Where are we going wrong?
Apparently we have one of the highest active populations in the world, in fact we were the highest represented country in the Hawaiian Iron man (per capita population). We host some of the worlds toughest endurance events, the Coast to Coast has a 2-3 year waiting list and our rugby team is one of the most feared in the world.
So how come we recently ranked third in the global obesity scale?
We don't drink as much as our Australian neighbours, we eat less than the Brits....we live in a beautiful country with a lovely climate.
We got together with a group of nutritionists, personal trainers and some of our customers. In less than half an hour we managed to find 100 reasons why we've got fatter. While this doesn't apply to all of us, the general consensus is this...
100 reasons why we might be getting fat
- We eat four serves of cereal instead of one.
- We believe health claims on cereal boxes
- It’s cheaper to buy Coke than milk
- We think fruit juice is healthy
- We think muesli bars are a good food
- We buy a months worth of food at Christmas and eat it all in three days.
- Easter eggs are on sale for three months.
- Hot Cross buns have doubled in size.
- We eat fish and chips once a week
- We still use the BMI charts
- We have more pie shops and bakeries than schools and churches
- Burger rings are a snack food
- We avoid carbs
- We avoid fat
- We drink too much beer and wine
- We think red wine is good for our heart
- We gave Cookie-time an award
- We think one square meal is one square meal
- We have low Vitamin D levels
- We listen to an expert telling us to have 5-6 serves of bread a day.
- We worry about a vitamin going into bread and not about the E numbers or the sugar.
- We think low fat ice-cream must be good
- Follow the food pyramid
- We think margarine is better because it’s lower in cholesterol.
- We think we need a sports drink at the gym.
- We commend the low fat muffin
- We love the Cadburys ads
- We deserve a treat
- It’s our birthday
- We travel a lot
- We get stressed a lot
- We've had a hard day at work
- We can’t afford to eat healthy but we can afford Sky TV
- We craved it
- We think it is rude to turn down food.
- We have office shouts at work
- We are foodies
- We don’t have the time to cook
- We like the Lemon Detox diet
- We think we have hormonal problems
- We treat ourselves with food after exercise
- We eat and drink too much on the weekends.
- We take a lot of pharmaceutical drugs
- We eat in front of the TV
- We don’t have time for lunch
- We don’t have time to make our lunch
- We play sport on the weekend and then eat too much.
- We skip breakfast
- We go on fad diets to try to correct our habits
- We blame it on our genes
- We drink too many fancy coffees
- We think the mall is a good environment to eat
- We buy King-size bars of chocolate
- We use a remote control to switch channels
- We spend too much time standing at the fridge
- We have sky because 4 channels isn’t enough
- We went on a cruise and the food was free.
- Our friends love to dine out
- We don’t spend enough money on our food.
- We can’t be bothered cooking from scratch
- We can’t cook
- We shop when we are hungry
- Our Omega balance is out of whack.
- There are no health claims on fresh vegetables
- We think potatoes are fattening
- We think fats are fattening
- We think if we exercise everyday we can eat what we like
- We read too many women’s magazines
- We think size 8 is anorexic
- We love to watch fat reality shows on TV
- We think we don’t need vitamins and minerals.
- We use food and TV to babysit our kids.
- We think whole meal bread means wholegrain.
- We don’t check the ingredients panel on food.
- We eat too many pies.
- We don’t know what a portion size is
- We go on the Tony diet
- We seek the help of Jenny
- We don’t understand fat loss versus weight loss
- We know more about our car than our own body
- We don’t know that one kilo of fat contains 8000 calories
- Nobody told us our stomach size was so small
- We’re too busy with after school activities
- We have a wine cellar
- It’s too hard to eat less, the combo is cheaper.
- We don’t have time to grow vegetables
- We think a holiday overseas is a holiday from being healthy
- We think a drug will fix it
- We blame the government
- We blame the workplace
- We blame McDonalds
- We blame menopause
- We don’t eat enough fibre
- We don’t eat regularly enough
- We eat too much wheat
- We eat too much dairy
- We think red meat is bad for us
- We use vegetable oils because we think they are healthier
- We don’t check the carbohydrate panel or sugar panel
- We eat too much salt and not enough iodine.
We'd love to hear your thoughts. Send us another reason, along with your name and go in the draw to win a Nutritional Consultation worth $120.
Email us here
Here are some of our entries
- Our crockery is getting bigger, so we are mismanaging portion sizes !
- My per theory on why the population is exploding - in the wrong way, is simple that there is no control over what food manufacturers and processors put into processed food products. The main bad substance is SUGAR and other sugar substitutes. Recently I saw a package of Fruitful porridge made by Hubbards that had 17,5gm per 100gm of sugar added, also a tin of peas from Watties that had sugar added. Frank.
- We don’t have a good understanding of the link between obesity and mental health, Kirsty
- Definitely our consumption of alcohol, portion sizes & lack of exercise. Jo
- We eat too late at night Don’t drink enough water or herb tea. Mistake thirst for hunger . Liz Barry
- We complicate things and forget "energy in - energy out" Lyndsey P
- The trap of eating in the kitchen/at the sink ...not sitting down at the table to 'celebrate' a meal and eating straight from the packet ...(ok I've opened that 250g block of chocolate, and I'll eat all those calories eventually, so i might as well do it all now ....) Elizabeth
- Cause it’s the weekend and the diet starts on Monday .... Steph
- We were brought up to eat up our whole plate and then did the same to our children. No rewards when we were children unless we ate everything up.
- Many kiwis stand while eating or eat on the run so digestion is impaired,
- Others eat too fast or fail to chew their food adequately... Rosemary
- Like the dinner plate theory, the food trolley should hold more veg & fruit than any other product. Charlie & Fiona Anderson
