Am I being unreasonable?

[Hiking Fox]

I doubt that this is a conspiracy by the supermarkets to keep their customers fat.

What do you take me for - some kind of banjo strummer? Who said anything about a conspiracy?

I understand the economics of capitalism only too well.

[Hiking Fox]

Am I living in some kind of parallel universe? Because every time I go into one of the poor areas of a city I'm almost tripping over shops selling fresh fruit and veg, and they even let me shop there even though I'm not Polish/Pakistani/Nepalese/Nigerian/Indian/Turkish/Afghan/Iraqi.

That's cos you live in a multicultural area. Not a huge sprawling council or private estate in a large suburb full of white families.

I had to fight really hard as a child to get my mum to buy fruit and vegetables because she said it was too expensive/too much trouble. There weren't any Asians for miles around, apart from the handful who ran Indian takeaways. The pattern hasn't changed much across vast swathes of Britain.

[Hiking Fox]

Yeah, I know 3 posts in a row is a bit lame, but anyway...

See these people:


These people ate pies and bread. And probably chips and dripping. Lots of pies. Really full fat pies with loads of pastry and potatoes and carrots and cheap full fat meat in.

Yet there's no obese people in that pic, or any other Lowry pic.. Why? Cos they were really active, doing hard physical work all day int'mills, that's why. Even the kids had to walk miles to school and probably sit in unheated classrooms all winter.

Not like modern day softy shite work that involves driving and sitting in chairs. Not like housework that means switching the dishwasher on or passing the hoover round.

People are soft these days. Yet they eat less pies. (Dissappears up own arse in rant)

[Starling in a cage]

Er.... Are you feeling better now?

[emm7]

Am I living in some kind of parallel universe? Because every time I go into one of the poor areas of a city I'm almost tripping over shops selling fresh fruit and veg, and they even let me shop there even though I'm not Polish/Pakistani/Nepalese/Nigerian/Indian/Turkish/Afghan/Iraqi.

That's cos you live in a multicultural area. Not a huge sprawling council or private estate in a large suburb full of white families.

This is true. Multiculturalism hasn't yet really reached my county or the county next door. (Although there is one Asian food shop as described by ninearms in the student area of my home town). In the next county I have worked in a (mostly white) office in between two big (white) council estates where the only available sources of food for miles around for BOTH estates and the office (if you don't count the office canteen) are a tiny Coop and a tiny Spar both selling overpriced fruit and veg in a very bad state, plus a couple of takeaway places and a pub. To go to a supermarket would require a fair trek on the bus in heavy traffic.

[emm7]

Yet there's no obese people in that pic, or any other Lowry pic.. Why? Cos they were really active, doing hard physical work all day int'mills, that's why. Even the kids had to walk miles to school and probably sit in unheated classrooms all winter.

Not like modern day softy shite work that involves driving and sitting in chairs. Not like housework that means switching the dishwasher on or passing the hoover round.

People are soft these days. Yet they eat less pies. (Dissappears up own arse in rant)

Fox this made me smile!!!

[Gelert]

Yeah, I know 3 posts in a row is a bit lame, but anyway...

See these people:


These people ate pies and bread. And probably chips and dripping. Lots of pies. Really full fat pies with loads of pastry and potatoes and carrots and cheap full fat meat in.

Yet there's no obese people in that pic, or any other Lowry pic.. Why? Cos they were really active, doing hard physical work all day int'mills, that's why. Even the kids had to walk miles to school and probably sit in unheated classrooms all winter.

Not like modern day softy shite work that involves driving and sitting in chairs. Not like housework that means switching the dishwasher on or passing the hoover round.

People are soft these days. Yet they eat less pies. (Dissappears up own arse in rant)

Ironic though that the painting you chose is The Fever Van. Perhaps a good few of those hard at work down t'mill didn't get heart attacks was because consumption/diptheria/etc got them first.

We talk of a dip in life expectancy due to obesity, but let's not forget that it mainly reflects the consequence of an unprecedented rise in life expectancy thanks to one lot of killers being pushed out of the Western world, by and large.

[Rubber_Ritchie]

On another veg*an forum I've been getting a lot of criticism for daring to suggest that some people are overweight because they eat too much & exercise too little.

Apparently the statement above is offensive is anyone who's overweight, particularly women as it reinforces patriarchal cultural stereotypes.

I thought this was a perfectly reasonable point of view; am I wrong?

I agree with you Jim. I would say 'most' rather than 'some'.

[ninearms]

To go to a supermarket would require a fair trek on the bus in heavy traffic.

Or you could walk. Now there's a novelty!

[Hiking Fox]

To go to a supermarket would require a fair trek on the bus in heavy traffic.

Or you could walk. Now there's a novelty!

When I was at school nearly everybody walked, cycled or got the bus. The few kids who were dropped off by their parents got picked on and called babies. Yet nowadays, it seems to be regarded almost as neglectful to let kids walk. It’s like a vicious circle – parents won’t let their offspring walk to school because they say it’s dangerous cos there is too much traffic. So they drive them in. So the traffic massively increases etc. etc.

Such habits must persist later in life.

[Hiking Fox]

Ironic though that the painting you chose is The Fever Van. Perhaps a good few of those hard at work down t'mill didn't get heart attacks was because consumption/diptheria/etc got them first.

Ah Dr know-it-all, but they died of fever slim, with their boots on and full of pies.

[Gelert]

Ironic though that the painting you chose is The Fever Van. Perhaps a good few of those hard at work down t'mill didn't get heart attacks was because consumption/diptheria/etc got them first.

Ah Dr know-it-all, but they died of fever slim, with their boots on and full of pies.

True.

I bet



is your favoured kind of data presentation method too.

[bob_summers]

Ah Dr know-it-all, but they died of fever slim, with their boots on and full of pies.

that's how i want to die.

[puppydog]

To go to a supermarket would require a fair trek on the bus in heavy traffic.

Or you could walk. Now there's a novelty!

When I was at school nearly everybody walked, cycled or got the bus. The few kids who were dropped off by their parents got picked on and called babies. Yet nowadays, it seems to be regarded almost as neglectful to let kids walk. It’s like a vicious circle – parents won’t let their offspring walk to school because they say it’s dangerous cos there is too much traffic. So they drive them in. So the traffic massively increases etc. etc.

Such habits must persist later in life.

For sure - in Canada, I walked a mile to school every day. (And two miles back! In the snow!) Kids don't seem to do that now.

But if you wanna try a place where people don't walk... Come to Bermuda.

Where something like 50% of the population is not simply overweight but obese.

Generally speaking people here will not walk more than two blocks in the city. If I park 2 blocks from work people ask me "why did you part all the way over there, that will take ten minutes for you to get to your bike!" (when it really will take 3)

And out of the city, people will not walk past the end of their driveway

[JS]

On another veg*an forum I've been getting a lot of criticism for daring to suggest that some people are overweight because they eat too much & exercise too little.

Apparently the statement above is offensive is anyone who's overweight, particularly women as it reinforces patriarchal cultural stereotypes.

I thought this was a perfectly reasonable point of view; am I wrong?

I think it's a fair comment to make. If people eat a healthy varied diet and exercise then stands to reason the majority will be a healthy weight based on their genetic make up.

There should be a wide spectrum of weight distribution with a few underweight ones at one end and a few overweight ones at the other with the majority of folk in the middle.

However I believe this has become more skewed with the abundance of food readily available to us all especially all the fat and sugary foods humans have a liking for that and the lack of physical activity we do. We don't even need to get up to turn the tv over these days and we can sit in front of screens for hours on end whether it be tv or computer. In my grannies day she would have been scrubbing steps, washing clothes by hand, walking out for food and cooking it etc now less of that happens as folk switch to ready meals, use labour saving devices and can watch tv 24/7 and I am sure drink far more alcohol then in the past.

I would argue xJimx that the folk that are commenting on it being unfair statement are probably overweight and perhaps women......................no offence to anyone hear that hand on heart doesn't eat that much and exercises regular and is still overweight. I personally am underweight, eat a fair amount and take limited exercise (few hours a week) - I think the solution for me is to eat more......cut down on aerobic exercise and weight train to build dense muscle.............your statement in the reverse