I think we (people generally) ARE eating much more... Portion sizes in the US always seemed massive to us in th UK, but coming back from Singapore I've now found that portion sizes here are massive, and if you go out and you pay for that portion most people will feel obliged to finish it, which eventually makes you get used to bigger portions.

The other problem with the processed foods is that they are cheap. I agree that fresh fruit and veg are often cheap, especially local fruit, but so few people seem to know how to cook properly these days that they hardly know what to do with them, or don't have the time. Other parts of a 'natural' meal are more expensive, especially if you care about what you eat. Picking out organic or free range or non-GM type foods in a supermarket will often double the bill, and most people will probably waste half of that anyway. Why waste the money when they can have frozen meals with all the components ready to go in a few minutes.

there are many aspects to why we're getting bigger, and it's all wrapped up with more people working, more materialistic society, less time, people not having the skills... all these things that we grumble about, and ask ourselves what the world is coming to.

DD's teacher (first day back today) checked through all the kids' lunches, and DD's was the first which didn't contain pure junk food (ie. chocolate or crisps) - no mean feat for a child who doesn't like fruit at all, and isn't keen on many portable veg. There were only 3 kids in her class of 30. On the up-side, the school's trying - only healthy snacks are allowed at morning break, and only 3 kids out of 500+ defied that on the first day. Another Catch-22, because if we don't teach the next generation how to eat properly they will just get increasingly overweight and unhealthy, but who can teach them when our own generation doesn't know how to eat properly. I seem to recall my generation being the one where mothers started to go out to work more and more, so they cooked less and less, and those latckey kids are today's parents who had nobody to learn parenting or homemaking skills from. My mother didn't work, so I think that's probably what makes me stand out as an 'odd' parent compared to many I meet.

In the past when money was tight people ate less. Now they eat as much, but the quality is lower.

The whole farm subsidy situation is a sore point here, I remember from years back, because of the European Union subsidies. To be honest though, I can see what Jenny says about the costs being astronomical, and the income from many of those items is tiny in comparison. If veggies are cheap, think how little farmers must get for them. I really don't know how Jenny and others manage to farm at all in such difficult conditions with so little rain. I wish that maybe there was a points system which would reward more ethical approaches, not just bigger businesses. If there were incentives for more organic efforts then I am sure more farmers would feel able to do something in that direction without losing all chance of any profit. There's not much point jumping n the organic bandwagon if it bankrupts you.

lots of root causes for obesity, so it needs to be tackled on many fronts. The problems lie with people whose earlier generations were a more reasonable weight, but whose unhealthy lifestyle is entirely to blame for their current problems. That isn't the case for everyone of course. I used to think DH needed desperately to lose weight, but when I see him in the British context instead of a Singapore context he looks positively slim. Australians are joining in too - there were many on my recent flight who were absolutely massive. I can't imagine how they survive long-haul flights in economy seats.

now I'm starting to rant. But there really are so many aspects to the problem that it would be easy to just bang on about it for hours.

Kerri.