Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

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ColinOldnCranky
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Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby ColinOldnCranky » Thu May 29, 2014 2:57 pm

Australian obesity rates climbing faster than anywhere else in the world, study shows


The results of the global study into obesity rates, published in the medical journal The Lancet, show almost a quarter of the country's children and 63 per cent of the adult population is overweight.

Australia's obesity levels are now on par with the United States, but slightly less than New Zealand.

The study has prompted health experts to call on the Federal Government to commit to a national anti-obesity strategy.

Obesity Policy Coalition spokeswoman Jane Martin says obesity is an issue that governments can tackle in a number of ways.
...yada yada yada...
Read the rest at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-29/a ... ld/5485724

And as if that is not startling enough,
Obese child taken from parents

A morbidly obese child at "significant risk of death" has been taken into State care after attempts to work with her family failed.

The Department for Child Protection and Family Support said the child's excessive weight was the result of a medical condition.

The ABC reported the three-year-old girl was from an Aboriginal community in the East Kimberley and weighed at least 30kg - more than double the average weight for a child of that age as measured by the World Health Organisation.
...yada yada yada...
The rest is at https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/lates ... m-parents/
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ColinOldnCranky
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby ColinOldnCranky » Thu May 29, 2014 3:01 pm

I keep on hearing that the health services of Oz can never accomodate my generation (baby boomers) with our replacement hips, heart bypass and arthritis. But I fear that we won't get past the line of young and middle aged queuingup for diabetes, renal failure, shot eyes, amputations and all those other things associated with excess weight.

To be fair ABS numbers indicate that the rates of overweight are similar and at the max for all age groups from abouit 25 to 65. But I suspect that we all trend up over life so those around 65 were not nearly as weighty in their earlier years. And those younger cohorts than mine will continue to escalate past the baby boomers at the same life stages. My prosepcts for a hip are not looking good. :cry:
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SuperSix
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby SuperSix » Thu May 29, 2014 3:15 pm

Nothing is going to change any time soon. It's just another industry with billions of dollars at stake.
You know we are stuffed when kids need official permission to ride to school. FFS!

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ColinOldnCranky
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby ColinOldnCranky » Thu May 29, 2014 3:22 pm

I see that the University of Adelaide has recently published a health comparo of Gen-X and Boomers status at equivalent ages. Thank goodness they smoke less anyway.
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Strawburger
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby Strawburger » Thu May 29, 2014 3:23 pm

Try telling an obese person they are obese. You get one of several responses, none of which admit they are obese or they need to change their habits. It's a bit like the car debate unfortunately.
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby SuperSix » Thu May 29, 2014 4:29 pm

What car debate?

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ColinOldnCranky
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby ColinOldnCranky » Thu May 29, 2014 4:52 pm

Strawburger wrote:Try telling an obese person they are obese. You get one of several responses, none of which admit they are obese or they need to change their habits. It's a bit like the car debate unfortunately.

http://www.obesitypanacea.com/2009/11/f ... otice.html
So there you have it – as a population, we are all getting fatter. Making matters worse, the fatter we all get, the less we seem to notice and the less likely we are to do anything about our bulging waistlines.
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby casual_cyclist » Thu May 29, 2014 5:33 pm

Strawburger wrote:Try telling an obese person they are obese. You get one of several responses, none of which admit they are obese or they need to change their habits.
In general I agree. The most common responses I know are: but I hardly eat anything, it's genetics, I'm big boned, at least I'm happy, or I'm fit so it doesn't matter. I have raised the issue with some people who have told me they are genuinely concerned about their health and started a discussion about what they trying to do to address the issue. I have even seen some people succeed. That's always good!
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby lobstermash » Thu May 29, 2014 6:46 pm

Most blokes I know don't see the problem until they hit three figures, which seems to trigger a massive panic to lose 20kg, with varying degrees of success.
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby bychosis » Thu May 29, 2014 7:08 pm

ColinOldnCranky wrote:
So there you have it – as a population, we are all getting fatter. Making matters worse, the fatter we all get, the less we seem to notice and the less likely we are to do anything about our bulging waistlines.
Anyone seen Wall-e the movie? :shock:
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby pacra » Thu May 29, 2014 10:00 pm

lobstermash wrote:Most blokes I know don't see the problem until they hit three figures, which seems to trigger a massive panic to lose 20kg, with varying degrees of success.
+1
35 years ago in my late 20's I became eligible for the company superannuation scheme (no compulsory then). I was sent for a medical, the first time I had been to a doctor for over 5 years and I weighed 110 kg with high blood pressure to boot. My wife and family had said nothing and I, hard to believe as it is, had not noticed my weight ballooning 25 kg. Unless something shocks you into reality you don't notice.
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g-boaf
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby g-boaf » Fri May 30, 2014 10:32 am

A friend of mine has this trouble, but I cannot do anything to help him much. He does walk a bit, but it also causes him some muscle pain doing that.

He needs to lose the weight to get better, but there is the problem. I know how to help him lose the weight, but he's got to make the first steps to do it.

I personally got to nearly 95kg, and then through one reason or another decided I should try and get fit. It took a while, but I'm there. And then I discovered that I could ride the bike a lot more and get a bit faster too. And so you get carried away with it.

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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby Xplora » Fri May 30, 2014 3:30 pm

Tons of family obesity for me. Contrasted with tons of skinny... genetics definitely hurts some people more than others. Those who have met me probably couldn't imagine a heavily obese mother for me, but it's true. Obesity doesn't hurt you until it hurts you badly. It's like a severe RSI case, it just builds up and then BAM. Sadly, puts you down so hard that you might struggle to overcome it.

It's actually amazing to see just how powerful modern psychological influencing can be, yet they haven't managed to use it for something good, for the most part... or they use the same messages for the opposite product. Lite and Easy is convenient, tastes good, lets you focus on enjoying yourself and doing what you want to do like family time. McDonalds is convenient, tastes good, lets you focus on enjoying yourself and doing what you want to do, like family time. :idea:

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MattyK
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby MattyK » Fri May 30, 2014 3:48 pm

Anyone been watching this:
http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/men-who-made-us-fat" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
?

Fascinating and scary in equal measures.

edit: also here for when the iview link disappears:

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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby rkelsen » Fri May 30, 2014 4:22 pm

Strawburger wrote:Try telling an obese person they are obese. You get one of several responses, none of which admit they are obese or they need to change their habits.
An all-too-common response is this: "BMI isn't perfect. There are athletes who are classified as obese under it."

Which, I suppose, is technically correct... but the people who say it are usually pretty far from athletic in terms of physique.

Nobody
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby Nobody » Fri May 30, 2014 4:27 pm

rkelsen wrote:
Strawburger wrote:Try telling an obese person they are obese. You get one of several responses, none of which admit they are obese or they need to change their habits.
An all-too-common response is this: "BMI isn't perfect. There are athletes who are classified as obese under it."

Which, I suppose, is technically correct... but the people who say it are usually pretty far from athletic in terms of physique.
But they are in shape. Round is a shape! :D
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby biker jk » Fri May 30, 2014 4:35 pm

I read recently that a Canberra hospital had to replace its toilets with heavy duty versions due to obese patients. The existing toilets were rated to 150kg while their replacements can cope with up to 500kg. :shock:

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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby lobstermash » Fri May 30, 2014 7:21 pm

rkelsen wrote:
Strawburger wrote:Try telling an obese person they are obese. You get one of several responses, none of which admit they are obese or they need to change their habits.
An all-too-common response is this: "BMI isn't perfect. There are athletes who are classified as obese under it."

Which, I suppose, is technically correct... but the people who say it are usually pretty far from athletic in terms of physique.
That's right, BMI isn't perfect. Which is why the 'ideal' BMI against height is provided as a range. And a very large range at that. My ideal weight is ~57-76kg - I'm a quite muscular 75kg and I get a lot of 'you're fading away to nothing'...
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Xplora
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby Xplora » Fri May 30, 2014 9:07 pm

MattyK wrote:Anyone been watching this:
http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/men-who-made-us-fat" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
?

Fascinating and scary in equal measures.
Very interesting stuff, just watched the three hours (skimming the bits he talks and talks and talks). The key issue that money talks louder than the alternatives is really quite clear. I think the baseline should simply be if you want to be grotesquely fat, and you can afford to pay for healthcare, and it is available and willing to help you, then that's fine. Otherwise, bring on the regulations. I didn't realise the traffic light stuff would be so simple to implement, actually makes things much easier to understand if the RDI info is simply coloured in. I think we'd be better off knowing we could have one red zone a day, 3 ambers and the greens as much as we like. Certainly easier than the food pyramid!

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MattyK
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby MattyK » Fri May 30, 2014 9:31 pm

The food pyramid is also bs that was massively influenced by the food industry lobbies, look it up.

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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby Nobody » Fri May 30, 2014 9:44 pm

^^^ True

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Xplora
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby Xplora » Fri May 30, 2014 9:49 pm

I think the main things a good diet has is sufficient fats, sufficient fibre and sufficient greens. Its really easy to cut too much of these away if you don't eat much.

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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby Strawburger » Fri May 30, 2014 9:55 pm

ColinOldnCranky wrote:
Strawburger wrote:Try telling an obese person they are obese. You get one of several responses, none of which admit they are obese or they need to change their habits. It's a bit like the car debate unfortunately.

http://www.obesitypanacea.com/2009/11/f ... otice.html
So there you have it – as a population, we are all getting fatter. Making matters worse, the fatter we all get, the less we seem to notice and the less likely we are to do anything about our bulging waistlines.
Interesting link Colin, thanks for sharing!

Been watching the abc series with interest. Some interesting facts, as xplora says money talks! (Much like the car industry here in aus)
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby durianrider » Fri May 30, 2014 10:28 pm

Robert Lustig - the 'star researcher' from The Men Who Made Us Fat....He is FAT! How does one be an obesity expert and be obese themselves?

Its like the person that has the cure for smoking but smokes themselves. The level of hypocrisy is hilarious.

What next will Lustig blame? Will he blame me for promoting fruit consumption on national TV for Australia's obesity crisis? Do people really believe we got obese from eating bananas and peaches for dinner? How many people you ever met who got most of their calories from fructose? I mean I have since 2002 but not many people on this forum have met me in person.

Obesity alarm, nobody is listening cos nobody really cares. They want to hear good things about their bad habits and are willing to have an obese 'obesity expert' tell them that they need to eat more bacon and eggs and less fruit and steamed rice!
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Re: Obesity-Alarm bells but no-one's listening

Postby Xplora » Fri May 30, 2014 11:20 pm

DR, it does make it hard to enact change when people are prepared to DIE for their current lifestyle. They say its easier to kick heroine than nicotine - I would suggest that excessive diets, the ones that result in significant obesity, are far harder to kick than nicotine. :shock: Part of it is the almost alien ability of the thin to consume the dodgy food that ruins the obese, and the almost mythical levels of personal activity that seems to accommodate the thin schedule. I mean, I'm one skinny dude but I haven't ridden anywhere near as much as your big summers. I think this allows the obese person to detach themselves from the goal of weight loss. It's almost like the goal of being pretty enough - it's genetic and very subjective. When are you skinny enough?

The documentary was quite brilliant, pointing out the perfect storm; the creation of the freezer, the transfer to corn syrup instead of sugar, the drive to create a snack food culture, the profitability of the "large meal vs small meal"... I'm deliberately ignoring the tension of lobby groups and political will - it's likely that we would still have the same problems without any regulatory fighting at all. We live in a unique period in history.

I chuckle because my kids eat absolute garbage compared to what I eat, but they aren't putting on weight or fat. I can see a parent being unwilling to transition their kids off fish fingers creating an obesity risk, because I certainly am not pumping my lads full of fruit and veg. I am a smart guy, but I'm certainly part of the machine.

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