It's all those pies!

Nowadays, a typical 12 oz soda contains 12 teaspoons of sugar. A nutritionist friend said (if I correctly recall) that if you drank a can of soda every day, you would have consumed 25 pounds of sugar in a year - from that source alone!

Thank goodness I don't indulge too often. I have enough problems keeping the weight down at my age and I want to hang onto my teeth as long as possible.

When I'm old I want to be a bit beefy. Cushion the fall when I topple of my walking stick. All these frail old men you see can't be healthy.

I was reading that portion sizes in American restaurants are roughly twice as big as they are in the UK. A big mac in MCdonalds, for example, would be twice as big in the US. [smiley=icon_biggrin.gif]

I don't think portion sizes in the UK are any different to what I can remember when I was young i.e. 15 or 20 years ago. I think people just eat more because there is more food available these days. Everyone's richer. In the past, only the rich were overweight - and that's because they had more money, and hence, more choice when buying food.

I don't think it's down to a lack of parental education. If anything, I notice that there are more middle aged/old people overweight than younger people, partly due to their metabolism being less effective. Overall, people are definitely healthier than they've ever been but we mustn't get too complacent and let the obesity problem get worse.


Tottefan.

A lot if also down to the proportion of the three food groups that we eat. The amount of refined carbohydrate in the diet has increased drastically.

There have been plenty of studies following natives who moved to the cities and suddenly they had a weight problem, not sure to the amount they were eating, but due to the different make up of the diet. Aboriginies are known for being overweight when fed a wester diet, but back on their native diet they don't have a problem.

I am of the opion that we should eat like our ancestors as that is what the body evolved to eat. Meat, fish and some fruit and nuts. No refined grains and no sugar.

Peoples tastes have changed as well - think of all the marketing the large shops do to get us to eat "super sweet" sweet corn and peas and other veg.

Another reason is genetics:
There is a gene which initially was a favourable gene to have - it helped the female to stay about the lower weight limit for breeding in times of famine. Those who had it, remained fertile, those who didn't could only breed in times of plenty.

These days in the western world, there are no times of famine, and this gene has the effect of making people put on weight and develop diabetes and actually causes fertility problems as well.

The gene causes the body to be insensitive to insulin. Some people with diabetes have it purely from bad diet, others have inherited it.

Mind you I wouldn't think it was the pies to blame in NZ - the two we tried were foul soggy pastry, tasteless type things, I certainly wouldn't want to eat too many of them.

We quite like Mrs. Mac's pies, but some different makes we sampled were very non-descript.

It's quite odd that NZers are going down the obesity road as they are usually considered to be so outdoorsy, sporty and active. You'd think they'd burn off all those calories rather than laying down blubber. What we saw in the way of obesity was more the Maori than the Pakeha.

Yep, and so many prepared foods contain sugar that it's ridiculous. Sometimes we play the "where's sugar on the list?" game when reading the ingredients on a label. And so many times they use weasel words to make it seem like there's less sugar, like "fructose", "corn syrup", "white grape juice". My grandfather developed diabetes about 15 years ago, and he thought that if the label didn't specifically say "sugar", that it was OK. It took my parents ages to convince him otherwise, and in the meantime he was chug-a-lugging super-sweetened fruit drinks, because he thought they were simply fruit juice. I'm surprised he didn't go into a diabetic coma.

I'm not sure if US fast food portions are bigger than the UK's - I didn't go to burger stands when I visited your fair islands. But I know they are bigger than when I was a child and teen. When travelling, we'll stop to get iced tea, and many places don't even have "small" drinks - just medium, large and super. Although I didn't see it, there's a documentary called "Supersize Me" which follows a fellow for a month as he eats only fast food, and always takes the super sized meal if it was offered. I hear the impact on his health was apalling.

I shouldn't rant about junky food when I'm hungry.... mmm, jelly doughnut!

Does ‘being physically active’ happen to include lifting a stubby to one’s lips?

More New Zealanders than ever exercising
17 March 2006

More New Zealanders than ever claim to be exercising each week.
New figures released today by Sport and Recreation New Zealand (Sparc) show that as at December 2005, 66 per cent of New Zealanders were physically active, up from 51 per cent just a year earlier.

In the study, carried out by AC Nielsen, Sparc defined physically active as those who for six months or more had engaged in physical activities five or more times per week, for a weekly total of 2? hours or more.

However, the study identified households with very young children as continuing to remain insufficiently active. Aucklanders were also more likely to be insufficiently active.

Sparc's general manager of participation, Deb Hurdle, described the results overall as "heartening".

"We're thrilled that our message is reaching the right people," she said.
Ms Hurdle cautioned, however, that with the end of daylight saving this weekend it was easy for physical activity to become a low priority.

"Kiwis need to Push Play for 30 minutes a day on most days of the week to reap health benefits," Ms Hurdle said. "Winter is not an excuse to hang up the trainers."

Hi MB,

you never cease to amaze me with the smilies etc, that appear with your postings.
I wonder, do you have a hot line to the GOD OF SMILIES?
They always promote a smile on my face. :icon_biggrin:
Thanks.

__________
Julian