The UK is a nation of -porkers- discuss

Tegan my old gran used to take snuff

I can see her now putting it on her top of her hand between her first finger and thumb, then holding first one nostril, then the other as she snorted it up like a line of cocaine.

Oh tne shame

Sturdy has a spiritual or mental strength element to it though, anya, as well as a physical one. At least my use of it where I used it did. That's why I chose it.

I'd appreciate a link to the source you used, tegan. I'd like to look at the survey.

lol Hackney Empire- thanks,. Never knew the Emporium existed- oh my ;) hey, it was a loooong time ago. Best time to discover London and the rock scene though.

How did YOU know about the shop though ;)

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/from-a-size-12-to-a-16-how-women-have-changed-shape-6162531.html

This might be it, bags.
Interesting that so many factors are implicated in our changing shape, not least that so few of us apparently now wear restricting corsetry, though I do admit to possessing a couple of pairs of magic knickers ;)

Stout?

Walking on the Transpennine Trail yesterday saw quite a few 'stout' people but they all seemed to be on bikes - so some of them are making an effort!

This is a very interesting article, JaneA which sums it up well. The relevance of snacking does make sense. In my childhood we had 3 meals a day with perhaps one biscuit mid afternoon and no doubt Mummies had their " elevenses" but many people seem to graze constantly all through the day and see entertainment and travelling as a valid reason for eating even more.

Ironically . . . . .many people actually eat less than they did 30 years ago when a stodgy diet was encouraged but today's "munch culture" had led to people constantly snacking.

I was actually googling 'house prices in 1953' when I found the waist size info; I'll try to find it [pooter is so clapped out it just buffers all the time and often won't let me do links etc].

www.arts.ac.uk/media/arts/research/.../SizeUK-Results-Full.pdf - Similar

Thanks, tegan, I didn't realise you had pooter probs

Thanks, jane, also.

It's so old I have to wind it up each morning and it has a mind of it's own [I think it's in league with the satnav lady].

I only read your last post on the "last hour" page, and thought you were referring to SO

In my High Street in one of the most deprived areas of the South East there are queues of people outside KFC and McD's usually younger parents who are not only very overweight but also do not appear too fussed about it. There are more food outlets than most High Streets I presume, although to be fair I don't frequent many nowadays. I do know that there are also lots of greengrocers and a couple of butchers where there are no queues at all.
I honestly believe that there is not enough education when it comes to younger people with regards to feeding a family for less with fresh foods.
Iceland does a roaring trade as does Greggs.
Maybe there is a connection with the lack in school curriculum of decent domestic science lessons over the past 30 odd years. I learned to cook at school and my parents used to cook from scratch too. Nowadays people complain that they do not have time to cook but how long does a chicken take to roast which is healthier and quicker than waiting for a take a way? Or opening a box from a freezer of manipulated chemical ridden foods with additives that you cannot pronounce.
Maybe people have literally become not only fat but lazy to boot.
Oh and I am no lightweight, with a couple of stones to shift but as my dear old Dad used to say..."We are built as cart horses, not race horses!".

Was in the Bullring this morning and I noticed how many of the older Asian women were hugely overweight and struggling to walk. So this is not a problem confined to the white population.

My Mum told me some shops sold single cigarettes and I am pretty sure that remember packs of 5. I definitely remember being able to buy a size smaller from M&S and Wallis. I think it was fashionable in the 50s/60s for a woman to have the occasional cigarette with a drink when she was out - and then later it was after a meal out.

My Gran was a 'dame' who used to hide things like money in handbags and clothes pockets - then forget all about them. She 'took to her bed' in her 50s and when she was in her 60s, found a packet of cigarettes in a handbag. Goodness only knows how long they'd been there because I never ever saw her smoking! She decided to light up and set her nightie (sp?) on fire. She spent 4 months in a burns hospital miles from home and my Grandad didn't drive. We have so many stories about her and my Mum wants to be shot if she starts getting like her. Sadly my Gran was not a good mother, so many of the stories are not funny at all.

I like the word 'sturdy' and I would be happy to be sturdy, as slim would be harder to maintain.

Stout party. I look into the mirror......

Interesting that Jamie Oliver is talking in the press about his school dinner project of a few years ago. What he seems to be saying is that decent eating habits were seen as 'posh' and therefore rejected by those who deride such matters. At the risk of being seen as elitist I think he has got a point. As someone who was regularly bullied for being posh at school....yet my parents were working class and Mum often had no money till the child allowance came out, I can see the confused logic. Some people are very quick to see all forms of self-improvement, such as healthy eating and adult education, even parenting classes as 'posh'....yet they often want the most up to date phone, tv or fashion!

Just read in today's paper that 1 in 6 NHS beds are taken by diabetes patients.

The CEO of Diabetes UK said '.....there are almost 200,000 cases a year of debilitating and life-threatening diabetes complications such as heart attacks, amputations and stroke that could be prevented....'

hilda I think inverted snobbery is one of the saddest things about modern Britain.

janeainsworth Only inverted snobbery - what about conventional snobbery? That is pretty damaging too and there is plenty of it in this country.

I would agree especially when it entails inverted intellectual snobbery.
The British are much too self deprecating about academic achievement (Princess Di, "thick as 2 short planks" on her own admission), modesty is one thing, but considering it bad form to take pride in achievement does nobody any favours. I was once at the Boat Race with a bunch of Ciity types and one of them when asked "Are you an Oxbridge chap, Charles?" guffawed and said something along the lines of "Me, good heavens no, 2 O levels and a driving test, ha ha" as if he was actually proud of himself.
[finger down throat] emoticon.

Sigh. janea said "one of the saddest", eloe. Quarrelsome or what?

I was just agreeing with Hilda, Eloethan, but since you ask, I think there's possibly more inverted snobbery than conventional snobbery these days, particulary of the sort Alea referred to.
I have heard young people say they don't want to go to university because 'only posh people go there' and can't help contrasting that sort of thing with my grandmother's generation who encouraged academic achievement as a route to personal developpment and better employment prospects.