Obesity: What Are the Causes?

 

Grant Cochrane - Freedigitalphotos.com

Introducing the Issues Surrounding Obesity
Overweight and obesity-related diseases such as cancer and diabetes are the fifth leading risk of death according to the World Health Organisation: but are we making a big fuss out of nothing? 

McDonald’s has just announced its plans to introduce the option of fruit or salad with every meal ordered in its 20 major global markets by 2020.

It’s about time: the media have been calling it the “obesity crisis”. World obesity rates have nearly doubled since 1980, with U.S. and Australian citizens claiming the highest Body Mass Index of any population.

In 2011, more than 40 million children worldwide were classified as overweight.

In Britain, the increasing burden of obesity and its related diseases is costing the NHS £6bn each year.

Is it as simple as too much in, not enough out, and should people be taking more personal responsibility for their health? Overeating without adequate exercise evidently leads to weight gain, bad health and unhappiness for the vast majority of people, but there are still many that cannot strike the balance.

Being overweight and obese can affect your self-esteem and quality of life, as well as increasing your risk of obesity-related diseases.

What Causes Obesity?
The WHO defines the main cause of obesity and being overweight as an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended. Globally, there has been:

• an increased intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat; and

• an increase in physical inactivity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation, and increasing urbanization.

Changes in dietary and physical activity patterns are often the result of environmental and societal changes associated with development and lack of supportive policies in sectors such as health, agriculture, transport, urban planning, environment, food processing, distribution, marketing and education.

In other words, modern society encourages people to become overweight or obese because they walk less, eat more and eat worse, are not educated about how to be healthy and are the targets of irresponsible marketing campaigns. Even hospitals and schools have a long history of offering junk food or fast food to vulnerable individuals, when they should really be setting the standards for health.


Conclusion
Modern society definitely encourages over-indulgence, especially with increased access to food and inventions like television. Children who once played outside are glued to sedentary activities that set them up with lifelong habits.

However, it can’t be denied that a balanced diet that includes lots of fruits and vegetables, good carbohydrates like wholegrain rice and pasta, plus small amounts of lean white and red meat is going to be the road to health. No one has added extra salt to a raw carrot or apple sitting on the supermarket shelf, although you need to make sure you wash off the pesticides used in growing them.

Cooked from scratch, basic natural ingredients will supply your body with everything it needs to function properly and give you the best chance at fighting disease. It’s important to avoid paranoia about food and over thinking what is healthy, because this is fairly futile and wastes a lot of time. The Mini Cooking Club advocates practical cooking skills and nutrition knowledge to create a better society for all. 

So get cooking! Visit this page for a list of our free cooking classes for children, pregnant women and people with mental health concerns.

Further Reading: Public Views on Food Addiction and Obesity

By Catherine Heath

The Case for Higher Welfare Animal Products

Britain eats four times more ready meals than any country in Europe, and often considers buying the lowest quality food as a sign of thriftiness rather than a disregard for health. Many people would call it snobbish to buy free-range poultry and meat, rather than a genuine concern for animal welfare and their own health.

To keep up with an increasing demand for cheap food, companies have been using intensive farming methods to rear the most livestock with the least overheads. Everyone has seen the images and footage of the chickens crammed in cages with no room to move, their beaks cut off to prevent their cannibalising one another.

We should pay more attention to their treatment, because we should carefully consider everything that we put into our bodies.

James Barker - Freedigitalphotos.net

Adopting a diet of higher welfare products means that we will be healthier. Free range, organic chicken has up to 50% less fat than its caged counterpart. Pasture-reared beef has 25-50% less fat than cows reared in confinement. All higher welfare meat and eggs contain significantly increased levels of essential omega-3 fatty acids and anti-oxidants.

Factory farms also use up huge amounts of water, energy, and chemicals, often with little regard to long-term adverse effects. Chemical fertilizers and other toxic substances are polluting the surrounding environment, killing off the eco-system.

Such farms also put many small and local producers out of business because they cannot compete with the higher yields and lower prices of more intensive farming methods. This means we rely increasingly on a small number of suppliers for our national food consumption, and an oligopoly is not good for the economy.

So you can see that there are many reasons to switch to higher welfare products, although at the moment they are more expensive than the alternative. However, with time, as the public demands better welfare for the nation’s livestock, this will become the norm and prices will come down.

Bake with Compassion, run by Compassion in World Farming, is a free-range fundraiser that tries to stimulate change, and persuade people to switch to higher welfare animal products. The organisation was set up by a British farmer who was horrified by the development of modern, intensive factory farming.

The idea behind the campaign is simple: bake with higher welfare produce such as free-range eggs and organic dairy, or even with vegan ingredients, and then hold your very own cake sale, dinner party or bake-off! You’ll have some delicious results to show for your charitable efforts.

So join in this October and put some compassion in the kitchen. Visit the Compassion in World Farming website for more information.

By Catherine Heath

Wasting Less for Future Generations

The Mini Cooking Club is gearing up for Waste Less Live More week 2013, September 16th-23rd. The theme this year is Better Food for All. This is  the Mini Cooking Club’s ethos of improving the nation’s diet through teaching practical cooking skills and nutrition knowledge. Run by Waste Watch in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy, the aim is to transform the way we live so that we – and future generations – can enjoy life without costing the earth. You can read their manifesto on their website. We will be participating in waste-reducing activities during the week to promote the message.

In 2012, the European Parliament adopted a non-legislative resolution that called for action to halve food waste by 2025 and improve access to food by those in need. Waste Less Live More week is a vital campaign because so much of what the world produces ends up as waste. Though food resources have the potential for abundance, living in a privileged society we have evolved to buy more than we need. Reducing our food waste will have much-needed positive effect on the price of food.

The global economy is struggling, with 79 million people in the EU living beneath the poverty line and around 16 million relying on food aid from charitable institutions. Despite this, the UK Institute of Mechanical Engineers claims that half of the world’s food supply – equivalent to 2 billion tonnes – is thrown away each year. According to EU Commission figures, households, supermarkets and restaurants, along with the rest of the food supply chain, are currently wasting up to 50% of edible food. In Britain alone, 7.7 million tonnes of food are wasted and 16% of all food bought never even makes to it to the table.

Free Digital Photos - Stoonn

We here at the Mini Cooking Club think this is a big shame and easily avoided, so that’s why we want to share five tips with you for how to reduce your food waste:

1. Invest in Tupperware so you can store leftover food for reheating later. Supermarkets with a good selection of affordable Tupperware are Morrisons, Asda and Poundland.

2. Cling film your food items – if your food storage is airtight fresh food will last longer. Try to only tear off as much Clingfilm as you need, and if it hasn’t touched any food once you’re done you can reuse it.

3. Avoid 2-for-1 offers which encourage you to buy more than you need. Better yet, shop at the local greengrocer which is much cheaper and supports local business.

4. Instead of going shopping several times a week, try to make the most of the ingredients you already have. For help with this, use websites like Supercook.

5. A lot of food comes with excess packaging. Try not to buy multipacks with a lot of individual wrappers and go for products that are advertised as having reduced packaging. For example, coffee that comes in a recyclable packet rather than a glass jar.

The Mini Cooking Club is looking forward to wasting less with you all next week! Please post this on Twitter using the hashtag #wastelesslivemore and encourage others to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Follow Waste Watch on Twitter and like them on Facebook for regular updates.

By Catherine Heath

The Road to Five-a-day isn't always Smooth(ie)

Free Digital Photos - By Praisaeng

Smoothies have recently been the subject of media attention in relation to their perceived health properties, especially because of their popularity with celebrities. Everyone thinks of smoothies as blended fruit and vegetables, bursting with vitamins and goodness. The reality is often quite a bit different, and smoothies have been getting a bad rap, especially in newspapers like the Daily Mail. They've published this article with scary figures about the amount of sugar contained in various drinks including Innocent Smoothies (3.5 Krispy Kreme donuts per serving).

On the whole, smoothie culture is different in the UK to the US – for us, the occasional Innocent or Pret A Manger smoothie or Starbucks Iced Juice drink is the closest most of us come to mass consumption of the drink, but across the Atlantic demand is much bigger. Plenty of places sell smoothies that are nearing 1,000 calories per serving, while the British market hasn’t really taken off yet. That makes it even more important for us to be aware of both the health benefits and risks of smoothies before companies bring their products to the UK.

According to Barry Popkin, professor in the department of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, "The fruit juice industry has essentially taken the 'apple-a-day' mentality and used it to sell fruit juices as healthy." People are keen to consume their recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables but it turns out that smoothies are not really the best way of achieving this goal. They taste sweet and satisfying, but unfortunately this is due to the large amounts of sugar and additives in many smoothie drinks.

The confusion often arises because people are worshipping what are perceived as magical health options that are nothing but good for you, when in reality smoothies contain a lot of sugar in the form of fructose, which in large quantities is just as bad for you as regular sugar. The problem  is exacerbated when smoothies contain lots of extra ingredients apart from fruit which bump up the calories, like ice cream, syrup and cream.    

So, instead of providing overall health benefits, smoothies can contribute to your risk of developing some diseases. "Every one of the long-term studies of the health effects of fruit juices shows that you increase your risk of diabetes and weight gain" with regular juice consumption, Popkin said. It’s much better to eat fresh fruit and vegetables. It’s impossible to absorb all the of the nutrients you need from liquid fruits anyway, and it's crucial to eat a wide variety of produce on a regular basis.

On balance, it's important to be wary of media sensation and remember that most things in moderation are not that bad for you. The key focus should be on eating as many different fruits and vegetables of every colour for the essential nutrients, enough carbohydrates for long lasting energy to sustain performance throughout the day, and protein to replenish your body. Ultimately it's a lot better to make your own smoothies, and a lot more fun, too. Here's a recipefor a healthy green tea smoothie to help make sure you get all the vitamins you need.

By Catherine Heath

Food Therapy: Bake Yourself Happy

Baking, formerly the preserve of the traditional domestic housewife, is currently enjoying a revival. Polka-dotted cupcake cases, retro cakes and striped aprons are everywhere in the craze for cake-making, and the fad is showing no signs of slowing down yet. The popularity of programs like the Great British Bake Off is a testament to the kitchen-craze sweeping the nation. However, did you know there are also myriad health benefits associated with this sweet past time?

Heading to the kitchen to whip up some scones or muffins is one way in which you can take control of your own well-being, without simply waiting for disaster to strike first. Baking’s proven mood benefits mean that investing in essential equipment like a whisk, scales, rolling pin and mixing bowl should be top of your list of things to do. Let’s start with the actual physical satisfaction of eating something you’ve made yourself- it’s warm and delicious to munch straight from the oven, though be careful not burn yourself!

Also, humans generally really like eating sugary carbohydrate-based foods - which of course must be limited to occasional treats – because they release a rush of endorphins into the bloodstream. You don’t even need to eat the cakes to feel the benefits. Next time you feel a bit down, take a walk past the local bakery and just try not to feel instantly better when those delicious smells waft over you.

Physical activity is a proven stress-reliever – remember how people always tell you to go for a walk, or do some exercise when things are getting a bit much? The repetitive physical actions of baking, the concentration required for accurate measurement and strength needed to mix the batter properly all contribute to the same effect.

Cookies, cupcakes, roulade and brownies – there seems no end of the number of things you can whip up from the recipe books using flour and eggs as your staple ingredients. Creativity is well-known to contribute to overall well-being and baking offers this possibility in abundance – through careful adherence to the recipes combined with the possibilities of food colouring, icing and other decorations you can end up with some fantastic results. Butterflies, houses, cats, stars – anything!

One way to make sure you only eat baked goods in moderation is sharing your results with family and friends. They’ll be overjoyed when you tell them you’ve been getting busy with the mixing bowl, and you’ll feel good that you managed to make other people happy, providing an instant mood-booster.

Finally, having a tangible sense of achievement also provides a feeling of happiness. So much of our days are spent in front of computers, on the phone or texting that we often don’t see the fruits of our labours. Baking is different – for a while, anyway, before the “tangible results” have been devoured! Feeling proud of your achievements is another natural way to release those endorphins and help you feel connected to the world. When people compliment you on how tasty your baking is, you’ll find your warm glow of pride increases even more.

The Mini Cooking Club promotes educational nutrition and cooking classes to improve the overall health of society, and we run our own Baking Club for kids at Lansdowne Youth Centre in Stockwell. Email Enterprise Un-Ltd (who we work in partnership with to provide this free after-school club) to book your child’s place now.

So, next time you feel down, instead of giving in to stress or turning to unproductive activities, try baking a batch of delicious chocolate muffins and handing them out to friends, and see if you don’t feel better. You can take a look at this website for some healthy baking ideas to get you started, but once you’ve mastered the basics, the baking world is your oyster!

By Catherine Heath

Waste Less Live More Week: Better Food For All

From 16 – 22 September, the Mini Cooking Club is taking part in Waste less, Live more Week 2013.

Waste less, Live more is a campaign which aims to raise awareness of how environmental and social issues are linked. The theme of the week this year is Better Food for All. There are huge benefits for society and the environment if we all waste less food and eat healthier food.   

A big part of cooking is the ability to schedule shopping trips at least weekly and ensure the fridge and cupboards are stocked with ingredients. However, whilst it is good to plan ahead, a great deal of food bought in Britain is wasted – 19% of everything actually bought, in fact. Much of this can be avoided, and charities like Waste Watch (now part of Keep Britain Tidy) have launched campaigns to help.

Between 16 – 22 September there will be a variety of activities and events hosted by a diverse range of organisations, businesses and charities encouraging people to perform a simple act, big or small, that supports both people and the environment. The aim is to demonstrate how we can all live better whilst consuming less.

The Mini Cooking Club will be hosting its own activity to raise awareness of Waste less, Live more Week in the coming month. Keep checking our Facebook page for updates. 

People and the environment are inextricably linked. If we waste less food, there will be less energy and money spent on farming unnecessarily, transport and packaging. This means that the environment will benefit through the actions of people making small but significant changes in their daily lives.

For further information about what is going on during the week or to get involved in Waste less, Live more Week visit the official website.   

Follow Waste less, Live more Week on Twitter or share the link (www.wastelesslivemore.com) with your friends on Facebook.

By Catherine Heath

Five Ways to Mental Heath: Creative Therapies Project

The Mini Cooking Club works in partnership with the Creative Therapies Project at the Copleston Centre in Peckham. They run a community mental health project for residents of Southwark, and those who live close to the area.

The ethos of the project is that every individual has mental health, and therefore at times we will all have concerns about it. Breaking down barriers between mental health and illness, the idea is to maintain mental well-being on a regular basis. A bit like taking a car for an MOT, you wouldn’t just wait until it broke down before getting it serviced.

In today’s society, we are bombarded with technology, advertising and demands on our time. It can be stressful keeping up with the super-fast pace of modern life. Overall well-being involves both the mind and body, but it can be tricky to find a balance or learn what’s right for you.

That’s why the Creative Therapies project takes a wide approach to mental health in line with the focus of Southwark Council. They promote the Five Ways to Well-being, which are intended to address all aspects of feeling good about life. The Five Ways are defined as:

1.    Connect
2.    Be Active
3.    Keep Learning
4.    Give to others
5.    Take Notice.

These are worthy goals and have been successfully identified as ways to help maintain the mental health of the community.

The Creative Therapies Project lives its own values through the following ways:

1.    The group sessions facilitate members connecting with others and meeting new people.
2.    The exercise and healthy eating classes keep members active and healthy.
3.    The sessions teach valuable new skills
4.    The volunteer programme provides a platform for members of the local community to give something back whilst learning new skills at the same time.
5.    Psychotherapeutic discussions (both group and individual) grant people the space in which to take notice of themselves and others.

The sessions and classes are held at the Copleston Centre and all are completely free to attend. CPT runs art therapy and music therapy, counselling sessions, complementary therapies, art café and sound café, as well as pilates and zumba. Book your place by emailing Marcela Vielman. The Mini Cooking Club runs cooking classes every Wednesday from10am-12pm.

The message is that you don’t need to wait until you have a problem to be pro-active about your mental health. Also, if you do have a problem, there are plenty of things you can do about it and lots of people who are willing to help.

Follow this link for more information about the Five Steps to Well-Being.


By Catherine Heath