I watched the programme last night on the TV. It seems that there are some people who have genes which mean they tend to eat more. Its not that they put on weight whilst eating the same amount as normal sized people. Just that their brain doesn't tell them to stop eating. On the other hand, there are plenty of overweight people who have no 'fat' genes!
If you stick to a calorie controlled diet you will lose will lose weight, whether or not you have 'fat' genes.
The fact boils down to this - eat only what you burn off. It's hard and basic but it is true. 'Fat' genes - bacteria in the gut etc are just excuses. Your brain doesn't have to say "stop eating" as though by magic [I suspect this is due to a long gone memory of caveman days when we ate what we could when we could as tomorrow we may well go hungry] you can see when you are putting on the pounds - either exercise more [a LOT more in many cases] or eat less. There is nothing wrong with fast food [ok maybe some of it] if it is not used as a complete diet or beer and steak as the navvies that built the canals and railways used to live on - they were hard working men who burnt off the calories in their high calorie diet. If the 'scientists are to be believed [and many will] there would always have been a percentage of 'fat' people everywhere yet there were none in the old victorian workhouses.
The answer is always in one's own hands - no scapegoats no excuses - eat less or work more - brutal but true
We've also artificial flavours to contend with now, something they'd less of half a century ago. The brains reaction to these can be as simple as "telling" us to eat more. It(the brain) was expecting something that never arrived.
http://www.rense.com/general50/killer.htm
Give or take a few pounds, I'm the same weight now, as I was 30 years ago. Then the weight was "normal" for the height. Since then I've been underweight, put some weight on! And I've been overweight. Biggest difference I've noticed is the way this height to weight is displayed on simple, easy to understand charts. Now seldom seen. It used to be a single line, ideal weight, then they spread it out into areas, Under, Normal & Overweight. With Normal being the smallest area(got smaller as years went on).
Most work done, has been physical. Farm work that I was told was hard work before starting. I'm just someone over for the summer, what would I know about hard work! That way of life has gone, machines now. No-one in their right mind would be seen working by hand. In the space of half a century, the brain has had to get to grips with this and forget the centuries of evolution. For the person, it's easier.
Many of the navvies were actually fleeing starvation. Irish Potato Famine being a good example. Navvie being a term for those who were working on the navigations, now called canals. When the railways came, they went there. The workhouse, you went in thin and if lucky you survived. As for hard work inside such places, how many would consider sitting on the floor breaking fist sized rocks into gravel, with nothing but a hammer, physically hard work? A five mile stretch of road was built this way near where I've relatives. The road as built is now under something more modern, but there's no houses along it, old or new.
When did you last see this sort of work?
. I guess it is better than ready to heat meals in that there is some recognisable veg, but it is still covered in oil/fat and salt. But she was brought up (until she was 14 at least) with homecooked meals. She never buys veg that she has to peel. It comes out of an M&S sealed plastic bag once it is cooked! come on and she thinks it actually saves her time! That's the bit I don't understand. Rice cooked in the microwave, peas cooked in the microwave all take the same amount of time as cooking them on the stove... ahhhhhh where's that emicon for running away in despair!