Is it any wonder that we are a nation of fatties?

[one eyed jack]

...Given the high unemployment soon we dont even need to walk to the shops for the amount that are closing down. We dont need to hang out with friends anymore for the social networking. Junk food is on the rise, bad diets, alcohol abuse...

If we dont watch our selves our enemies only have to invade and roll us into the meat wagons and melt us down to make candles for our arms will be too short to reach for guns to defend ourselves.

The future is uncertain.

I wonder how long before money becomes redundant? It will all be credits as we will all be online anyway

[max_tranmere]

I think people do more exercise now than before - walking and cycling are certainly exercise. More people do those things now than ever before. More people cycle in London now than previously, the trend for corporate people going to the gym has also been very big for some years now.

[Sam Slater]

[quote]More people do those things now than ever before.[/quote]

Trouble is, we're consuming more calories, hence the obesity epidemic.

[one eyed jack]

You know this for a fact Max?

x million in a city and you see about 40 people in a local gym a day. maybe 30 people cycling and you arrive at that opinion?

[sparky]

Maybe there is a upsurge in cycling in urban areas as a result of upward spiralling travel costs and also generally a sector who do more exercise than a few years ago.

However overall jobs involving physical work have declined, shopping in retail parks is less exercise than in town/city centres let alone sitting at home shopping online, parents are ever more wary about letting children play outside unless constantly supervised and eating patterns have changed to a less healthy diet.
When a persons lifestyle changes to one that uses less calories many don't adjust either their diet or portion size accordingly and unemployment can result in eating out of boredom.

The number of podgy if not technically overweight pre-teenagers has noticeably increased in the last few years.

I'll never forget several years ago being at a motorway services and seeing a whole family of very overweight father, mother and children come waddling out each with a large Burger King bag ......

[Essex Lad]

Sam Slater wrote:

> [quote]More people do those things now than ever
> before.[/quote]
>
> Trouble is, we're consuming more calories, hence the obesity
> epidemic.
>
There isn't an obesity epidemic ? you can't catch fatness.

[one eyed jack]

You can catch fatness if all your mates hang out in pubs glug beers and wash it down with a kebab and chips every night !laugh!

[David Johnson]

I put on 3 lbs. just watching an interview with Tory Cabinet Minister, Eric Pickles.

[Sam Slater]

ep?i?dem?ic (p-dmk) also ep?i?dem?i?cal (--kl)
adj.
1. Spreading rapidly and extensively by infection and affecting many individuals in an area or a population at the same time: an epidemic outbreak of influenza.
2. Widely prevalent: epidemic discontent.
n.
1. An outbreak of a contagious disease that spreads rapidly and widely.
2. A rapid spread, growth, or development: an unemployment epidemic.

[Essex Lad]

The twos are wrong and the ones right.