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The 'Obesity Epidemic'

ramonmercado said:
Origins of epidemic go back decades earlier than previously thought.

Over the past 50 years, worldwide obesity rates have tripled, creating a public health crisis so widespread and damaging that it is sometimes referred to as an epidemic. Most accounts put the roots of the problem firmly in the modern age. But could it have been brewing since before World War II?

That’s one provocative conclusion of a study published today in Science Advances that purports to push the obesity epidemic’s origin back to as early as the 1930s. Historical measurements from hundreds of thousands of Danish youth show that in the decades before the problem was officially recognized, the heaviest members of society were already getting steadily bigger.

The findings raise questions about the accepted narrative of the obesity epidemic, says Lindsey Haynes-Maslow, an obesity expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who was not involved in the study. “This paper is an opportunity … to say maybe we’ve been looking at this wrong, maybe we should go back to the beginning—or, when was the beginning?” she says.

Most epidemiologists trace that beginning to the 1970s, when health officials first observed an uptick in the prevalence of obesity—defined as a body mass index (BMI) above 30—in many Western nations. The crisis is usually blamed on the increased postwar availability of cheap, highly processed, and calorie-rich foods, as well as increasingly sedentary lifestyles and growing portion sizes.

But University of Copenhagen epidemiologist Thorkild Sørensen was skeptical of that story. Years of slowly increasing body size typically precede obesity, and might show up in historical data, he suspected. And Sørensen wasn’t convinced that the so-called obesogenic diet and lifestyle were the only factors at play. Historical data, he hoped, could reveal whether other, yet-unknown factors had contributed to the crisis.

A dearth of BMI data from before the 1970s typically makes historical studies of obesity a challenge. But Sørensen and his team knew of two Danish government data sets that could be useful. The first consisted of meticulous records of the weight and height of practically all primary-age schoolchildren in Copenhagen between the 1930s and ’80s. The second contained similar measurements of men, ages 18 to 26, who were conscripted by the Danish army between 1957 and 1984. The records were promisingly rich—but they were all on paper, which made it impossible to systematically search them for patterns. The process of digitizing the more than 2 million measurements from all 526,115 subjects took years of work, Sørensen says.

https://www.science.org/content/article/origins-obesity-epidemic-may-be-further-back-we-thought
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What I've thought for along time is that so called obesity is not a recent thing. What is recent is that children and 20/30 somethings are now suffering from it. Looking at Mitchell and Kenyon films of ordinary people in the North of the UK in the very early 20C shows how thin children and adults of all ages were. By the 40's and 50's elderly grannies and grandpas shown in films were seen to be overweight, but no sign of kids or young adults being weighty. (By the 60's it seems to have been trendy for young women to be thin (Twiggy etc)) Ok snapshots in time, but seeing current filming in town centres proves how weight has changed dramatically,
 
PeteS said:
What I've thought for along time is that so called obesity is not a recent thing. What is recent is that children and 20/30 somethings are now suffering from it. Looking at Mitchell and Kenyon films of ordinary people in the North of the UK in the very early 20C shows how thin children and adults of all ages were. By the 40's and 50's elderly grannies and grandpas shown in films were seen to be overweight, but no sign of kids or young adults being weighty. (By the 60's it seems to have been trendy for young women to be thin (Twiggy etc)) Ok snapshots in time, but seeing current filming in town centres proves how weight has changed dramatically,
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It seems to me that it is a different kind of overweight nowadays as well.
My Grandad as I knew him was never thin, but not fat as in the modern sense either, somehow, and I've noticed the same thing on old films.

It's like how the boxers from years ago look different to the ones today.
 
charliebrown said:
MacDonalds rolled out the Double Big Mac.

Now this sandwich has 4 patties of hamburger instead of two patties.

This sandwich is 780 calories and 48 grams of fat.

Did someone say instant heart attack ?
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I don't mean to sound like some parsimonious bastard, but I'm going to.

That item is sheer gluttony. That is one third of an average daily calorific requirement, and just under the daily requirement of fat.

As you said C.B. - instant bloody heart attack - never mind the effect it will have on your colon - both now, and later on in life.
 
As I understand it, restaurants in America have really raised their prices.

So, to keep customers happy, the restaurants have gone to serving larger portions to justify their price increases.

This is true with our local Chinese restaurant as their prices have really gone up but now they really pile the rice upon the plate along with a larger portion.
 

BMI outdated for measuring childhood obesity, Bristol study says​



Changing how children are measured for obesity to a new system could be more accurate, a study has concluded.

It revealed the traditional method of using Body Mass Index (BMI) is not as useful in measuring fat as waist-to-height ratio (WHtR).
Over a 15-year follow-up, 7,237 nine-year-old children were studied.

The findings could change guidelines that recommend BMI as a measure. Researchers said it was critical to accurately detect obesity in children.

The Bristol project, part of the Children of the 90s study, was published in the journal Paediatric Research.

Obesity rates rose sharply among 10 and 11 year olds in England during the Covid pandemic and have not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Professor Julian Hamilton-Shield, a consultant paediatrician at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, said his weight management clinic was now seeing a lot more patients with obesity-related diseases.

"We are seeing more severe levels of obesity and and we are seeing more severe complications," said Prof Hamilton-Shield.
"So in order to be able to pick that up we need to have good measures that tell us more about people's health."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-68490682
 
Nice that the Bristol study has confirmed something that everyone was aware of long ago. The BMI is an absolutely ridiculous way of 'branding' people and, therefore, misleads health workers in their recommendations.
I've long considered this 'measurement' was more about easy generalisations rather than effective information. And without accurate measurement, how can national health be assessed - what if the 'obesity epidemic' was a result of the BMI use and not reality? Let's not forget the social, political and economic impact of the dread obesity epidemic!
 
Stormkhan said:
Nice that the Bristol study has confirmed something that everyone was aware of long ago. The BMI is an absolutely ridiculous way of 'branding' people and, therefore, misleads health workers in their recommendations.
I've long considered this 'measurement' was more about easy generalisations rather than effective information. And without accurate measurement, how can national health be assessed - what if the 'obesity epidemic' was a result of the BMI use and not reality? Let's not forget the social, political and economic impact of the dread obesity epidemic!
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It is ridiculous that it takes no account for body type etc, and it should be scrapped

But that the world in particular the Western world does have a problem with obesity is beyond doubt you only have to open your eyes and it's getting worse in the younger generations
 
This is what we're talking about:
1710442470938.png
Thus a bodybuilder of 5'5" weighing 25kg is 'overweight' or 30kg is obese ... regardless of how much that body mass is fat or muscle. There is an 'amended' chart for 'althletes' but it still doesn't differentiate between weight, mass or fat.
 
A shocking fact from the World Health Organization is that 1 out of every 8 people in the world are overweight and obese.

Figure that out with the world at 8 billion population or 1 billion people obese.
 
PeteS said:
What I've thought for along time is that so called obesity is not a recent thing. What is recent is that children and 20/30 somethings are now suffering from it. Looking at Mitchell and Kenyon films of ordinary people in the North of the UK in the very early 20C shows how thin children and adults of all ages were. By the 40's and 50's elderly grannies and grandpas shown in films were seen to be overweight, but no sign of kids or young adults being weighty. (By the 60's it seems to have been trendy for young women to be thin (Twiggy etc)) Ok snapshots in time, but seeing current filming in town centres proves how weight has changed dramatically,
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Trends changed dramatically at the turn of the millenium. In the 80s and 90s, it was trendy to be fit - that's where the spandex and trackies trends started, remember. And as a life-long fatty, I can tell you that plus sized clothes didn't become mainstream until the mid to late 90s. As we ate our way into the new millenium, people have grown progressively less active, eating progressively more food, food which has become progressively less healthy (HFCS, trans fats. etc) and it's gone too far. I know more people overweight (myself included) than I know people of normal weight.
 
charliebrown said:
he restaurants have gone to serving larger portions to justify their price increases
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Not in my experience. Went to Culver's, a regional fast food burger restaurant. Had a meal the size of a McDonalds happy meal, cost $11

Also, in addition to raising their prices, a lot of restaurants now have a fee to eat in, or, if you want to pick it up, a fee to take out. :mad: I don't eat out any more.
 
Chick-fil-A just opened an experimental store in New York that only takes orders on line and you walk in to pick up.

No space for sit down, no tables, no, chairs,
no space.
 
Stormkhan said:
This is what we're talking about:
View attachment 74719Thus a bodybuilder of 5'5" weighing 25kg is 'overweight' or 30kg is obese ... regardless of how much that body mass is fat or muscle. There is an 'amended' chart for 'althletes' but it still doesn't differentiate between weight, mass or fat.
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Interesting...When I was 18, I was 5'7, and weighed 11.7 stone, or 161 pounds - I was a ball of muscle after doing farmwork for three or four years.

According to this chart I was overweight, or 'not' healthy. I would imagine that this chart is for Ectomorphs, and not Endomorphs.

So lets sort that out, with Age, Bodytype, Height, Weight, Level of fitness (sedentary or active), Endocrine type, and then your Genetic predisposition.

I think that only after these factors are taken into account can there be a genuine verification of health.

Unless we are, obviously, ill with overweightedness.....
 
Stormkhan said:
This is what we're talking about:
View attachment 74719Thus a bodybuilder of 5'5" weighing 25kg is 'overweight' or 30kg is obese ... regardless of how much that body mass is fat or muscle. There is an 'amended' chart for 'althletes' but it still doesn't differentiate between weight, mass or fat.
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Erm a slight misreading of the chart there. Someone 5'5" would have to have a mass of 68.2kg to be considered overweight. They would have a BMI of 25. A BMI of 30 which is obese would equate to a mass of 81.8kg.
 
charliebrown said:
A shocking fact from the World Health Organization is that 1 out of every 8 people in the world are overweight and obese.

Figure that out with the world at 8 billion population or 1 billion people obese.
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Perhaps it should be renamed 'The World Not So Healthy Organisation'.
 
Mungoman said:
I don't mean to sound like some parsimonious bastard, but I'm going to.

That item is sheer gluttony. That is one third of an average daily calorific requirement, and just under the daily requirement of fat.

As you said C.B. - instant bloody heart attack - never mind the effect it will have on your colon - both now, and later on in life.
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Apart from the fact that I don't eat beef, the quantity of salt it probably contains likely makes it inedible to me.

Edit: 1,020 mg of sodium

Since I started actively considering what I ate, how much and when (twenty-two years ago), I've eaten at McDonald's once--and I couldn't finish my food because it was too salty.

And when I used to eat there regularly as a teenager, I couldn't really taste any salt at all.

Perhaps recipes have changed, but I suspect my body now understands what normal food tastes like.
 
So if you are declared obese according to the sacrosanct BMI then you are responsible for increased pressure on health services?
My step-daughter - when 10 - was healthy, enjoyed ice skating and dancing ... but the school nurse sent us a letter, telling - ordering - us to 'consider her diet' because the school nurse used the BMI and said she was 'overweight' but not quite 'obese'.
Fuck.
Right.
Off.
 
My friend was telling me that his grandson's school (Infant's age 4-7 ) monitor what food and drink they are allowed to bring in in their lunchboxes. Certain foods and drinks are banned and taken from them on periodic inspections.

I was rather taken aback, nobody gave a toss what we brought in to have at lunchtime - It couldn't have been worse than a spam fritter followed by gypsy tart anyway.

I think they have periodic lunchbox inspections, a term open to misinterpretation. I suppose it's part of the check for; guns, knives, alcohol, tobacco and crack cocaine.
 
Tunn11 said:
My friend was telling me that his grandson's school (Infant's age 4-7 ) monitor what food and drink they are allowed to bring in in their lunchboxes. Certain foods and drinks are banned and taken from them on periodic inspections.

I was rather taken aback, nobody gave a toss what we brought in to have at lunchtime - It couldn't have been worse than a spam fritter followed by gypsy tart anyway.

I think they have periodic lunchbox inspections, a term open to misinterpretation. I suppose it's part of the check for; guns, knives, alcohol, tobacco and crack cocaine.
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That's the problem when so many parents aren't parenting, the governments have to step in and everyone suffers.
 
Yithian said:
And when I used to eat there regularly as a teenager, I couldn't really taste any salt at all.

Perhaps recipes have changed, but I suspect my body now understands what normal food tastes like.
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I found it to be exactly the same with jars of sauces (bolognese/chilli/curry etc) that I used to use years ago.
After not partaking for a long time, I tried one again and the amount of not only salt, but sugar in them was astounding.
How I used to consume them is beyond me.
 
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