Howbri,

Your long walk probably has as much to do with your good health than what you eat.

Food is calories, which are energy that you burn during your walk.

 

Where the calories come from doesn't matter as much as how many enter your body, and how many are burned.

Meat packs much more calories per ration than vegetarian food, thus it is more convenient to fulfill your daily needs eating chicken than salad...yet each one is free to select whatever one prefers to eat...

If you absorb more calories than you burn, no matter where you get these calories from, you start building reserves, meaning getting fat.

 

Having said that and besides being extremely rich in calories, junk food and drinks are responsible for other health issues such as cancers, diabetes, heart diseases, for example.

 

1 hour ago, Brunolem said:

Half of the equation is missing: you are what you eat + what you do!

The fact is that people, especially young ones, exercice much less than before.

I am not talking about Thailand specifically, but everywhere.

Who walks to school these days? My generation did, and it was not 100 meters away from home.

My Thai wife also used to walk to her school, which is a few kilometers away from the village.

Of course, this is just one example, but it matters.

 

Andre Agassi, the tennis player, was known to eat a lot of junk food of the Mc Donald's kind, yet he was burning it quickly, and thus was not fat.

Warren Buffett, the 88 year old investor, has been eating exclusively cheeseburgers at all meals, and drinking exclusively cherry coke, for all his life (he is famous for that) and yet has never been fat.

 

What you eat is energy and what you do burns this energy.

If both don't match, then you have a problem.

 

 

Yes. All true. But the one aspect of this is genetics. People like Buffett have incredibly good metabolism and can get away with eating junk food their whole life, without dying of coronary disease, or plumping up beyond recognition. Most of us do not have his good fortune (on most levels). Without exercise, and good diet, I know I would be finished already, or be enjoying a very low quality of life. 

 

Nobody here seems to be teaching good nutrition. In the US it is all around you. So many are focusing on good food, correct preparation of the food, etc. The only thing the Thais seem to do right is eat alot of fresh fruit and vegetables, and eat relatively small meals. The other aspect of this equation is cooking oil. So many pay no attention to this, and it is critical. You can eat as good as possible, but if you are using soybean, cottonseed, palm, or other low quality oils to cook, that is a recipe for heart disease and poor health. Using rice bran oil (delicious, cheap and easy to find here) or sunflower are two excellent choices. Olive is good too, but it colors the taste of the food, and is expensive. I have educated my in laws, and they now only use high quality oil for cooking. It is about the same price as the junk oil. Would you use junk oil in your new car or truck?

14 minutes ago, billmichael said:

Actually, I have tried it and the most delicious and nutritious rice exclusivly from Thailand is "Riceberry Rice".  It is positivley delicious.  It is purple and has the scent of berries.  It was developed by one of the Thailand universities (I cannot remember which).

Yes its actually black / or purple rice not that sticky one of course Jasmin have it just as healthy as eating blue berries.

myself i only eat brown or black berry  rice and so should the Thais.?

3 hours ago, Radar501 said:

Ironically, a fast food/slow digestion diet can result in both malnutrition and obesity in the one person.   You are what you eat.......thank you McDonalds.

 

I think you may have meant 'thank you careless, indolent consumers'!

7 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

 

The other aspect of this equation is cooking oil. So many pay no attention to this, and it is critical. 

Right!

Even worse is using and boiling the same oil many times.

From what I heard or read, this increases the risk of cancer (reaching epidemic level in Thailand).

As you say, if your car cannot tolerate the same oil forverer, neither can your body.

 

3 hours ago, PatOngo said:

The tentacles of American junk food have spread to every province, why kids love this rubbish I will never know. And that drink that comes in the red and silver can that is very good for cleaning rusty nails is not helping the obesity problem either!

I think that Thai junk food existed well before McDonald's arrived. There is, for example, the dish you named yourself after, which I stopped eating years ago when the missus pointed out that one small bag contained more than 600 calories, plus deep-fried chicken, iced-coffee, and salt with everything, to name but a few.

3 hours ago, PatOngo said:

The tentacles of American junk food have spread to every province, why kids love this rubbish I will never know. And that drink that comes in the red and silver can that is very good for cleaning rusty nails is not helping the obesity problem either!

And excellent fot taking the enamel off teeth is another great benefit you missed. ??

8 minutes ago, Destiny1990 said:

 

myself i only eat brown or black berry  rice and so should the Thais.?

What's the price of this berry rice?

Probably not 10 baht per kilo...

Most Thais eat the rice they, or their family, grows.

This rice is white, flavoured with both pesticides and herbicides, and keeps the funeral business humming...

 

 Just take a look at the overweight students sitting outside the school waiting for their lift home. Nearly all are sucking from a pint plastic bottle of coke whilst manipulating their iPhone with the other hand. Meanwhile, more students queue up at the many fast food stalls lined up outside the school ready for the exodus...... and across the road is the 7-11 bursting with hungry students. However, I notice that many of the overweight students still manage to scramble up the ladder to the roof of the school bus when it arrives . With the hours that these students spend playing with their iPhones is there any wonder why so many are obese ?........ too busy on their 'FatBook' ... as I call it !!

What's the problem? If people want to eat junk food let them. Same as smokes and alcohol.

 

It's their life.

45 minutes ago, Brunolem said:

Right!

Even worse is using and boiling the same oil many times.

From what I heard or read, this increases the risk of cancer (reaching epidemic level in Thailand).

As you say, if your car cannot tolerate the same oil forverer, neither can your body.

 

If people live to 95 and are on a pension for 30 years it's costs everyone more.

 

Let people kill themselves with food. Natural culling.

17 hours ago, MaxYakov said:

“The lavish consumption also generates large quantities of food wastes. Statistics show that 449 million tonnes of food were wasted in Asia alone last year, and this food waste could feed millions of people who do not have enough food.”

 

I'd bet there are very few starving rats in Asia.

How right you are.....................

2 hours ago, Stoker58 said:

There's a fundamental misconception here. Obesity is not an illness that affects the wealthy because they can afford more food than poor people. The wealthy, by and large, have healthy lifestyles and diets. Obesity is an illness associated with poverty, inactivity and a lifestyle based on junk food and TV watching. Likewise, malnutrition has less to do with hunger and more to do with poor diet....less fresh fruit and veg, more deep fried and processed shopping-mall food.

I'm reminded of the exchange between George Bernard Shaw ( very thin ) and Gilbert Keith Chesterton ( quite obese ) in Dublin many years ago.

" Shaw, you look like there's a famine in Ireland".

" Chesterton, you look as if you've caused it".

4 hours ago, Xonax said:

Import duties on imported healthy oils are still sky high, so only palm oil is affordable for cooking in Thailand.

you can buy coconut oil the best cooking oil there is in Thailand only a few Bath above other oils the problem I have found is to be in the supermarket when it on the shelf it lasts up to 2 years so when I see it I buy a bottle

Just now, johnarth said:

you can buy coconut oil the best cooking oil there is in Thailand only a few Bath above other oils the problem I have found is to be in the supermarket when it on the shelf it lasts up to 2 years so when I see it I buy a bottle

Coconut oil is the best for stability as it contains very small amounts of unsaturated compounds. It is the worst of the vegetable oils healthwise because it contains mainly saturated fats.

No argument it is the best in terms of taste.

In the 20 some odd yrs I have been coming to Thailand when I first started coming all you would see was hard body young ladies but there was if I remember correctly only 1 McDonalds and 1 KFC in Pattaya and you very seldom saw any Thais in them. Now there are many of them and the Thais are using them and most of the ladies and a few of the guys are overweight. You can also see what the food and hormones are doing to the ladies, almost all of the young ladies are now well developed where as before very few were. .

Off topic posts and replies have been removed. 

 

A post commenting on moderation has been removed. This topic is not about Climate Change and Global Food Security, NAFTA, Brexit, etc. 

6 hours ago, Radar501 said:

Ironically, a fast food/slow digestion diet can result in both malnutrition and obesity in the one person.   You are what you eat.......thank you McDonalds.

 

Add to that Pepsi/Cola & most carbonated drinks.. there lays your problem

the 'western fast food" culture has taken root in Thailand and is now showing on the waistlines of the masses!!

 

Big C in my area has just been bought-out by a larger chain & undergone a 6 month refurbishment...

newly installed are, KFC, Burger King, McDonalds, Svensens etc etc etc & yes you can guess... they're all packed with diners with a matching budget & waistline !!

2 hours ago, Brunolem said:

What's the price of this berry rice?

Probably not 10 baht per kilo...

Most Thais eat the rice they, or their family, grows.

This rice is white, flavoured with both pesticides and herbicides, and keeps the funeral business humming...

 

Yes is higher price but its less expensive then real berries ?

19 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Thailand and more than 5 million people were judged to be overweight.

I am surprised the number is as low as this.

20 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

health problems from being overweight as a result of eating excessive food.

I suggest that the problem is as much the result of consuming inappropriate food (burgers, sweetened drinks, crisps and all the derivatives therefrom which are abundant on the store shelves in Thailand etc) as eating excessively.

40 minutes ago, glasswort said:

I suggest that the problem is as much the result of consuming inappropriate food (burgers, sweetened drinks, crisps and all the derivatives therefrom which are abundant on the store shelves in Thailand etc) as eating excessively.

I would suggest, as already done above, that it is also the result of insufficient physical exercice...

Walking has been replaced by motorboking, climbing stairs replaced by elevators, playing football outside with friends replaced by playing video football inside alone, and so on...

 

Besides, alcohol should also be mentioned, since it is concentrated sugar!

Years ago, girls working in bars were only drinking when customers were paying for lady drinks, which was not much...they didn't have incompetent (farang) bosses who were giving them, every evening, free bottles of some crappy alcohol, in order to "stimulate" them...a practice that only stimulated fat growth while transforming the girls into zombies showing zero interest for the hapless customers!

8 hours ago, Radar501 said:

Ironically, a fast food/slow digestion diet can result in both malnutrition and obesity in the one person.   You are what you eat.......thank you McDonalds.

 

Mcdonald's is frequented by people exercising choice. To single out one business, is ignoring many other factors outlined in the article. 

Fish is an excellent food and non-fattening.....so to help slim down these obese Thais and improve road safety...how about the Government and the Health ministry give out discounted food vouchers for the "radiation free" Fukushima fillets.....and a dozen or so jars of "Chicken essence"......killing two birds with one stone...so to speak 

3 hours ago, glasswort said:

I am surprised the number is as low as this.

I would say that in Bangkok alone, at the very, very least a quarter of the Thais (especially the men) are overweight, with bulging fat bellies. Thais are just getting fatter and fatter - due to excessive amounts of unhealthy food and little exercise. It's plain to see.

 

 

Take a look around in the supermarkets, it's not just 7-11 and McDonalds. 80-90% of what's on the shelves at TESCO is pretty lethal, Tops is better, but the emphasis is solidly towards Lays, candy and soda pop heavily salted nuts, pesticide saturated produce, horrific smelling meat probably saturated with formaldehyde and probably months old. Our dogs won't even touch the supermarket meat, have to get local stuff at the village markets and even that you have to wonder about. People complain they are too poor to afford higher quality stuff, but I think eating less of better quality is for me the solution. But the problem is that little that is healthy is available and society at large is a long way from supporting eating sensibly or doing anything sensibly. The committee featured in the article is more about spinning a public image  than it is about trying to improve the situation. As long as big corporations and elites call all of the shots in Thailand, the voices of the few who would provide fresh insight and inspiration will be too difficult for most to hear. 3 people passed away in my village, all in their early fifties from chronic disease and cancer that probably could have been avoided if there was a culture that valued looking after your health here.

I doubt it's white rice that's one of the causes for Thailand's obesity crisis.  The rice diet is still around to this day, and in the early years, back in the 1930's, they were using white rice, fruit and some fruit juice to get patient's weight down and lower the blood pressure of those suffering from malignant hypertension.

 

As for oils, I don't know of any whole foods, plant based medical doctor who advocates the use of any oils for his patients.  Just another highly processed food with most of the nutrients stripped out.

9 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Coconut oil is the best for stability as it contains very small amounts of unsaturated compounds. It is the worst of the vegetable oils healthwise because it contains mainly saturated fats.

No argument it is the best in terms of taste.

When did a coconut become a vegetable ?

 

... you might be up to something but you get the whole thing wrong !!!

20 hours ago, Brunolem said:

What's the price of this berry rice?

Probably not 10 baht per kilo...

Most Thais eat the rice they, or their family, grows.

This rice is white, flavoured with both pesticides and herbicides, and keeps the funeral business humming...

 

True that. But they send the rice out to the mills, for processing. The rice does not grow white. They could be eating their own whole grain rice, if only they were educated, and learned the benefits. Does anyone care? Certainly not anyone in a position of power. The little guy amply demonstrates that daily. The gorgeous wholegrain rices here ranges from 40 bt. to about 60 bt per kilo. The crappy white rice is at least 30 bt per kilo, or more. Not alot of difference. Also, the whole grain rice is more filling, as you are eating real food.

17 hours ago, Shaunduhpostman said:

80-90% of what's on the shelves at TESCO is pretty lethal, 

Thanks for the good laugh, especially with the sentence quoted above!

 

In his time, Malthus warned that the planet would not be able to feed so many humans.

Since then, he has been mocked because human "genius" has proved him wrong: look Malthus, we are feeding 7 billion and expect to feed 9 or 10 billion soon!

Yet, if we look closely, it appears that Malthus was not really wrong.

Today, it is not planet Earth that is feeding humans, but agrobusiness laboratories which are poisoning them!

See the little difference? 

Feeding...poisoning...Malthus and today's sorcerer apprentices were not talking about the same thing...