Causes of the exponential increase in Thai obesity?

[SoCal1990]

What’s behind it? Is it dietary changes, simply eating much larger portions than before, or both? If it’s mostly down to changes in diet, which I suspect it is, what are the main culprits? Thai food has always included plenty of sugar and deep-fried options, so that’s not new. Is it more dairy, cakes, and sweet drinks creeping into the average diet? Or is it a sedentary lifestyle? But more Thais exercise now than they did 30 years ago and back then they weren't obese. 

[Harrisfan]

Thais rarely exercise. They ride motorbikes everywhere. More sugar and breads everywhere.

[Furioso]

11 minutes ago, SoCal1990 said:

What’s behind it? Is it dietary changes, simply eating much larger portions than before, or both? If it’s mostly down to changes in diet, which I suspect it is, what are the main culprits? Thai food has always included plenty of sugar and deep-fried options, so that’s not new. Is it more dairy, cakes, and sweet drinks creeping into the average diet? Or is it a sedentary lifestyle? But more Thais exercise now than they did 30 years ago. 

It's probably the ultra processed food that hijacks the brain at a very young age. It's really a worldwide problem where the cheapest food available is the worst for their health.

 

I was in Vietnam last month it's not nearly as bad there. Da Nang has over a million people but not nearly as many grocery or convenient stores. Many of their food stores are almost exclusively visited by foreigners such as Koreans, Russians, Westerners.

In other words Vietnamese are eating much higher quality food, and very few of them are obese.  

[hydraides]

The main cause I would say are : 

 

-Sugary Thai Tea, Slush Puppies, Coffee's + Mama noodles and similar highly processed carb foods from 7/11 + Then finish off the day with limitless buffet food.....especially eating fatty pork which is a thai favourite

 

Its a recipe for disaster.......50g - 100g+ pure sugar a day from drinks + Huge amounts of oily saturated fat........prime enviroment for fat gain

[SoCal1990]

6 minutes ago, Furioso said:

It's probably the ultra processed food that hijacks the brain at a very young age. It's really a worldwide problem where the cheapest food available is the worst for their health.

 

I was in Vietnam last month it's not nearly as bad there. Da Nang has over a million people but not nearly as many grocery or convenient stores. Many of their food stores are almost exclusively visited by foreigners such as Koreans, Russians, Westerners.

In other words Vietnamese are eating much higher quality food, and very few of them are obese.  

Vietnam and Japan both stand out with some of the lowest obesity rates in Asia. Vietnam, in particular, has the lowest rate in Southeast Asia by a country mile. Yet Japan probably has more convenience stores than anywhere else in Asia, and plenty of grocery stores packed into its dense urban areas. So I’m not convinced that easy access to food is the main factor, though it could play a part.

[still kicking]

3 minutes ago, hydraides said:

The main cause I would say are : 

 

-Sugary Thai Tea, Slush Puppies, Coffee's + Mama noodles and similar highly processed carb foods from 7/11 + Then finish off the day with limitless buffet food.....especially eating fatty pork which is a thai favourite

 

Its a recipe for disaster.......50g - 100g+ pure sugar a day from drinks + Huge amounts of oily saturated fat........prime enviroment for fat gain

Just went from Ratchaburi to Bangkok (about 120 KM), we stopped 4 times at every stop, they bought Sugary drinks at 7/11 

[Furioso]

3 minutes ago, SoCal1990 said:

Vietnam and Japan both stand out with some of the lowest obesity rates in Asia. Vietnam, in particular, has the lowest rate in Southeast Asia by a country mile. Yet Japan probably has more convenience stores than anywhere else in Asia, and plenty of grocery stores packed into its dense urban areas. So I’m not convinced that easy access to food is the main factor, though it could play a part.

I used to live in Tokyo yes they have a lot of convenience stores but they don't stock them up with nearly as much junk as Thailand. It's really a night and day difference. 

Plus nothing in Japan is cheap. 

[Harrisfan]

 Fried chicken everywhere plus no self control. Japanese are a lot more reserved withself control. Thais are like mai pen rai eat crap all day.

[still kicking]

6 minutes ago, Harrisfan said:

 Fried chicken everywhere plus no self control. Japanese are a lot more reserved withself control. Thais are like mai pen rai eat crap all day.

That is the reason you are here

[Schoggibueb]

Junk food, bubble tea etc.

heaps of sugar everywhere. The industry earns lots of money on sugared products. Simply said: Companies like Heinz, Mondelez, Unilever, Coca-Cola and Nestle are clearly involved to get customers addicted to sugar.

 

"Old fashioned" diabetes came from sticky rice. Today lots of additional competition in the "sugar market" wich provides the junk food for the kids and their parents.

[Jimjim1]

It is the same cause that proliferates across the world it is the predominance of fast food junk, cheap rubbish wrapped in fat and promoted to the ignorant as food.

15 years ago the only fat people in Thailand were those with a glandular problem that was uncontrollable.

[proton]

At central, sums it up

 

 

[scubascuba3]

They don't understand what's unhealthy, i ask them, they often think rice, when they've been slim for 1000 years on rice.

 

Obesity and 7 Eleven growth probably very similar on a graph

[short-Timer]

10 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

They don't understand what's unhealthy, i ask them, they often think rice, when they've been slim for 1000 years on rice.

 

Obesity and 7 Eleven growth probably very similar on a graph

 

I think 7-Eleven in Thailand gets a bad rap. I eat out of there all the time. I consider it a mini supermarket and my purchases from there are never anything unhealthy.

 

After the gym today, I went in there I got a protein drink with 28 g of vegetable protein, very low carb and no sugar. I got a 30g bag of almonds, a vegetable cup, which was mixed with only boiled corn and soy beans, two boiled eggs, and a smoked chicken breast. It's actually really easy not to go wrong in 7-Eleven.

[bkk6060]

People will say it is western foods, which I think is nonsense. 

Many Thai foods are much worse then a McDonald's hamburger.  Fat, grease, oil, sugar, carbs, deep fried, little vegetables is the common Thai diet.

Add, the phones and games causing laziness.  But, it all is a big problem around the world isn't it.

[Phulublub]

tSuch ignorance and cultural superioity here.

 

For how many years has Thailand had this problem?

 

For how many years have our "advanced" western countries (led by the USA) had this problem?  There are (for those actually interested) two factors at work. 

 

Years ago, most people had manually demanding jobs that toom energy.  They could prett much eat what they wanted and wold burn those calories each day.  Most of the World is now much, much, more sedentray than even 50 years ago - but this change happened in USA and Europe first which is partly why we lead the way in obesity. 

 

Allied to this, and possibly of greater impact, was a guy called  Earl Butz and the policies he instigated while US Sec of Ag. that resulted in huge increases in corn production - leading directly to the widespread addition of corn starch, syrup, dextrose (and lots of other derivatives) to processed food.

 

BTW - the McD burger itself is often pretty good - it is the sugar laden bun and sauces that are the culprits in making a happy meal an unhealthy meal

 

PH 

[save the frogs]

16 hours ago, SoCal1990 said:

Yet Japan probably has more convenience stores than anywhere else in Asia, and plenty of grocery stores packed into its dense urban areas.

 

American guy living in Japan did a video about why Japanese are so thin.

One reason is even in their 7-11s, there is a good variety of fairly healthy foods. 

Healthy food options are readily available everywhere. 

 

 

[save the frogs]

15 hours ago, proton said:

At central, sums it up

 

Food companies want you to eat as much as possible to make profits.

It's up to you to control yourself.

 

[scubascuba3]

15 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

It's up to you to control yourself

I wonder if there's even one person in the world who has self control and is overweight or obese.

 

Direct link between lack of self control and obesity.

 

People with a lack of self discipline do keto or carnivore or other fad diet

[save the frogs]

12 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

They don't understand what's unhealthy, i ask them, they often think rice, when they've been slim for 1000 years on rice.

 

Obesity and 7 Eleven growth probably very similar on a graph

 

Dave Asprey explains why people get fat.

Bad fats (ie unhealthy fats) destroy cells in the body. Then the body is no longer able to process the carbs such as rice and this leads to obesity and diabetes.

 

So it's not the rice that's the root cause of the problem. 

But people go on Keto because their bodies can no longer process carbs.

But keto is not ideal either. 

 

 

[TimBKK]

2 hours ago, short-Timer said:

and a smoked chicken breast. 

You sure it was smoked and not boiled?

[fredwiggy]

6 hours ago, SoCal1990 said:

Vietnam and Japan both stand out with some of the lowest obesity rates in Asia. Vietnam, in particular, has the lowest rate in Southeast Asia by a country mile. Yet Japan probably has more convenience stores than anywhere else in Asia, and plenty of grocery stores packed into its dense urban areas. So I’m not convinced that easy access to food is the main factor, though it could play a part.

Bad eating habits start at home, with parents giving in to their whining children and giving them sweets and fried snacks, along with drinking whole milk and sodas. This start has them entering their own lives thinking these foods and drinks are okay, when it's mainly the fried foods and sugar that has people gaining weight.

 

Drinking calories is the worst kind, simple sugars, which enter the bloodstream and when they aren't immediately burned off, are stored as fat. It can also lead to diabetes which is prevalent here.

 

Lifestyles for many these days is more sedentary. More are working out but more still are on their phones sitting and watching videos a large part of the day. Japan's washoku diet is slowly being replaced, especially in the young, by fast western food and it might cause the same problems Thailand has already. 

[fredwiggy]

2 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

They don't understand what's unhealthy, i ask them, they often think rice, when they've been slim for 1000 years on rice.

 

Obesity and 7 Eleven growth probably very similar on a graph

Easy access to people who have been raised on a bad diet has them gaining weight. It's still a person's choice what to eat. Many people don't have strong will power and find it hard to resist food that isn't healthy.

 

The availability of western food is a root cause, along with parents giving them junk at home when they're children. A large majority of people still do not know what a healthy choice is, or some just don't care, as junk food tastes good to them.

 

Rice every meal of every day is not a smart choice, as it can lead to diabetes in those prone, even though it isn't unhealthy by itself in normal quantities. The kids are getting that junk food at home long before they are able to buy it themselves.

[dinsdale]

Junk Food.

[henryford1958]

7 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

Thais rarely exercise. They ride motorbikes everywhere. More sugar and breads everywhere.

 

Sometimes when i am on the baht bus i will see thais get on then ring the bell to get off just a hundred metres down the road !

[Lacessit]

The demand for sugar in Thailand is so high Mitrphol bought the entire sugar production of Australia.

 

There is less obesity in the villages, due to low income and hard work in the rice fields.

 

It is a real exercise in outlets such as Big C, Tops and 7/11 finding products WITHOUT sugar.

[phetphet]

Thais ride or drive everywhere, even 50 metres to the 7-11. Their food is mostly fried, loaded with sugar, and washed down with sugar laden drinks. Even their somtum salad is full of sugar.

 

You only have to look at the food stalls in many of those night markets to see what they are eating. I think it is mainly due to lack of money so they eat cheap, and many families have both parents working and don't have the time or energy  to cook at home. 

 

Funnily enough this obesity doesn't seem to affect the Burmese workers I see in their construction camps or on the back of pick up trucks. Men and women all slim..  

 

[The Cyclist]

Many valid points raised.

 

I'm not sure any of them cover the tubs of lard, of toddler age, that you can see every day of the week in Lotus / Shopping Malls etc.

[heiri007]

The 7-11 mindset, cheap (yet overpriced) highly processed "food" without nutritional value, and getting it mostly delivered, not to mention common Thai laziness, all adds up

 

How Thais already love those bumpui kids!

[MalcolmB]

Love these threads about why Thais are so fat by farangs who are fatter and come from countries with higher obesity rates than Thailand.