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A Thought About Founding Fathers

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On Minds

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new invention by Annie Copland, the "Concentrating Machine"

The Concentrating Machine

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As my mother noticed, a programme on tomorrow about "Scotland The Fat" - why Scotland is the second most overweight nation in the world: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03806d5 I will be intrigued to check it out on iPlayer in the coming days to see what it says. - in which it claims it "uncovers a lack of healthy food available even in some Scottish hospitals." - I would say not "even in" but "ESPECIALLY in". So I started researching this grotesque and embarrassing statistic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_Scotland Four points I would like to note on above subject:

In my experience the very places which purport to promote good health are the very places where I often see the highest proportion of obese/overweight unhealthy people, including staff. Receptionists, office admin staff, midwives, nurses: many are overweight, if not rolling obese. [CAVEAT: Not "ALL" I said, just "many". Just in case anyone takes the hump.] This is quite a strange and noticeable sight to me, as most of my friends and family and people that I socialize with are not overweight. We'd rather stay out of the NHS system and look after our own fitness.I have been thinking about this for quite a while, trying to discern why this should be the case. It could be cultural, i.e. the NHS workplace ethic of "Stress" (which I'm sure they do suffer from) = "TREATS" = cakes, biscuits and sugary snacks on their tea breaks. Have you ever watched One Born Every Minute? - it is a festival of cakes, practically one between each birth. Okay, it could foster team bonding, but it is also deeply unhealthy in a workplace trying to deliver health. However it seems that social and economic class (professional/managerial/clerical/admin etc) lie at the heart of the issue. Doctors, GPs and consultants don't seem (in my experience) to be quite as routinely overweight. And they generally occupy a different socioeconomic bracket - one of higher educational attainment, different social and cultural interests, and a more active healthy lifestyle. Remember, we don't want sweeping generalisations here; we want statistical evidence. There is a known statistical link between WOMEN (though not men) of a lower socioeconomic class and rate of obesity. This from the National Obesity Observatory: http://www.noo.org.uk/uploads/doc/vid_7929_Adult%20Socioeco%20Data%20Briefing%20October%202010.pdf Knowing this, I would not trust NHS staff to deliver accurate representations of what constitutes 'overweight' and 'normal', 'healthy' and 'unhealthy' - as, if they cannot maintain a 'healthy' BMI of under 25 themselves (itself not exactly 'trim'), then how can they accurately diagnose unhealthiness in other people, let alone advise them? I was once weighed by an overweight NHS nurse, and as I stepped on the scales I was shocked to see how much I had put on. Certainly I needed to lose a good few pounds, if not more than a stone. I was pushing the upper limit of the NHS 'acceptable' BMI and that for me wasn't good enough. Her response? "Great; you're just within the safe BMI bracket, so you're absolutely fine there." Fine?! - I knew I was quite overweight for me, felt out of shape and wobbly around the midriff, and I was horrified. Not because I want to look like a waif; because I want to be able to run! I wished for brutal honesty, not "that's acceptable for us" from the NHS Statistics Board. I imagined that if I had been weighed the same day by a fitness coach, he or she would've told me, "YOU ARE OVERWEIGHT AND UNFIT! Lose it, now!" - that would've been more realistic and welcome. The question for the peeps at the top of the NHS Boards is: Do we want to be 'acceptable' or do we want to be brilliant? Mentor: Amy McWilliam my 12-stone NHS Health Advisor, or Andy Murray? Know who I'd choose.
On a more recent trip to a Scottish hospital I was told I needed to be weighed. "Great, where are the set of scales?" I asked, only to be told, "Er, no, we can't use those anymore. You have to sit on this chair weighing machine... It just makes it...'easier' all round," the nurse politely said. She didn't specifically say so, but the reason for the new 'sit-on' weighing machine is THIS:http://www.medical-specialists.co.uk/news/2011/06/30/nhs-buys-bigger-scales-to-weigh-the-obese/- rising obesity levels and increased public money spend on specialist bariatric equipment. This money could be spent on educating the nutritionally illiterate.
Sugar it seems is the main problem; it is cheap, extremely profitable to food companies when converted into 'value-add' end-products, and also a highly addictive substance. You can buy Coke in hospital. I was there. In the maternity wing, there is nothing to stop you buying cola and crisps from a privately-managed shop. Recently I have spotted quite a few ethnically-Indian families in Scotland buying multi-pack cans and bottles of that cornerstone of the Hyperglycaemic Scottish Diet: Irn-Bru! - which is quite a bizarre, yet worrying sight, for an ethnic group that used to pride itself on eating lots of healthy home-made vegetable and meat dishes. Anyhoo, I gave up drinking Irn-Bru years ago when my Chemical Engineering lecturer at university told me it had a pH of about 2.5 or something...Let's face it, we are all addicted to something, whether it's caffeine, chocolate, the gym, partying, work, dieting, social media, being in a relationship, occupying the moral high ground (;-) LOL; certain newspaper readers, take note) ...only for God's sake let it not be sugar! There is sugar in everything these days: chocolate, puddings, cakes, fizzy drinks, fruit juice, bread, yogurts, even so-called 'healthy' breakfast cereals. You should avoid any substance that contains more than 9g of sugars per 100g. I stopped eating All-Bran after my hospitalisation post-childbirth when I realised it contained a whopping 18g of sugar per 100g! In fact I gave up breakfast cereal in general, as in my opinion it seems to be the worst offender of hidden sugars that cause 'creeping weight gain'. Stick to the egg. There is a horrendous amount of sugar in alcoholic drinks too. Cider and pints of lager are the worst. Yet we all guzzle wine and beer like it's going out of fashion, oblivious to what a portion size (or glass size) is anymore. FACT. Would we rather feel fit and healthy for a week? or would we rather feel inebriated for an hour or two? All life is a choice. But choice takes effort and discipline, and maybe that is where so many of us fall down.
Two further recent phenomena spring to mind, as we race against the incoming tide of obesity. One is the rise in trend over the past 15 years of what I call 'flexible womenswear' as stocked primarily in supermarkets, M&S, Gap and Matalan - i.e. the recent acceptability (I hasten to call it 'fashion') of SACKS, i.e. smock tops, tunics, baggy dresses, untucked shirts, low-cut slouchy t-shirts and expanding-waist elasticated leggings. Are we going down the American route? No one of the female gender wears a belt any more. And certainly not a 24" one! Very fitted tailoring is the reserve of skinny model receptionists and PAs who can afford designer sizes. No woman of a certain class or lifestyle wears anything that defines her waist - at least not that I have seen. Society has changed so that we don't have to. We can all wear 'leisure wear', and socially no one will care or bat an eyelid. Waistlines are expanding, and we are all getting fatter. Realising that this was where we are going, now I make a point of wearing a belt, and that ensures I don't pile on too many excess pounds around the girth.Second is the surely irrefutable fact that clothes are now accommodating this phenomenon to ease the blow to our body self-image. Let us suppose for argument's sake that I am a notional ladies' size 11, that is, midway between a too-big 12 and a pretty fitted size 10. (I'd be a 10 if I lost the spare pounds.) Last week I tried on a size 12 vintage zip-up dress from 1986, and I was surprised to find that I couldn't zip it up: my chest and back were too big for the garment. But these days I know that if I shop in Marks & Spencer, or really any high street ladies fashion chain, that the size 12 will generally look incredibly unfitted, unflattering and hang like a sack on me. So I recently ran towards the size 10 of a pair of pyjamas in M&S, thinking they'd be just right. Result? - even they 'hang like a sack' on me and are too big. What a disaster. In the 1980s I would have been a size 14, in the 1990s a size 12, and in the 2010s I am reduced to thinking I am a size 8. Ha, what a joke. Therefore sizes are expanding to accommodate our expanding body shape so shops sell more! How dishonest; how frightening!

Why do I care? Why should I care how much cake people choose to stuff in their own mouths and how much telly they watch while eating microwave meals? (By the way I feel I am qualified to get motivated and angered by this issue as my own dad died of heart disease, probably diet-related, and I have lost count of the number of my older relatives and friends who have suffered joint problems requiring surgery, caused in the main by weight problems.) Well, I don't think that obesity just means failing physical health. It isn't just about the increased probability of having to undergo heart surgery or a new knee operation or hip replacement. Worse than that it means failing mental health, stress, poor self-esteem, lack of drive and vitality and therefore unfulfilled potential. All life is a gift and we would do well to use it wisely. It IS that serious. Solutions? There are many. Scotland (and the UK) has many assets that can be used to help reverse this trend for oversize living. Here are some:

Andy Murray.
Sir Chris Hoy.
Munroes. Specifically, being able to scale them.
Wilderness.
Forests.
Oatmeal.
Fresh fish.
Turnips.
Kale.

No excuses! Anyway, it will be an interesting prog to watch. If there is anything I can do to help counteract obesity rates in Scotland or in the UK in general then let me know. I am thinking... Annie

Remember the popular adage -

"There is no such thing as a stupid question!"

"The only stupid question is the one you don't ask"

1.) Well, yes, actually, there is. 2.) And no, it isn't. There are plenty of dumb questions it is possible to ask. Logical fallacies. Let's talk about thinking and the power of rational thought. We do a great disservice to our own intellectual integrity by constantly doubting our own intelligence and inner 'know-how'. And yet we are always being encouraged to ask stupid questions. We are constantly encouraged to doubt our own know-how. By the media. By the internet. By online video forums. By self-styled experts. By Government advisory boards. By healthcare professionals. Their two-way communication mantra seems to be: "Come on, ask us some daft questions! We are here to answer them all!" I just returned from an NHS advisory session about parenting and baby care which I was told to attend - a real point in case. During the session, we were encouraged to ask as many questions as possible, no matter how ad-hoc or silly-sounding. This resulted in the following format: NHS Healthcare Professional: It really varies between each child. However we recommend... Parent: OK, wait a minute, I have a silly question. What about this scenario? NHS Healthcare Professional: Well, hmm, it really depends on each individual what you decide to do. However we recommend... Parent: I have another silly question. What about sleep? You don't know me, but how often should my baby ... sleep / eat / cry / wake up? NHS Healthcare Professional: It really varies between each child. Advice is always changing. However they currently say that... Parent: Should I feed my child sweeties, even though the sugar in them rots teeth and causes addiction and obesity? NHS Healthcare Professional: Hmm, well... it's up to you as the individual. However we recommend... ... Come on guys! So what you're saying, essentially, is that there IS no right or wrong (none you can tell us anyway), no absolute definitive answers, and that what works for one person won't necessarily work for the next. Complete randomness and empirical common sense, in other words. The questions became sillier and sillier to the point where previously rational people were asking: Parent: Can I feed my baby even while he's asleep? Parent: Can I leave my baby overnight to fend for himself and find his own food? Parent: Can I feed my baby mould? Parent: Can you tell me on what precise day of this year will my baby finally stop crying? ... ... Seriously? What has happened to people's confidence in their own common sense? It was like watching natural parenting confidence in reverse: a slow deterioration in sanity and parting with natural good sense to the point where the stupidest questions were being aired and listened to, and answered, completely straight-faced. The answer to this of course is that dumbing down and provision of official advisory boards have effectively killed off our common sense. I used to come away from every single session at the NHS or every doctor's appointment with a strong sense of disappointment and "WHAT IS THE POINT?" I used to get frustrated by their lack of real advice and conviction - tailored for ME. It was always 'minimum standard' stuff - official Government regulations and official Government health advice. They didn't want to show me future health possibilities, they just wanted to say, "Yeah, you pass all our tests. You're doing fine. What are you worried about?" I always came away with the feeling that I had been short-changed, that I had just wasted my time, that I could've found more tailored advice on the internet, and that I wanted to kick something. Until one day my husband explained it to me. "Look," he said, "The thing is, the NHS is not really for people like you. It's for people who are too stupid to read for themselves or to find out things on the internet for themselves, for people who are too lazy to bother about their own health, and expect the Government to look after them FOR them. The NHS is really only a service for people that are less well-off than you, less smart, less bright, less motivated, less able to figure things out for themselves. It's a bit like at school, remember? - when you were one of the brightest kids in the class - the teacher wasn't really there to help YOU; they were there to provide support for the needier, less able ones. You were deemed to be clever and smart and conscientious enough to look after yourself; to learn for yourself. The teachers were really just there for those that needed more help. Yeah well, that's what the NHS is for. You know, you shouldn't really expect so much from it." Hmm, he had a point, I suppose. The reality of it is that the NHS (apart from in the case of life-threatening emergencies) is like a 'bare minimum' standard of health for those people that cannot look after themselves, that do not know how to feed or exercise themselves properly, who do not know what fruit and vegetables look like, or who can't be trusted. In its proactive health remit, it seems to exist purely for obese smokers with heart and lung disease - everyone fitter than this will just feel sorely let down and patronised. The NHS Government health advice is for people to eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, and to move for 30 minutes a day. Hmm. I suppose this might be acceptable as a 'MINIMUM' standard of health (i.e. not dead) - but the point is, it certainly isn't good enough for those that want an 'above average' quality of living, who want an exceptional level of internal health and fitness - who want to feel amazing! It's the same with Employment. I went to various Government-funded careers advisors in the past and was told by self-appointed 'experts' and 'advisors' simply, "Look up this database of recruitment agencies on the internet," and "Send emails to 10 companies a day off that list with your re-written CV". Radical. Yep, I could've figured all that out for myself. Waste of time. Insult to intelligence. It did not inspire me. This might get me a wage, but it wasn't going to help me feel amazing. Truth be told, I'm only going to be here once - I want to feel amazing! I came to the conclusion there was something very wrong about Government-sponsored advice agencies. We should not therefore always look to 'official advice' - which, by its very egalitarian nature, caters for the mass (and dumbest) market. Some thoughts therefore about proactive investigation and thinking things through for yourself:

Weren't you always at the top of the class?

Weren't you able to go beyond the course textbook to find things out for yourself, by self-motivated reading in the library?
Weren't you proud to be smart, to be the best, to have self-confidence and empowerment through knowledge?
Weren't you able to judge critically, draw rational conclusions, and form logical summaries of all that you had researched? Or did you just rely on the teacher's hand-outs and bullet points?
Did you have to be told what to do all the time, or were you the initiated sort who wanted to figure things out for yourself by asking the right people?

What the heck do you expect from life anyhow? Acceptable? or Best? Go extra-curricular. Life is best here. Daft questions are encouraged so that daft advice may exist. Government job creation. Simple as. End of. Don't ask stupid questions. I think you know the answer half the time. Come on. Don't dumb yourself down. Don't give up on your own internal 'know-how': your gut instinct. Remember, you are top of the class! Annie