An A-Z of Scoff

Q IS FOR QUANTITY


The problem with food and health can now be summed up in one phrase: ‘too much’. More than six out of 10 men and five out of 10 women in the UK are overweight or obese. Talk to medics such as cancer experts and they say it’s especially important not to put on weight around your middle — the dreaded middle-age spread.

How to lose it? ‘Eat less’ is obvious — but too simple. Increasingly, obesity experts think the environmental aspect of overeating also needs to be addressed.

In the 1990s, the phrase ‘obesogenic society’ — in which we in the West live — was coined. Everywhere you go there are encouragements to over-eat, from the sugar in breakfast cereals to ballooning portion sizes to the fat that is loaded into restaurant food to make it tasty. Then there’s the ever-increasing range of choice. Studies show that the greater the choice, the more you eat.