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Obesity in Shetland


shetlander
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Just did some sums and apparently the first time I was told to put on weight I had a BMI of 20 (using standard calculator), according to my doctor & nurse I was dangerously under weight, according some that is within the ideal range.

Okay I admit it's four years now since I was last "underweight" and now I'm "overweight" but I do think we obsess about wieght and size too much. what maybe be healthy for some is unhealthy for others.

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and whats the cost of a traffic accident(the average cost of a fatal injury is 1 million) or treating someone for cancer or any other self inflicted illness. how much is spent in shetland dealing with drink related illness these are the big costs for the nhs. hey better still lets kill all the over sixty's after all the old folk costs the state the most pensions etc.

heres a good one whats spent on anti depressents after all this must be a good cost saving for us fatties after all were always happy.

oh by the way it would be intresting to see a test case over acces to services on disability discrimination grounds.

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Please stop trying to drag this into an argument about victimisation of fat people.

 

The topic is whether Shetland has a higher incidence of obesity or not; and whether there are factors which contribute to this. If there are, then it is pragmatic to look for ways to improve matters; as Khitajrah is trying to highlight.

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There are a lot of people who are just naturally big or hefty and are a bit over weight in Shetland, but i seem to see more and more who are fatter than this, can only be their own greed and inactivity which can account for it. I feel sorry for some of the families you see whith massive mam and dad and then huge fat bairns, you can only wonder what they all eat, the bairns probally know no other as they just get what mam and dad makes for them, I think its a type of child abuse for the poor bairns.

 

Its ok being a bit over weight but when you start getting really fat then really society should look on it in a negative and try and get them to reverse it. To many people blame their genes etc when in reality its their lifestyle which is to blame and they should be encouraged to change.

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saying that people who dont conform to what society believes is an ideal lifestyle should be restricted from services is just that. imagine if you were talking about deaf people would this be exceptable.

 

indeed there is an issue with an increase in weight. but this is not down to sheltanders being short and fat. its down to the fact that the lifestyle now is not as hard as it was a hundred years ago. but the food intake has not changed. its that simple.

 

but that is not the point the political parties are using obesity/health choice to remove our attention from the fact that they are failing to meet there targets on poverty and ill health. there are plenty of studies showing a link between the two. is it not odd that at the same time as this issue is brought up that the world health organization is reporting a falling life expectancy in the poorest areas of scotland. in fact parts of scotland have a shorter(no pun intended) life expectancy than india.

 

Health inequality

life expectancy at birth for a boy is about five years less in the two lowest social classes than in the two highest, at 70 and 75 years respectively

each of the main disease groups shows a wide health gap among men, with those in the highest two social classes experiencing lower mortality than men in the lowest two

men aged between 20 and 64 from the bottom social class are three times more likely to die from coronary heart disease and stroke than those in the top social class

mortality from all major causes has been found to be consistently higher than average among unemployed men; unemployed women have higher mortality from coronary heart disease and suicide

children from manual households are more likely to suffer from chronic sickness than children from non-manual households

children from manual households are more likely to suffer from tooth decay than children from non-manual households

men in manual classes are about 40 per cent more likely to report a long-standing illness that limits their activities than those in non-manual classes.

so parts of scotland are 20 years worse than the top stat.

 

European comparisons

High mortality concentrated in deprived areas, particularly in the West of Scotland, has a

substantial impact on national mortality rates. Scotland as a whole has higher mortality

than other Western European countries with the exception of Portugal, yet 24 of the 32

local council areas in Scotland have male mortality rates within the range of those of

other European countries. The remaining eight (comprising about 30% of the Scottish

population) have rates above this range, with Glasgow City having a rate 60% higher

than that of the country with the highest death rate.

For the full report see http://www.inequalitiesinhealth.com

 

sorry if this is getting heavy reading but its the only way of showing what i mean.

this is what the W.H.O. as to say

 

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2008/pr29/en/index.html

it says for those that can be bothered to read it that a child born in the worst area of glasgow will die nearly 30 years earlier than a richer person living down the road. hope thats short enough and less stupid

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^ I've had to trim that text above I'm afraid. It is just far too long. By all means provide the link you found it at instead.

 

Who has said that obese people should be denied any health care? You appear to be the only one who thinks this is an issue. Everyone else is talking about something else.

 

To quote Poindextrose:

 

at this part id say this thread isnt about blaming/finding fat people.

 

This still applies.

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There are a lot of people who are just naturally big or hefty and are a bit over weight in Shetland, but i seem to see more and more who are fatter than this, can only be their own greed and inactivity which can account for it. I feel sorry for some of the families you see whith massive mam and dad and then huge fat bairns, you can only wonder what they all eat, the bairns probally know no other as they just get what mam and dad makes for them, I think its a type of child abuse for the poor bairns.

 

Its ok being a bit over weight but when you start getting really fat then really society should look on it in a negative and try and get them to reverse it. To many people blame their genes etc when in reality its their lifestyle which is to blame and they should be encouraged to change.

 

and this is a reasoned non biased view

 

Its ok being a bit over weight but when you start getting really fat then really society should look on it in a negative and try and get them to reverse it. To many people blame their genes etc when in reality its their lifestyle which is to blame and they should be encouraged to change

and how would you do that forced into diet camps take there children from them.

i just hope you all have a spotless health record because if this is brought in you will be next.

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And I am pro choice on diet too. Your point?

 

You are waging a war against nobody here, paulb. All offended that we might discuss diet and exercise in the same topic as obesity? :? It is hardly outrageous to suggest that people should be educated about regular exercise and provided with sensible dietary advice.

 

Folk are entitled to eat what they choose and I haven't said anything to the contrary. Just as with drug use, however, I believe that people should be provided with the education and encouragement to live a healthy life and, if they have health problems due to diet, they should be provided with all the support necessary to make a recovery.

 

However! If a drug user were to require a liver transplant whilst continuing to damage themselves with alcohol, we would both begin asking questions about the usefulness of this care. Likewise for dietary problems.

 

the food intake has not changed. its that simple.

How many fish-suppers did a person eat, on average, per week, one-hundred years ago?

 

Btw.. that quote I called 'stupidly long' (not 'stupid') has almost nothing to do with the topic either. Here is the only section which has anything to do with obesity:

 

"Water-borne diseases are not caused by a lack of antibiotics but by dirty water, and by the political, social, and economic forces that fail to make clean water available to all; heart disease is caused not by a lack of coronary care units but by lives people lead, which are shaped by the environments in which they live; obesity is not caused by moral failure on the part of individuals but by the excess availability of high-fat and high-sugar foods." Consequently, the health sector – globally and nationally – needs to focus attention on addressing the root causes of inequities in health.
(my emphasis)

 

Ban fish-and-chips? :shock:

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Boy this topic has grown since last night. Even the posts became obese :lol:

 

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

I totally agree with Fjool that everyone should have the choice to eat what they want, and the education avaliable to them to make that choice.

 

I think the kind of extreme situation where someone is so large as to be unable to excercise should be treated with more sympathy than currently happens. To get that big there has to be a medical issue, so it is only right that they should recieve medical care. That *is* tackling the root of the problem.

 

Personally my issue is with todays emphasis on all sorts of measurements, inherent when obesity is measured by BMI, and the literal definition of the term "overweight".

 

What really matters is fitness and health, but i worry that many "technically obese" people who are actually very fit will find their mental health constantly being wittered away at due to this very type of "news".

 

the food intake has not changed. its that simple.

How many fish-suppers did a person eat, on average, per week, one-hundred years ago?

 

I suspect fish was a common supper back then, probably 5 or more days a week in winter, but i'll bet it was saat fish boiled in water, not something thats been boiled in sump oil..

 

Why is it that it's so offensive not to call someone "fat", but "obese" and "overweight" are fine?

 

:wink:

 

Ok, thought i better edit this to bring it back to the topic a bit!

 

As mentioned before, i believe the traditional shetland lifestyle does lend to people being larger, but fitter.

 

Please note that i do realise that not many live like that anymore, and that may be why there is an inflated figure for shetland. People born and bred to work 16 hour summer days of manual labour are bound to "get fat" if they are sitting at a desk for 8 instead!

 

Personally, myself, i'm fatter (had enough of the PC rubbish :) ) now that i have an office based job, but i am still as active in the evenings, indeed moreso, than before. I never ate very much, less now, and always healthy, so nothing much can change there. So how do i replace those 8 hours of physically demanding excercise i used to do?

 

I think a lot of locals in their 30's - 40's may be in a similar position.

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What really matters is fitness and health, but i worry that many "technically obese" people who are actually very fit will find their mental health constantly being wittered away at due to this very type of "news".

Although it should be pointed out that the news is little more than a disassociated statistic; there's little in the way of context or analysis. Much of what has been written merely bounces off popular definitions such as BMI.

 

If it turns out that Shetland, in general, has a healthier population and a high BMI, then this is surely evidence against BMI as a suitable indicator of one's health.

 

something thats been boiled in sump oil..

^ Nail. Head. Hit.

 

Why is it that it's so offensive not to call someone "fat", but "obese" and "overweight" are fine? :wink:

This is another excellent point, and one which cropped up at home the other evening.

 

We deal, of course, only in generalisations and our interpretations of the words 'fat', 'obese' , 'brick-outhouse', 'powerful', and so on, are but the result of our experience and education in the matter.

 

I've no idea why, but it seems that terms change and 'obese' is but another currently slipping into the list of words considered 'offensive'. Much as the word 'spastic' began to carry negative connotations, a medical term is being distorted by people who understand it insultingly (or merely ignorantly), rather than medically.

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Surely the word fat is not going to become politically incorrect?

What am i going to roast my tatties in then? Goose oil? :wink:

 

But seriously, for those with health problems and unable to perform other forms of exercise due to their size the NHS can prescribe for them to go swimming. It ain't going to shed the weight rapidly, but it does improve general fitness over time and assist in raising metabolic rates.

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I'm really not sure education about food/exercise is the only issue when it comes to obesity and overeating. I bet of all the people you know, it's the overweight ones who best know the nutritional stats of most foods in the house!!! You can have all the education in the world but without willpower or the right mindset it will make no difference. Anyone who has tried to lose weight will know how soul destroying it can be! I, for one, know perfectly well that if I have that fish supper/chicken korma it's going to be sticking around on the hips for a while. I know that sitting watching Corrie is a less healthy option than if I was to go for a walk, swim, cycle etc - yet here I am still with far too much junk in my trunk! Albeit I am actively trying to do something about it....... :?

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