stop and were always outside building camps,swings..more fighting.. ie.. activity was something to be looked forward too.
Getting in trouble meant a week in with a colouring book..These days dragging kids outside must be a nightmare.
The don't want to travel without a coat stuffed full of gadgetry.

I guess I'm going to have to find myself a nice Scottish Lady who like going for very long hikes.. and other physical activities..

reply to post by caitlinfae

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Well you say that but fast food chains are very aware of the cost of making home cooked meals and often price their own products accordingly, adding the convenience factor.

As a complete coincidence, I'm about to start a juice fast for ten days and just got back from the organic store. That set me back $200 for the fruits/veggies just for the first 4 to 5 days and I wasn't even buying food to prepare as a meal. I can say for sure that in most US cities the cost of fast food or food delivery is competitive if not cheaper than home cooked. I believe this changes the bigger one's family is. In the sense that the bigger the family, the cheaper cooking at home becomes. But on an individual level, considering the effort of shopping (including condiments/spices), cooking, cleaning, it is cheaper to eat fast food. Hence the obesity issues.

Theres an inverness mountaineering club, and the ladies are very... 'easy on the eye and ear' shall we say...

reply to post by crimvelvet

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I couldn't agree more. If you study a typical wartime diet in the UK, it was incredibly healthy, full of vegetables, very little meat or dairy, and the pasta craze of the late 20th century hadn't hit. Empty refined carbohydrates are next to useless nutritionally, especially white flour. Now we're all filling ourselves up with pasta and sandwiches, not realising that 25% of Northern Europeans cannot process the gluten in wheat...our digestive systems just are not made for it. It's hard stuff to process...flour and water are what were traditionally used to make wall paper paste after all, and we're feeding much the same combination to ourselves thinking it's good for us, and in huge amounts. I'm almost certain that's how I ended up as severely gluten intolerant...I ate too much of it, which is actually very easy to do, and my body decided it had had enough. Now even a slice of toast will give me a thumping headache, and a plate of pasta will make me ill for days.

What people slap on the pasta and white bread is a problem too...cheese, cream, butter...it's a recipe for weight gain, bloating, bad digestion, and intolerance eventually. But it's cheap.

Cait

reply to post by Wotan

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Yeah it's the mail.. but I just picked that source because they had the best pikkie.

*****

Cait,You know I have this conversation a lot.
Because I'm self -employed I got a card for a warehouse supplier..Anyone can get one from costco or wherever.

I stock up on frozen stuff..Mainly chicken/Steak and enough veggies to last till the next trip ..before they start growing their own food supply

A tenner will get you 2kg of boneless chicken..no skin..just the plain old lean stuff(I know you're a veggie tho ).What I'm saying is there's just no excuse.
Flyers from the local supermarkets are pushed through the doors weekly.So it can't even be said parents didn't know about the prices or availability.Some are even cheaper than the warehouses sell in bulk.

For the price of a family meal at 'McTuckyKing's ' you can get a large bag of pasta/rice/sauce/veggies/peppers/mushrooms etc.

They'll last a lot longer than one meal,that's for certain.

There is a VERY helpful chart here: The Wolfe Clinic

The whole website is actually full of great information without having to buy anything.

reply to post by schrodingers dog

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Exactly. That's why McDonalds and the others are just about the only section of the UK economy that's booming just now. They are businesses, not public food education bodies, whatever they say. If they tell people their meals are wholesome, balanced and tasty...and only £1.99!!...some people don't know enough to argue with that.

It also depends very much on what kind of food you buy too....I agree that fruit and veg can be expensive, but there are many ways of combining smaller quantities of these with pulses, beans, rice and so on which are much cheaper, to make a really decent meal. Food preparation shouldn't be a chore...it should be a process we enjoy...I know, I can talk...I don't have 4 kids round my feet....but my Mum did, and my Grandma had 6, and both worked, and I'm damn sure we didn't eat out of packets, ,even if we weren't that wealthy.

Cait