Supersize tactics by retailers mean the average person is consuming an extra 17,000 calories a year – which could mean five pounds weight gain – health experts have warned.
The Royal Society of Public Health said consumers are facing more than 100 attempts each year by shops and fast-food chains to “up-sell” unhealthy foods and drinks each year.
The charity said soaring obesity levels were being fuelled by pushy sales assistants, trained to ask customers if they wanted to “go large,” upgrade to a meal deal, or add cut-price chocolate to their purchase.
That we’re all supposed to be concerned over such trivia. Sigh.
The charity urged businesses to pledge to only up-sell healthy food and drink, and said shops should stop paying staff commission for hitting “up-selling” targets.
They’re complaining about calories, not anything else. And all food contains those calories – things that don’t contain calories aren’t food.
They’re not even being consistent within their own press release.
An extra 17,000 (kilo)calories a year? Wow.
Under 5 days worth of my recommended intake.
So, in a rich society, people, on average, are eating 2% more than the medically recommended* amount?
Especially when you consider the number of hideous bloaters about, that probably means that most of us are eating “about right”.
So much for ‘food poverty’ then…
Not long ago (days), it was food poverty and the expansion in numbers of food banks…are the latter upgiving?
I make that 46 calories per day extra, equivalent to a mars bar every 6 days. Not exactly gross overeating…
46 kcal is a smidge more than one single Ryvita cracker per day.
“The Royal Society of Public Health…”
Shouldn’t that be ‘for’ Public Health?
As this egregious fakecharity is domiciled at John Snow House, it’s tempting to assume they know nothing…
My large black coffee is zero-calorie. So “up-selling” that doesn’t add to obesity.
The article is highly misleading (i) because we’re not being “tricked” into buying chips or onion rings and (ii) because a lot of this is making chips optional in order to make the meal look cheaper and that *reduces* the total amount of chips consumed because some of us skip the optional chips but would eat them if they came as part of the standard meal.
For someone like me, this whole “supersize” thing sounds the completest bollocks. For some reason (possibly because I have at one time been actually life threateningly hungry) I lack the appetite triggers makes me want to eat. If I’ve a lot of distractions, I simply forget. A lot of pressures the last couple years has seen e down from a comfortable 13 stone to just over 10. Still feel perfectly OK, but few of my clothes fit properly & I can’t say I like the look of myself in the mirror.
So, for the last month or so I’ve been forcing myself to double my calorie intake. Five or six meals a day & as much as I can stuff in between them. So far, I’ve put on 5 pounds.
Sorry, but overweight has bugger all directly to do with how many calories are on the plate. It’s the inclination to consume them, that’s the problem. if you can’t tell the difference between being hungry & just not having stuffed something in your mouth for a while, you’ll have an overweight problem. And don’t be so fucking lazy. Half a dozen hours sitting at a desk does not require 8 hours sofa-ed out in front of the TV to recover from. But most importantly. No-one ever starved to death by not ramming something down their gullet every couple hours. That’s not hunger you feel. That’s comfort eating. For FFS! Control your body, don’t let it control you.
Julia M
+1
Wasn’t it just last week that they were blaming Brexit for ever-shrinking chocolate bars?
I rarely go large but when I do its my choice. Sometimes the fast food meal is the first food I’ve had that day so going large isn’t exactly going to take me above recommended intake of food for the day.
What next? Requiring people to have smaller plates at home in order to reduce meal portion size? Smaller pint glasses in order to cut down on liquid intake? Smaller measures at the pub?
These people will not be happy so long as other people make the wrong choices for themselves.
@ Martin
Perhaps:
These people will not be happy so long as other people can make choices for themselves.
@Martin,
imho:
These people will not be happy so long as other people can be happy.
You’d think that these people have never been in a fast food joint. The average person ended up binning those extra calories. It the morons that overeat and we can’t fix stupid.