My neighbour was trying on some pants in his driveway (as you do). Over his clothes of course. I should explain that the neighbours are moving so all their belongings are migrating, via said driveway. They’re great neighbours, we’ll really miss them, but that’s a whole other post. Anyway, his pants looked many sizes too big, so I asked if he’d lost some weight. Yeah, about 30kgs, he said. I was floored. We’ve lived next door for years and I’d never noticed. It turns out the transformation happened mostly before we moved in, yet he’d maintained it. So I asked the obvious question: How did you do it?
How did he lose 30 kgs?
Smaller portion size, was his answer, and exercise. He used to eat too much. He retrained himself eat smaller meals, and allowed himself to feel hungry instead of satiating every tinge of hunger. Then he added exercise to the mix, starting with walking, eventually adding weights and running. He was determined not to have the health issues of his father’s generation, where the men died young and suffered to the end. Since losing the weight he feels great, he says. His blood pressure and cholesterol levels are good, he has more energy and is 2cm taller! Wow. See the conversations I’m going to miss out on when they move?
Our fat culture
I’ve just been reading Peter Singer’s book The Ethics of What We Eat so it was no suprise that he attributed his former weight issues to a culture of overeating. Americans (and Australians) eat 50% more meat, poultry and dairy than they did in the 1950s. We don’t need this much extra food, it’s far beyond our nutritional requirements. It’s actually a huge waste of resources so it’s an ethical issue. Eating like this requires intensive factory farming of animals, a modern strategy that pollutes the planet and causes lifetimes of suffering for animals. The health implications are obvious: 30% of our population is now obese, with all the associated health problems. Australia has just overtaken North America in obesity… we should be so proud. The huge strain on our health system is going to dominate our future – and premature death is unavoidable. Well actually it is avoidable, which makes the whole situation so crazy. We are killing ourselves : the obesity epidemic is the first epidemic not caused by nature (disease); it’s caused by culture.
Would you like heart disease with that?
I’m no nutritionist, but I can spot unhealthy food a mile away. I see fat-laden, highly processed “food” being peddled in large sizes at low prices. The multinational fast food chains assault me through TV advertising, especially at dinner time, even though I never go near their stores. With their brightly coloured, dominantly-placed playgrounds, “kids meals” and children’s character promotions, they wield pester power like a semi-automatic. I don’t have a simple answer for my kids when they ask “why can’t we go play there, mummy?” I wish there were laws to stop them targeting children with their advertising billions. I don’t think it’s fair that they make huge profits by selling nutritionally-poor, high fat and sugar-dense products, yet bear none of the health costs associated with obesity. Why isn’t there a tax on processed food, fat and sugar, like there is on tobacco? I could go on and on about the evils of fast-food culture, the real cost of producing cheap food, but it’s 3 in the morning so I won’t.
Back to my neighbour: he’s moving to start a new job as a catering manager, but he’s been working in an office for the last few years. I asked how the office/kitchen culture affects his health/weight. He told me in the office, people are snacking all day long, eating sweet biscuits 4 at a time and drinking instant coffee with milk and 2 sugars – filling up their bodies with food they don’t need that’s making them fat. I cringe at the thought: it’s not just the empty calories- those biscuits are full of palm oil- a crop that’s decimating orangutan populations to near extinction, and the multinational behind that coffee brand is the subject of a decades-long boycott for their irresponsible marketing of infant formula and labour exploitation.
I think people are mostly oblivious to the ethical issues about food. We know about the health issues, but they are drowned out by advertising. We are so bombarded with messages to promote a convenience-based, unhealthy food culture, that it’s a struggle to see the ethical and health concerns. There’s no counter advertising to the billions being spent by the food industries, no government regulation on what can be sold as food. So it’s up to us. We have to inform ourselves from independent sources. We have to make wiser decisions about what we feed ourselves and our children, where it comes from, and what it does to us.
Resources (just off the top of my head, do your own research for more):
the ethics of what we eat : Peter Singer & Jim Mason (Melbourne, 2006)
Hi, I’m Lara: mum, wife, and maker of Extremely Nappies.
Lara you just answered a question I was wondering about and that is the issue of palm oil. I had no idea why this was a problem till reading your blog, so you are right, it is up to us, and to people like you who have this information to share it with others so they are better informed. And now I will share with others..and so it goes
I love that you are so passionate, it really rubs off <3
Very informative post. I only wish I had your neighbour’s will power. I will read your links and maybe get a new angle on this weight loss thang. Need to find some ethical chocolate !
Wow you’re neighbours done well!
Wonderfully informative post! thank you for sharing with us and I love that your neighbour was trying on his pants in his driveway…
I’m with Becky. A neighbour who is trying on his pants in his driveway is a welcome addition to any neighbourhood.
A very thought-provoking post. The idea that it’s up to us is completely right – too many people just let themselves be spoon-fed by advertising and packaging (an appropriate metaphor, no?) and never bother to do any research or thinking for themselves.
We’ve recently become vegetarians and are changing the way we eat. We try to eat only whole foods… I’m still not sure how sustainable this new diet is, though.
Great post! I’ve lost the plot a little with diet. I needed this.
Brilliant post. I agree as well, that we (in general) allow ourselves to be lulled into thinking that just because there’s kiddy meals and brightly coloured playgrounds that these places are in any way “good” or “healthy options” for our children to be eating at. Not to mention the adults. I like the idea of a tax on fast food components.
Hear Hear! I have to admit that I hadn’t considered the link between intensive farming and obesity, but it makes so much sense. You put it so clearly – that we’re just wasting it, getting bigger and bigger. Its a horrific thought. Great post!
Thanks for your comments! I’m glad my little rant didn’t offend you; it’s easy to get on my soap box about this stuff. Good on you for going vegetarian, Lauren! it’s a such a powerful choice: personally you’re saving the lives of 100 animals a year, and reducing your footprint on the planet. Tread lightly, eat kindly, save the planet, save ourselves.