food v exercise

James Annan said:

Am I the only person to think that this latest hysteria over school food
is (almost) completely missing the point? Surely the recent reduction in
exercise levels is a much more important factor. Hence the relevance to
cycling, of course.

I believe that Part of the problem with poor diet is that
even if you can burn off the calories consumed, the quantity
of empty calories displaces other dietary inputs which are
necessary for good health.

Simon

James Annan said:

Am I the only person to think that this latest hysteria over school food
is (almost) completely missing the point? Surely the recent reduction in
exercise levels is a much more important factor. Hence the relevance to
cycling, of course.

Anecdotally, I had chips literally every day. Did me and my classmates
no harm at all - there was of course one "flat kid" but he could still
run a mile at a modest pace!

Hi James

My diet of mostly junk, interpersed with the occasional health kick,
hasn't really changed for many a year. However, I do find that when I
stop smoking (the day after tomorrow!) I actually lose weight, not the
opposite, and not by just the odd pound or two. This is simply because
I am able to cycle more: for longer distances and faster.

I know I'm perhaps oversimplifying things but, at least for me, it's
excercise and the ability to do it that matters.

James

James Annan said:

Am I the only person to think that this latest hysteria over school food
is (almost) completely missing the point? Surely the recent reduction in
exercise levels is a much more important factor. Hence the relevance to
cycling, of course.

Anecdotally, I had chips literally every day. Did me and my classmates
no harm at all - there was of course one "flat kid" but he could still
run a mile at a modest pace!

James

Personally I think as a child you are pretty resistant to most abuses
of the body including a terrible diet but take that eating pattern
into later life and you pay dearly for it. What makes it worse is that
as a child you are sucking in as much information as possible with
regards how you live your life and in later life you are more set in
your ways so it makes perfect sense to condition kids into a good diet
and exercise regime while they are young.

When I was a kid I don't remember many meals involving chips we seemed
to get mash more than anything with pies or sausages and chocolate
custard desserts with some sort of sponge monstrosity underneath like
spotted [censored]. Generally the food was ok but I always hated chocolate
custard which ruined an otherwise enjoyable dessert. I didn't care
myself but I remember many kids complaining about the lack of chips
from the canteen. What I really hated was the ultra cheap burgers
sometimes served. They looked like a rough blend of bones, skin and
low grade meat and had the consistancy of rubber. Also after cooking
they had a horrible pale pink colour. They certainly didn't come out
of any birds eye factory thats for sure. If they still do burgers like
that they should definitely be banned.

"James Annan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Am I the only person to think that this latest hysteria over school food
is (almost) completely missing the point? Surely the recent reduction in
exercise levels is a much more important factor. Hence the relevance to
cycling, of course.

The food at my secondary school was so appalling there was little chance of
anyone overeating as part of an obesity diet.
(Mind you, I managed other alternatives like going home or to the chippy :-)

I think you are right to a point. I grew up on a diet devoid of convenience
food, heck there is a force field around shop freezers that repels my mother
to this day (she's 76) but it included lots of very rich cakes and
puddings, home laid eggs by the score and lashings of sugar, butter, cream
and meat.
But the other side of the coin is that I was permanently on the go (and
still am) cycling here and walking there, life was a real adventure rather
than a virtual one (and still is). I could eat as much of whatevever I
wanted and still hide behind the washing line prop and wasn't unusual for
it.

While I don't subscribe to the view that everything was better in "the good
old days" and am far from being a retro-grouch I wouldn't swap my 50's and
60's childhood for one of the present era.

Pete

James Annan said:

Am I the only person to think that this latest hysteria over school food
is (almost) completely missing the point?

No .. I agree

Quoted message said:

Surely the recent reduction in
exercise levels is a much more important factor. Hence the relevance to
cycling, of course.

What, wow shock horror, kids CYCLING to school, when Mummy or Daddy
can take them the half mile in the Shogun and clog all the roads up at
the same time......

Quoted message said:

Anecdotally, I had chips literally every day. Did me and my classmates
no harm at all - there was of course one "flat kid" but he could still
run a mile at a modest pace!

Rarely had chips, but that lovely mash with lumps in it, and that pink
custard.

Thing is I was OUT all day playing, cycling, climbing trees, running
etc etc instead of playing with my computer all day and night.

More sport - - less food is the formula

James Annan said:

Am I the only person to think that this latest hysteria over school
food is (almost) completely missing the point? Surely the recent
reduction in exercise levels is a much more important factor. Hence
the relevance to cycling, of course.

The same thing had occured to me.

Quoted message said:

Anecdotally, I had chips literally every day. Did me and my classmates
no harm at all - there was of course one "flat kid" but he could still
run a mile at a modest pace!

Yup - I had a terrible diet, but I did a lot of exercise
too (including walking or cycling to school).

In message <[email hidden]>, Jack Ouzzi
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Rarely had chips, but that lovely mash with lumps in it, and that pink
custard.

Pink custard - now that was an odd thing, nowhere else did you seem to
get pink custard - there must have been factories just making pink
custard powder for schools.
--
Chris French, Leeds

Quoted message said:

Am I the only person to think that this latest hysteria over school food
is (almost) completely missing the point? Surely the recent reduction in
exercise levels is a much more important factor. Hence the relevance to
cycling, of course.

Anecdotally, I had chips literally every day. Did me and my classmates
no harm at all - there was of course one "flat kid" but he could still
run a mile at a modest pace!

I'm concerned that the focus on healthy foods will leave kids hungry and
with a diet lacking in essential things, like a couple of thousand of
calories a day. Since being farmed out to companies a schools idea of a
meal is laughably small. Forcing healthier, lower calorie foods onto kids
is going to be a bad idea - the reason why they all go for the chips is
because they're normally the most filling thing in the menu.

Peter B said:

But the other side of the coin is that I was permanently on the go (and
still am) cycling here and walking there, life was a real adventure rather
than a virtual one (and still is). I could eat as much of whatevever I
wanted and still hide behind the washing line prop and wasn't unusual for
it.

I was much the same. In my early years I went swimming training up to
four times a week and ate like two hungry horses but was as skinny as
you like. Throughout my teenage years I cycled absolutely everywhere and
remained utterly devoid of body fat despite a huge calorific intake.

Then I discovered beer and smoking and passed my driving test... Didn't
do much cycling or exercise of any kind throughout my university
years... didn't stop eating, though (when I could afford it).

If I could do the last 15 years again, the only thing I would do
differently is to keep up the cycling.

d.

Martin Wilson <[email hidden]> wrote:
: from the canteen. What I really hated was the ultra cheap burgers
: sometimes served. They looked like a rough blend of bones, skin and
: low grade meat and had the consistancy of rubber. Also after cooking
: they had a horrible pale pink colour. They certainly didn't come out
: of any birds eye factory thats for sure. If they still do burgers like
: that they should definitely be banned.

That's got worse not better. If I hadn't lent my copy of "Not on the Label"
out I'd type in the ingredient list it had for a school sausage....

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune http://www.clune.org
"Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

"James Annan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Am I the only person to think that this latest hysteria over school food
is (almost) completely missing the point? Surely the recent reduction in
exercise levels is a much more important factor. Hence the relevance to
cycling, of course.

You're dead right. When I was growing up in the 1960's there was no such
thing as "healthy foods". "Low fat" stuff didn't exist and our diet was beef
fat on bread, suet dumplings, cheap fatty meats, pies, fish and chips and
the like.

Needless to say, nobody was fat as we burnt it all off. The rise in obesity
is more down to drastic reductions in exercise whether it was manual labour
or cycling to work. The biggest culprit is the over reliance on cars and the
number of morbidly obese people I see at the wheel of a car is shocking.

"Fat Nation" is on BBC TV this week.

--
Simon Mason
Anlaby
East Yorkshire.
53°44'N 0°26'W
http://www.simonmason.karoo.net

Simon Mason said:

"James Annan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Am I the only person to think that this latest hysteria over school food
is (almost) completely missing the point? Surely the recent reduction in
exercise levels is a much more important factor. Hence the relevance to
cycling, of course.

You're dead right.

I find it interesting how easy it is for us to see this, and yet a whole
generation of the chattering classes have become so divorced from the
idea of ever exerting themselves (beyond perhaps occasionally walking
around the garden behind a self-propelled lawnmower, or the annual
pilgrimage the the gym in January following a thoroughly insincere New
Year's resolution) that it never even crosses their minds that their
children could be missing something from their lives. Ok, it was only a
phone-in on radio 5 that I heard, but between the presenters, their
guests, and the range of callers all put together there was barely a
mention of exercise and instead much hand-wringing about burgers and
vending machines. A subsequent news report was basically the same, they
even got some kids to say that all they had to do was eat some
vegetables and they would be healthy.

Of course, the food industry has also conned them into equating health
with either fat-free industrial effluent from Unilever factories, or
organic tofu hand-knitted by the native peoples of...wherever.

At least the govt review does refer to exercise, but I bet that will
make some ineffectual reference to PE lessons while completely missing
the blindingly obvious solution in front of their noses...maybe in a
decade or two they will get a clue.

Quoted message said:

"Fat Nation" is on BBC TV this week.

The fat nation will be sitting on the couch watching it, more like.

James
--
If I have seen further than others, it is
by treading on the toes of giants.
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/

In article <[email hidden]>, newspost-c-
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Jack Ouzzi
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Rarely had chips, but that lovely mash with lumps in it, and that pink
custard.

Pink custard - now that was an odd thing, nowhere else did you seem to
get pink custard - there must have been factories just making pink
custard powder for schools.

I hated pink custard, I assume they put some sort of flavouring
in it because it didn't taste like yellow custard. That pink
stuff must have been nothing more than a cocktail of colouring
and flavouring.

We rarely had chips, either at home or school, and I loved them.
I still like chips but they don't taste like the ones my Mum made
when I was small, she used beef dripping or lard and these days
it's all vegetable oil. Sadly, I don't even get that comfort food
when I go back home because my Mum doesn't have a chip pan any
more (healthy eating doncha know).

Juliette
--

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

I find it interesting how easy it is for us to see this, and yet a whole
generation of the chattering classes have become so divorced from the
idea of ever exerting themselves (beyond perhaps occasionally walking
around the garden behind a self-propelled lawnmower, or the annual
pilgrimage the the gym in January following a thoroughly insincere New
Year's resolution) that it never even crosses their minds that their
children could be missing something from their lives. Ok, it was only a
phone-in on radio 5 that I heard, but between the presenters, their
guests, and the range of callers all put together there was barely a
mention of exercise and instead much hand-wringing about burgers and
vending machines. A subsequent news report was basically the same, they
even got some kids to say that all they had to do was eat some
vegetables and they would be healthy.

When I was at secondary school in the late 70s/early 80s chips
were on offer in the canteen most days, I usually had them. There
was a chocolate vending machine, I had a kit-kat at morning
break, there was an ice-cream van in the playground at lunchtime,
I occasionally had an ice-cream, there was a crisp vending
machine and I usually had a bag of crisps in the afternoon. Fruit
and vegetables were dispensed by my Mum, two vegetables with the
evening meal and a piece of fruit after it. There were no sweets,
crisps and biscuits available at home although we did have fizzy
drinks.

I wasn't overweight because 10% of my school timetable was PE, I
cycled to the library, I walked to my friends' houses in the
evening and there were long walks at either end of the bus trip
to school. I was generally considered to be a lazy and inactive
child because I wasn't doing nearly as much exercise as my peers
who were all on school sports teams.

As you rightly say, what children are eating isn't really the
problem it's what they're not doing with the calories they've
ingested which is the problem.

Juliette
--

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>, newspost-c-
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Jack Ouzzi
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Rarely had chips, but that lovely mash with lumps in it, and that pink
custard.

We rarely had chips, either at home or school, and I loved them.

This is primary school, where the food came from a central point
and was kept warm for ages, at secondary school where the food
was cooked on site we had lots of chips.

Juliette
--

"James Annan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I find it interesting how easy it is for us to see this, and yet a whole
generation of the chattering classes have become so divorced from the
idea of ever exerting themselves (beyond perhaps occasionally walking
around the garden behind a self-propelled lawnmower, or the annual
pilgrimage the the gym in January following a thoroughly insincere New
Year's resolution) that it never even crosses their minds that their
children could be missing something from their lives.

I think part of it is that it's a "given" that:

a) nobody has any time for exercise anymore with our "modern hectic work
schedules".

b) exercise means sweaty expensive gyms and as you say, they are so mind
numbingly boring that people give them a go for a few weeks then chuck it.

and
c) cycling and walking are for poor people who can't afford a car. Last week
I was overtaken on a mini roundabout by a taxi driver who gave me a few
inches of space. I tapped on his window and asked him to give me some room.
His reply was " I'm a car you idiot". Oh yes, sorry I forgot my place for a
minute!

So for most people exercise is out and therefore the only thing to attack is
food. Witness the coverage faddy useless diets like Atkins get as people
want an easy fix without putting in the effort.

--
Simon M.

James Annan said:

At least the govt review does refer to exercise, but I bet that will
make some ineffectual reference to PE lessons while completely missing
the blindingly obvious solution in front of their noses...maybe in a
decade or two they will get a clue.

IME PE lessons taught me a couple of lessons, and they weren't good.

1 - I was [censored] at all sports.

2 - I hated sports.

PE lessons might be good for the majority, or those who excel at sports,
but there are some for whom they merely serve to reinforce and utterly
discourage.

I hated PE with a vengeance. Coming last and being [censored] at everything
was never going to lead to me *wanting* to do any sort of sport whatsoever.

I hope the govt is a little more enlightened about exercise/sport/PE
these days, but I suspect not...
--

Velvet

Simon Mason said:

b) exercise means sweaty expensive gyms and as you say, they are so mind
numbingly boring that people give them a go for a few weeks then chuck it.

and
c) cycling and walking are for poor people who can't afford a car.

I'm amazed that people are prepared to spend several hundred pounds on a
gym membership they don't use, and do so seemingly without a moment's
thought, but suggest spending the same amount of money on a decent bike
and they think you're mad.

Quoted message said:

His reply was " I'm a car you idiot".

Are you sure it was car he said and not another short word beginning with c?

d.

"Velvet" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:nqZ_c.1622$Dw1.15840357@news-

Quoted message said:

I hated PE with a vengeance. Coming last and being [censored] at everything
was never going to lead to me *wanting* to do any sort of sport

whatsoever.

We were the same. Our sadistic sports teacher had us doing cross country
runs in the winter and the big sport for us was Rugby Union which I hated. I
couldn't swim as I sank like a stone, but I loved cycling. There is some
"sporting activity" suitable for everyone, even if it's only gentle stuff
like rambling.

--
Simon M.