THE OBESITY DEBATE ...

How times change!    Years ago and yes, let's face it, decades ago, life was different.   When we were kids we raced around playing games - we run or skipped or jumped at any time, and anywhere.   We played outdoor games such as "rounders", baseball (albeit a gentler version than the boys), basketball, tried out tennis and even wanted to be included in the boys' cricket team.   We were busy being kids and raced around before school, during play times and at lunch time, and then again after we came home from school.  

As young adults, we walked to High School and then later when we found a job we walked to our place of work.   At lunch time we either walked around the city window shopping or sat in the park eating a packed lunch and if we had a drink it would be from the water fountain in the park, or else we took a thermos of tea.  Yes!   We drank tea - soft drinks were only there for special occasions such as a birthday party or a family celebration.   Not everyday.   If we were meeting with our friends to go to the "pictures" (cinema) or to go dancing on a Friday night or Saturday afternoon, we got there by walking.   Even in high heeled shoes and I do admit to wearing high-heels in my youth.   But the main thing is that we walked and even though we didn't necessarily attend exercise classes, we certainly got plenty of exercise from doing ordinary every-day things.  We even walked to the local telephone box to make important calls.  No one had a personal telephone in their homes - they were for companies, places like hospitals and hotels and such.

Becoming older adults, marrying and having children, we still walked everywhere.  Who could afford a car back then?  Who could afford to catch a taxi?  They were very few and far between.   Bending, stretching, constantly moving doing housework, spending time in the kitchen preparing meals for a hungry family, getting down on our knees to wash and polish the floors, weekly dusting, and doing the laundry - I even remember my first washing machine some 15 years into my marriage; couldn't afford one before then.  We were physically tired each day.   Three hours at a gym?   We'd never even heard the word gym  used to describe attending a social networking,  a gym to us had been a part of our school-day when we were younger.   

Fast forward a couple or three decades.   Public transport made travelling a breeze, even to places of work.  Some of us even commuted intrastate or interstate.   We could afford to have a personal telephone in every room of the house.  Supermarkets had arrived on the scene where you could buy almost anything - of course meat and vegetables were still only available from their respective shops in the beginning but that too, soon changed.   We were able to afford, having taken a hire purchase agreement to pay off in regular instalments, a refrigerator.  So "modern" after the ice chest that most of us had grown up with. Electrical appliances of all sorts came onto the market, making life easier.  Or should I perhaps say, a little lazier?

Women even had the opportunity of buying their own car.   What freedom.  We could go where we liked, when we liked and we didn't have to ask anyone's permission.   We could even seek out a tea shop where we could meet friends and spend time together.   But we still walked a lot, and worked a lot around the house, as well as when the opportunity arose, holding down a full time job.

Shopping centres came into being.  Big, huge, centres where lots of different shops tempted the pay packet.   Little coffee shops sprung up, and it soon became normal to by-pass the friendly local shopping strip and go to the Mall where you could buy everything you needed all at the one stop.   Chinese restaurants opened; and then many new and different tantalising exotic foods appeared;  we didn't need to travel overseas to enjoy the luxuries of "foreign" foods.  

And what does all this have to do with obesity?   Well, I'm no health expert, but I am an observer.   We became more and more dependent upon the convenience of getting into the car to go down the street to shop or even to visit someone in the back street, rather than walking.   If we were running late we caught a taxi - hang the cost.   Frozen meals appeared on the supermarket shelves and we took to them like ducks to water.  We could save time!    We didn't have to slave over the kitchen stove cooking and preparing meals.   Laundromats opened - so each week we could take the bedlinen and laundry there and for a couple of dollars get it all done without having to lug it out and hang it up on the clothes line at home.   We could pick up the phone and get a local man to come around and cut the grass and clean up the garden.    Some career women even had the luxury of having someone in to clean the house each week.  Life became easier and it definitely became lazier.

And how to fill in the time that we saved?   We could sit in front of the wonderful new "thing" that was taking everybody's interest - a television and then wow! a computer, and spend hours learning new things.   We could pick up a small mobile phone and use it not only as a means of keeping in touch with friends and family but also to carry on our business.   We turned our homes into our own small offices.

Our eating habits changed along with the change in our life-style (i.e. the energy used in doing everyday chores).  Because we were no longer doing physically demanding jobs around the house and workplace, we began to "eat out".   It was all very exciting and new.  It became "normal" to go to the Mall every day, sit and have a cup of coffee and more often then not a donut or cream cake.  No longer were we content with a packed lunch and a piece of fruit - there were too many other things to enjoy.  After morning tea we'd go to another restaurant and have lunch.   Oh well, after a bit of shopping, why not stop and have another cup of coffee and a small snack.   If we were thirsty we could pick and choose between countless soft drinks and if we were very thirsty we'd even have two.   We'd smile knowingly when older people spoke about the three meals a day routine - a good breakfast, a light lunch and a wholesome dinner at night - what did they know?  

If our clothes became a bit tight, we'd just go and buy a larger size.   We could then have our cake and eat it too!

Did we see what was happening to us?   In our eagerness to embrace all the many changes that occurred over the decades following the Second World War, we didn't realise that we were doing our bodies immeasurable harm.   In recent years we've had to re-learn what is "healthy" food, nutritious food, wholesome food.  We've had to learn to eat today's food in moderation and we've had to learn to read labels.   And that, my friends, is a debatable point.  The labels say a lot, and they don't say enough.  They don't say what is really important.   We read:  no added fat;  but that doesn't say mean what it says.  Because no we know there are various types of fat - some good and some very, very bad!    The word "added" means nothing;  "no added sugar"?, but it doesn't say that there are already sugars within that product.  Again the words "added sugars" means nothing, because we don't know exactly what is in that product.    Nothing seems to be grown naturally or manufactured naturally these days - there's something added, there's something taken away and then of course the "additives" - chemicals, vitamins (if they were grown correctly why should they need vitamins to be added?); minerals, colours, taste enhancers, emulsifiers and on it goes.

Are you aware that a Baskin & Robbins Yoghurt Smoothie contains between 29-31 teaspoons of sugar?   Boost Juice's Skinny Minny Melon has 549 kJ (131 calories).   I hate counting calories but it do realise the significance of one small glass of juice having 131 calories!   

What's the answer?   Common sense combined with wanting to do the best for our bodies (and our minds) as we possibly can.   We don't need to starve ourselves, or to constantly diet, or to spend hundreds of dollars going to the gym.   It comes down to mind over matter and accepting what is, and changing what can be changed to benefit our own personal health.

Me?   I admit I'm a plus-size woman.   Every woman in my family for at least four generations has been considered plus-size. We're also tall.   I enjoy good food; and I read recently that there is no such as "bad" food - it's all food.  It's the quantity and the balance that are important.   And I guess that says it all.

Comfort food!

Well, that was an interesting post on comfort food we had recently.   I heard from a friend through Google, and a variety of emails from ladies from around Australia as well as from Europe.

It's interesting to hear what any one person thinks of as "comfort food".   Here are some of the suggestions, and I have to say, I was in total agreement when I saw that Macaroni and Cheese was high on the list.  Then there's Spaghetti Bolognaise; Lamb Shanks and vegetables; Home made Meatloaf; Chicken Snitzel; Egg and Bacon Pie:  Irish Stew and Dumplings: Bread and Butter Pudding; Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding; Crepes and Big Pancakes.    And of course as in our earlier post, Sausages and Mash1

It's also encouraging to hear that so many are now preparing meals at home rather than going out for dinner more than a couple of times a week.   It could be stretching the budget or it could be that more and more women are remembering what it was like when they were younger and they came home from achool and or work, to find warm nourishing meals placed on the table.  And those meals were prepared with love by their Mums and Grandmas.

(Photos from the Internet).

Comfort food!

There's "comfort food" and then there's "comfort food". And all of us, from the Prime Minister down to the old gentleman who lives down the street, has our favourites. Even people like Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson.

One that comes to mind easily is Sausages and Mashed Potatoes, or as it is more commonly or popularly known, "Bangers and Mash". I see where it has become the all out favourite in Britain particularly during the economic down-turn.

And whatever you may think, (and I can hear some of you say, yuk when you look at the photos), it is a delicious and filling meal. That is, if it is cooked properly and if it is presented properly.  And made from top quality ingredients.  Why even my dear old Mum was able to throw a couple of snags (sausages) on the plate with a dollop of mashed potato, and we kids would be straining at the bit to get stuck into "dinner".

I can't think of when I've been so disappointed at a serving of "comfort food.   Until I recently had a spot of lunch at Stallions, that is. There it was on the menu (for kids alas, but I've heard that anyone can ask for whatever's on the menu as an adult serving and expect to be served), so I figured, yes, it's bangers and mash for me today. Even if it's just a teeny tiny serve!  The wait-person checked and confirmed that I could be served with an adult size, and I sat back in eager anticipation.  I knew I'd have to pay, but it was going to be worth it.  Wasn't it?

Well it fronted up, and if I'd served this to my kids, they would have thrown the plate and its contents at me. The above photos tell a story and even though the four have come from the internet (with full acknowledgement to the owners of the photo copyrights) they also tell it how it is when it comes to serving up simple tucker like bangers and mash. Or how it should be. 

But take a good look at this photo - this is a photograph of the ACTUAL meal I was served. And before I go any further, please take note that this was an "ADULT" serving!

You'll see what I mean by "you don't always get what you expect" even though you pay for it. This meal cost me $15 - so what?  While McDonalds or KFC are known to have "affordable meals", there are many local places where you can buy a good meal (even 2 course, either soup and mains or mains and sweets) for just $13 in nice surroundings, accompanied by table linen, and a house wine (on the house). Why didn't I go to one of those? Simply because it's nice to try out something new. But again back to the photo. You can even see the "grease"or "fat" that the sausages had been cooked in, smeared across the plate (to the right). This serving and plate presentation, did not endear me to the restaurant at all.  Especially when I asked for a glass of cool water, and was told I'd have to buy a bottle.  I didn't want a bottle (a plastic bottle at that), I wanted a simple glass of cool water.  I didn't get one!

Needless to say I didn't have any lunch at this restaurant - I returned the Sausages and Mash with the comment that I certainly wouldn't recommend Stallions to any of my friends.   All I got was a snort of disapproval from the chef.

And what's this got to do with being a blog on a plus size site? Everything. Because all of us are consumers.  All of us keep these businesses in business.  All of us have to eat. It matters not that we are size zero or size 20 or 30. And sometimes we need a bit of "comfort food". But not greasy food (even the mash was sitting in grease!) thrown on a plate and served up as though it were part of King Henry VIII's banquet!  (If he'd been there, there'd would have been shouts of "off with their heads"!!!!)

We think we'll regularly re-visit the subject of food and "comfort food" a bit more often within this blog. There's nothing quite as good as a bit of constructive criticism!

Have you got any favourite places to dine out?   Let's share them.

Focus on kids again!

In todays newspaper, the so-called experts on kids nutrition have come up with five major points in turning around the child obesity problem!    This includes sending the kids to kinder and school with a healthy lunch box.  Don't give the kids too much pocket money to spend at the school tuck shop.  Bring back PE to the school curriculum.  Encourage kids to play outdoors - balance their "sit-down" computer fascination with some outdoor games where they actually run around!  And a couple of other pointers.

Now the latest news is that the Victorian Government is going to spend $40million in bringing in the Jamie Oliver's Healthy School Lunches campaign.

Obesity in children is a concern to all of us.   And it should be fought from as many sides as possible - yes, the lunch box is important and very important.  (We've spoken about the fact that school tuck shops lost the plot years ago when they brought in cheap, fatty foods like chips, dim sims, pies and so forth with no alternatives to choose from.  And tell me, what kid will pass up some chips in preference to a lettuce and cheese sandwich, without an argument anyway?)  But what happened to the Oslo lunch - surely that was full of nutrition and healthy - wouldn't it be a little cheaper to promote this again through tuck shops and to parents?

The influence of TV advertising has to be countered as well.   Heavily loaded advertisements with food that kids take to, which include lots of sugary, fatty content, need to be monitored - healthy food substitutes need to be given similar airtime - advertisers take note.

On the other hand, and we're strong on this too.  Parents don't need to be harrassed and burdened with the guilt placed on them based on their being "bad parents" because they feed their children the wrong (bad) food.   Most parents feed their kids good healthy food, and yet the kids still tend towards getting fatter.

Parents are becoming very concerned that they'll be seen as "abusing" their children by making them fat!

I know we've been saying this for decades now, and we'll keep repeating it until someone, somewhere, comes up with an explanation that satisfies everyone (and this especially relates to parents).   Will someone please tell us EXACTLY what is in the food we eat.  Yes, we know, here in Australia all food must be labelled as to its ingredients, but who amongst us knows precisely what certain chemicals/additives are; what they do; and whether there is any risk in adding them to foodstuffs.  Firstly we have genetically modified foods (they last longer and they don't go "off").  Surely that means there's something that turns food into what it isn't and had never started out to be?  Secondly manufacturers are now claiming they're reducing the sugar/fat/salt content in their foods.  Will this achieve a good result? As well, why do manufacturers claim "no ADDED sugar or fat or salt", this doesn't mean that the product has NO sugar or fat or salt.  Don't believe everything you see on the packets!

 If kids (and grown ups too) have become "addicted" or used to heavy sweetenings, heavy salt and fat content in their foods, surely it's going to take a while to break down that addiction?  It won't be overnight!