Sugar Tax

Are you saying baked beans contain more sugar than they did 20yrs ago?
They still taste the same to me

 

I don't know, because I don't know how much they contained 20 years ago.

There is a bigger problem though. There are two ways to prevent an excess of calories. Eat less or do more. The government could do a lot more to promote the latter. A good starting point might be better provision for the casual cyclist. For example, when I lived in Sheffield, it was a mere 2 miles between home and work, yet I used to take the car. Going on foot(which I did for a while ) or on my bike meant negotiating several major junctions at busy dual carriageways. The bus was always late or full, so I'd drive. The while road network was completely revamped while I was there, and yet no a single metre of new cycle path or better crossing was included in the plans.

Then there's activity clubs, like sports clubs. It took me over a year to find our martial arts club because they are hardly advertised due to cost constraints. There is a 'clubs' section on our council website. None of the clubs I now know to exist are advertised on them. They could be promoted there for free if the government really cares about our health.

 

Most problems regarding diet can be put down to two things, gluttony and idleness.

That's not just idle as regards not taking enough exercise, it's too idle to make a proper meal.
We mostly all do it from time to time, but it's how often you do it that counts.

We all have a choice, and it's too easy to blame the government, whatever colour.

Its about time everyone just stopped making excuses.

 

I agree to some extent @pete, but for years we were told that baked beans were all good. Full of fibre and protein while low in fat.

Unless you're a nutritionist, you can only go on what your told. You can't even just rely on the internet, because if you pick any food item at all, you'll usually find articles extolling it's virtues while other articles explain all the ways the same food will mess you up.

We do all have choices, but to make the right ones, we need clear accurate and easily accessible information.

 

So somehow we suddenly need someone to tell us baked beans are bad?
In moderation, not much is bad.

 

Its also not quite as simple as eat less and move more because all our bodies process food in totally different ways.

For example this one doctor has been working on diabeties and this women was eating everything right yet her levels were still too high and it turned out that her body was responding wrongly to tomatoes and it was causing her blood sugar levels to spike.

Most of my thin friends eat loads and live off junk food. I have been overweight since i was 6 months old (if i was bottle fed i would of been put on a diet). Growing up i ate the same food as my brothers who were thin. In fact they ate more chocolate and sweets and did less exercise than me yet i was always bigger.

My ex only really eats junk food (fried chicken, mc donalds, burgers, milkshakes, kfc etc) and lots of it and only drinks fizzy drinks and never drinks sugar free ones. He mainly lives off fizzy lucozade so consumes loads of sugar. Hes thin he rarely puts on weight and barely exercises. Hes only put on enough weight to hide his 6pac, that he has never worked for, now he has reached 30 but its not like he even has a tummy.

If i ate like him i would be screwed.

Today i met up with my one mate who is thin and fit he does do a fair amount of exercise but has always been slim. He had eaten before we went to wagamamas porridge, cake, eggs, something else and something else. We then shared side stuff at wagamamas and thats all i have eaten today because i havnt been hungry. He will have also had dinner etc and reguarly eats a whole family sized cheesecake to himself.

Its just not fair sometimes

I need to find friends who arnt all slim and eat loads of bad stuff lol

 

In some ways it takes people's minds off the real issues, but I do feel there are so many people these days that need to be led, told how to live, its part of society these days, its someone else's fault I'm fat, not mine.
Nobody told me that eating burgers all the time was bad, nobody said I was eating too much sugar.
Sugar was always stated as a cause of tooth decay way back when I was a kid, but nobody blamed someone else if their teeth fell out.

 

I def agree that people seemed to need to be spoon fed information and dont seem to engage their brain anymore to sort it out themselves

Im always interested to hear how people have lost weight and then they list their diets before being like 3 starbucks drinks in a day, burgers, fries etc everyday i think well no wonder you were big and no wonder you have lost so much if thats how you were eating before.

 

While I agree that the nhs needs sorting, I also think that, with respect, there is too much focus on mending illness and not enough on promoting 'wellness'.

With a population that is growing both in terms of size and number, simply bolstering the nhs can not be a long term solution. Would it not make more sense to stop people needing treatment in the first place where possible?

If you had a car that was constantly breaking down due to neglect of routine maintenance, would we need more breakdown recovery trucks or would we need to look after the car a bit more?

I'm not saying the current proposal is right (or wrong), but I do think that as a population in general, we have consistently proven that we can't look after ourselves. You only have to look at the queue of cars at the macdonalds drive through to see that.

 

Yep. Like I said earlier, while I agree that something needs to happen, I don't necessarily agree with what exactly they propose to do.

 

I remember a while ago, there was a proposal to add a clear traffic light labelling system on foods. While some companies adopted it voluntarily, others whined on and lobbied the government to reject it. They won, because as always in our democracy, laws are made or rejected depending on who is most prepared to oil the wheels with cash.