A disaster in the fight against obesity...
Comments
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McBoom, have you deliberately missed the bit where they say they are taxing SATURATED fats? Some fats are beneficial / essential in a diet but not saturated fat.
Also, why the assumption that they would be replaced by refined carbs and sugars?
There's no need to cut any food groups out of a diet but ensure it is well balanced. A good balance of non-processed proteins, low GI carbs and some unsaturated fats together with a good level of fibre plus exercise is what is required. Unfortunately most people are too short of time (lazy?) to prepare food from fresh ingredients.
Saturated fats have an impact on things other than weight gain such as cholestrol levels as well.0 -
McBoom, you're living in some kind of alternate reality. The brain requires glucose as fuel. That comes from carbs/sugar. You need these for your brain to function correctly. It's been proven that a low carb diet is not healthy. And as this is a cycling forum, I should think most people realise the benefits of carbs for their exercise. I deliberately eat a high carb diet and it hasn't made me fat, I have a BMI of < 20.
At the end of the day calories are calories. Yes, some foods leave you feeling fuller for longer. But if daily calorie intake is the same on two different diets, and daily exercise is the same between the two persons on those diets, weight loss/gain will be the same. But the constitution of where those carbs come from may impact the individuals' ability to exercise/work differently.
I'll stick to my high carb diet.
Back on topic, I don't agree with taxing foods with sat fats, as I quite like the odd treat. But something needs to be done about this nation of massive fatties...0 -
Here's another thought. Instead of taxing high fat foods, why dont the government subsidise healthy foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables? I can go to Tesco and feed myself for a week on £15 if I only eat frozen pizza, processed meats, ice cream etc.. But try and eat healthy fresh food for a week and it'll cost more like £50+. The price, and a lack of understanding put people off buying healthy, and push them to eat fatty crap.Cycling prints
Band of Climbers0 -
y33stu wrote:Here's another thought. Instead of taxing high fat foods, why dont the government subsidise healthy foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables? I can go to Tesco and feed myself for a week on £15 if I only eat frozen pizza, processed meats, ice cream etc.. But try and eat healthy fresh food for a week and it'll cost more like £50+. The price, and a lack of understanding put people off buying healthy, and push them to eat fatty crap.
That is a large part of the problem for me, microwave lasagne for 99p. The base ingredients for making your own would easily exceed that. Those kind of ready meals have become so cheap that quite a few people now bring them in for lunch at work rather than a sandwich.0 -
y33stu wrote:Here's another thought. Instead of taxing high fat foods, why dont the government subsidise healthy foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables? I can go to Tesco and feed myself for a week on £15 if I only eat frozen pizza, processed meats, ice cream etc.. But try and eat healthy fresh food for a week and it'll cost more like £50+. The price, and a lack of understanding put people off buying healthy, and push them to eat fatty crap.
too true, too true. Eating healthy, as in 'healthy magasine lifestyle healthy' cost's a freakin fortune.0 -
Do you all live in Denmark? or not know that legoland is now just outside Windsor :roll: . Tax in Denmark is about as high as it gets so if I cant get Eccles cakes there cheaply I aint gotta whole lotta incentive to go - apart from the high proportion of v fit birds and the national pasttime of sunbathing topless in city parks :idea:0
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y33stu wrote:Here's another thought. Instead of taxing high fat foods, why dont the government subsidise healthy foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables?
Because taxation is revenue generating, whilst subsidisation is expensive.0 -
Because taxation is revenue generating, whilst subsidisation is expensive.
Yes but the whole point of taxing fatty foods was to cut down on healthcare spending on the obese. Subsiding healthy food "COULD" lead to less obese people, therefore less spending. Taxing the fat wont work.Cycling prints
Band of Climbers0 -
The origin of the idea that fats are really bad for you was a deeply flawed study done in 1953 by Ancel Keys. He was looking at coronary heart disease rates vs fat consumption in different countries.
Graph on the left shows his "results":
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d2ooRrqrKcI/T ... 0/Keys.jpg
His conclusion was that this proves that fat consumption causes CHD.
The flaws are pretty clear. Firstly, correlation doesn't mean causation. I reckon you could change the X-axis to "percentage of cars that are Fords" and it would look similar. You might find many things that correlate with CHD, but this doesn't mean they cause it.
Secondly, as the graph on the right demonstrates, he cherry-picked his data from what was available in order to show a correlation. The full data set shows next to no correlation between the two. Consider the massive difference between Finland and Mexico.
At the time his findings were strongly criticized by the American Heart Association. A few years later they were accepted after a certain Ancel Keys became a board member. The rest is history.0 -
In this instance, the point of taxing fatty foods is that they promised to freeze income tax and now need to look elsewhere for money. Fatty foods just have a convenient excuse attached.y33stu wrote:Yes but the whole point of taxing fatty foods was to cut down on healthcare spending on the obese. Subsiding healthy food "COULD" lead to less obese people, therefore less spending. Taxing the fat wont work.0 -
McBoom wrote:The origin of the idea that fats are really bad for you was a deeply flawed study done in 1953 by Ancel Keys. He was looking at coronary heart disease rates vs fat consumption in different countries.
Graph on the left shows his "results":
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d2ooRrqrKcI/T ... 0/Keys.jpg
His conclusion was that this proves that fat consumption causes CHD.
The flaws are pretty clear. Firstly, correlation doesn't mean causation. I reckon you could change the X-axis to "percentage of cars that are Fords" and it would look similar. You might find many things that correlate with CHD, but this doesn't mean they cause it.
Secondly, as the graph on the right demonstrates, he cherry-picked his data from what was available in order to show a correlation. The full data set shows next to no correlation between the two. Consider the massive difference between Finland and Mexico.
At the time his findings were strongly criticized by the American Heart Association. A few years later they were accepted after a certain Ancel Keys became a board member. The rest is history.
You're still lumping all fats (and all carbs) into the same groups though. There are good fats, bad fats, good carbs and bad carbs.0 -
Pross wrote:
You're still lumping all fats (and all carbs) into the same groups though. There are good fats, bad fats, good carbs and bad carbs.
I have said that refined carbs and sugars are the bad carbs. Yes there are bad fats also, but i've seen no good evidence that natural saturated fats are bad. Trans fats on the other hand are awful - cheap gunk used for processed crap.0 -
saturted fat is fine, see the case of french people, who eat more sat fat than americans but are much healthier. just google 'the french paradox'.Pross wrote:McBoom, have you deliberately missed the bit where they say they are taxing SATURATED fats? Some fats are beneficial / essential in a diet but not saturated fat.
Also, why the assumption that they would be replaced by refined carbs and sugars?
There's no need to cut any food groups out of a diet but ensure it is well balanced. A good balance of non-processed proteins, low GI carbs and some unsaturated fats together with a good level of fibre plus exercise is what is required. Unfortunately most people are too short of time (lazy?) to prepare food from fresh ingredients.
Saturated fats have an impact on things other than weight gain such as cholestrol levels as well.
but really, just eat a bit of everything, and exercise. a cheese burger would not kill anyone.0
