Overeating

OK. There's a lot I could say right now but I'm just going to say this. Making references to 'fat behinds' isn't subjective sharing of opinion; it's crass, disrespectful, judgemental and quite hateful. Saying things like that isn't being vulnerable; on the contrary, it's attacking the vulnerable. There's nothing courageous about that. These things are not black and white - I think as Autistic people we find this hard to remember. Sometimes it isn't as simple as greed or lack of willpower. If willpower was everything, I'd be home and dry when it came to my eating disorder. As it is, I'm broken, and a lot of what broke me is society's relationship with food. That doesn't mean to say that I don't take responsibility - I do, and am consumed with guilt every day for what I've done to those who love me. However, society's obsession with food and weight has added fuel to the fire regarding my eating disorder from when I was a little girl of 13 and had adults (including teachers) telling me to 'keep up the diet because I'd been a bit fat before', that 'a touch of anorexia never hurt anyone'.

Turtle said:

vegetables, nuts, seeds. salad, lean meat or fish etc etc.

I had a fillet steak burger with sesame seed bun - does that count? 

The diet of an athlete is usually a healthy balanced one ; cooking fresh food from scratch, lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds. salad, lean meat or fish etc etc.

I'm pretty sure it is not a diet based on junk food. 

Turtle said:

No I'm just pointing out that a lot of adulterated food is harmful to the body, takes longer for the body to break down and is generally bad for your health compared

Zero proof - all based on 20 years of high-power marketing from the organic industry.

I'm seriously ill - ulcerative pan-colitis - what I eat is incredibly important - I have a nutritionist working with me - the first thing she said was ignore all the marketing lies - we work with facts.      I eat pragmatically - I eat mostly like an Olympic athlete - but I also treat myself to relieve the boredom.

My symptoms are mostly affected by stress.

JustMe said:

A basic McDonald's burger had 6.6g of sugar and 1.2g of salt.

That's the tomato sauce.

JustMe said:

Muller Lite yogurts, low fat - great - but full of sugar! I'd class that as junk food too! 

That's all down to a political battle years ago where claiming that fat was bad - but that gives flavour - so food had tons of sugar and salt crammed in instead to give some flavour.

No I'm just pointing out that a lot of adulterated food is harmful to the body, takes longer for the body to break down and is generally bad for your health compared to fresh, local or organic food which will be much more beneficial to the body.

You are not surely suggesting that there is no difference if you eat junk food everyday or a healthy balanced diet ? 

There's most definitely such a thing as junk food! Any food that gives you calories but very little nutrition is junk food. Plain and simple. And adding a bit of lettuce does not make a McDonald's burger any healthier. Most pre-made food is usually higher in calories, fat, sugar and salt. A basic McDonald's burger had 6.6g of sugar and 1.2g of salt. That's not good, no matter how you look at it. Adding lettuce doesn't make it any better either. The same ingredients, made by the same outlet, arranged differently on a plate, would still be bad. Similar ingredients, home made, on a plate or in a burger bun would be much better. Less fat, less salt, less sugar. Even shop bought,  pre-made, 'healthy' food is often crammed with sugar and/or salt in order to add flavour. Muller Lite yogurts, low fat - great - but full of sugar! I'd class that as junk food too! 

And they got a free meat ration with all the bugs and weevils in the biscuits too. 

i watched some videos on hard tac after i wondered what pirates and sailors ate on long voyages... its like a cracker bread thing that was so hard they pretty much had to punch it to break bits off. it lasted months or years or whatever and had decent enough nutrition to get them by but its longevity was due to the fact it has no flavourings or sugar or anything in it at all to improve its flavour as anything to add taste or flavour would be adding things that would go stale or rotten and thus kill the longevity of the food. so it must have been very bland.

You seem to try to make out that 'food' has some special properties - it hasn't - it's just chemistry.    Burger buns do go green - like every other bread - but their chemistry is such that it takes longer than a hand-made 'artisan' bread which is polluted with all sorts of random bacteria and yeasts.

I love a good burger - I'm not really bothered with McD or any cheapo versions without salad and where the 'meat' is MRM with added rusk and fillers to lower the cost for the retailer - but remember-  directly it goes down your throat, it gets dumped into concentrated acid in your stomach - that's going to break down almost anything into its chemical components.

If you're into food, look at Youtube videos of military MRE rations - that will demonstrate the clever chemistry in making long-life food that still tastes good - an army marches on its stomach!  .

I'm not doubting some companies go to those lengths but all the flour is bleached like most white bread and they add preservatives to the products too .It doesn't explain though if you leave the product out at home and it still doesn't go off and how would the body break such food down ? I mean have you tasted a burger bun from some of those places ? It's like eating soggy cardboard. All the bread products in those fast food places are horrible. They sell a very similar, long-life burger bun in the supermarkets and is disgusting. It does actually taste like it is weeks old, which it probably is.  

Turtle said:

We both know this is untrue.

You're wrong - The world is full of bacteria which makes food go mouldy - but some places keep the right bits of production clean to stop the bacteria getting into the product - it hugely extends shelf-life along with sealing them in plastic packaging full of nitrogen.

Other companies actively want the product to spoil quickly - it's all about the target market.

Hi, Giraffe. No one here is jumping on anyone. Certainly not me.  We all have our own struggles in life. The very fact we're on here speaks to that. We're all doing the best we can with the resources we have: and right now, one resource might be this forum, a place for us to ask questions, interact with other human beings, virtually. It's not a court of public opinion. No one should be on trial for expressing their views. We're all here because we all want to learn from one another. For many of us, it may be our only opportunity to interact with other people.You know, putting our views online in a forum like this takes courage. It may be the only time many of us allow ourselves to be vulnerable and authentic as we search for connection, for understanding, for information.

We can sometimes forget (because of our own struggles) that others may be struggling just as much as we are.  We all have our own issues, our own demons to fight; our own pain to live with, our own traumas that haunt us. We can all be armed and ready to go off like an automatic rifle at the slightest touch of the trigger.  I'm sorry you are seriously ill at the moment, I truly am, but I'm also glad to hear you have the good fortune to have a loving family around you, as well as the love of your life. I'm reminded that so many people are living without a network of support, without a family, and without significant others, and this makes me count my blessings and be grateful fo them.

Stay well.

OK, well, you don't need to jump on me. To be honest I shouldn't have even replied to this thread - I've found it very triggering. I'm anorexic and quite seriously ill at the moment.

It could just be my opinion, but I don't think past generations necessarily did have it harder than us. I'm a so-called millennial. It's never been so hard to get a mortgage. We'll most likely be working into our seventies. There are no jobs. Social media hate is rife and we all feel the need to be Instagram-perfect all the time. The planet is dying. Oh, and there's the little extra of there being a global pandemic as well. It's the Daily Mail etc that implies we're all whiners these days and that we haven't lived through a World War (yet) and so never have a right to be unhappy or scared.

Also, implying emotional issues are no more than an excuse for overeating is just wrong. It's not a 'justification'; it's a genuine explanation for many people. Do you really think people of 30 stone have no psychological issues at all? And yes, we do all need to own our lifestyle decisions, but people who rant about overweight/obese people without any lived experience of being overweight or obese need to own their anger and stop projecting it onto a vulnerable group. Yes there is an element of control when it comes to weight - there's also an element of control when it comes to my anorexia, I torture myself with that thought every day, that I could be doing more, that I should just go into the kitchen and eat like any 'normal' adult, that I'm hurting myself and the love of my life and my family, that I'm messing up my body and my life. Yet I'm fighting to keep my head above water with it right now. For many obese people this is their life too, just in reverse.

What makes people underweight?  Why are two eating disorders socially acceptable while the third isn't?  Because those two eating disorders are aesthetically pleasing.  People don't shame anorectics and bulimics until they look skeletal.  

Keep your chin up, LMF.

I worked in a very famous bakery. I can't begin to tell you of the horrors I've seen there. And the clever ways they went about concealing their bad practices from H&S.

Ways of coping Mycal We have to consider many factors from habits formed as children if the parents don't install good habits it will most likely pass onto the children. Also medication when i was on ssri i put on 5 stone i was never fat before. My mother used to give me junk food to cheer me up when i had a hell of a day at school due to the school system. So many factors it comes down to be conscious of what you are doing if you are mindful of your actions it's easier to keep at bay. Subjectively for myself but stress is bad right now so i am struggling.

Obesity was a sign of affluence and high class status.  

^ its always reported that many fast food places the food and equipment are full of *** lol because the staff dont wash their hands after going toilet... or porbably ever to be honest... and they probably flush with the seat open and thus get poo particles flung all over their entire body.