Joe Wicks: My fight against UPFs and why fat jabs aren’t the answer
The fitness coach has made a documentary highlighting the problems of ultraprocessed foods which has not gone down well with some of his followers
Apparently all that money piled up in lockdown ha gone. So, new gig, new grift required. If van Tulleken can why not?
I have noticed a plethora of snake oil punting wankers telling us that fat jabs aren’t the answer. The answer always turns out to be ‘my book / diet plan / app / whatever”. Even though the collective history of books/apps/diet plans is one of total and utter failure, for the mugs who buy them at least.
This is anecdata I know, but a relative lost 3 stone in a year with the aid of fat jabs and ‘ultraprocessed’ protein / meal replacement shakes. Because she works out and because of the high protein content of the shakes she has kept muscle tone and looks fantastic.
Previously, she had spent years on a variety of diets which all insisted on big piles of carbs and very little fat or protein. Those diets kept her overweight and slightly anaemic to boot. So Wicks and that bleating crank van Tulleken can get in the fucking sea.
“Wicks, who admits to being an “emotional” eater, has never been diagnosed with the condition but he thinks a childhood of living primarily off heavily processed foods affected his “mood, energy and behaviour. There’s loads of intelligent scientists and psychologists that are saying that diet can shift behaviour and focus”, he explains. “I’m not saying it causes ADHD.”
Conditions like ADHD, depression, bipolar etc are nearly all, fundamentally, genetic. I’m not ADHD, but I’m definitely further up the spacky autist line than my older brother and we ate the same stuff.
There’s all sorts of data around birth order. We’re not really sure if it’s nature or nurture but there’s some suggestions that women’s bodies change after first birth. 21 of NASA’s first 23 astronauts were first born, or only children. Younger children go into less responsible, more creative things. With each son that a mother has, the likelihood of being a gay rises (and this isn’t nurture as the effect isn’t the same with step brothers).
Most of the UPF thing is just “prole food”. I think concentrated sugar is probably a “bad” thing. Sweets and cakes, rather than fruit. But whether you buy a Mr Kipling or bake your own fondant fancies from ingredients doesn’t make any difference. And when I say “bad”, I don’t mean I want it banned. But you probably should eat a whole tub of Ben and Jerry’s.
Interesting. Didn’t know that. Explains primogeniture, too. I have an older sister. No wonder I became an arty wanker.
Yes. My take on stuff is that there’s always a good reason. And when there’s not a good reason, there’s some technological change and it’s taking a while for people to catch up (like engagement rings don’t really make sense any longer).
People didn’t know the data, but primogeniture “worked”. You left the kingdom to the eldest son because he’d generally be the sensible, responsible one. And I guess, would look after the younger ones. Princess Elizabeth was clearly the better choice than Princess Margaret. But it isn’t 100%. Anne would be a kickass Queen, Charles is a twat.
Plenty of first-born useless monarchs in the past both here and in Europe, along with some great ones. Perhaps that’s a ‘Royal’ effect analogous to Habsburg Lip.
Define “plenty”. 60%? 30%? 5%? If the probability is that eldest son getting the estate works out better, that’s what people do. Even i it ain’t perfect.
Just because you got the crown doesn’t mean you were first-born. Off the top of my head, Henry VIII wasn’t. Nor George VI, and his elder brother was a soft twat. Elizabeth I too. I don’t think there is any sort of a rule here. Especially as I am a third son, and I turned out all..never mind.
G V wasn’t first son. G IV was grandson, wasn’t he?
And yet in fairy tales it’s usually the younger prince that succeeds in things after the older princes have failed.
Gotta encourage them to be a bit more than just Spare and cuntstruck.
Yeah. Hard to know, but media is generally pandering to an audience.
Dog bites man is faintly interesting: man bites dog is major news. So fictional stories have a huge bias towards situations that are rare.
I think it’s more like the eldest was likely to have reached majority when he inherited and reduce the need for a regent, which rarely worked well with princes often expiring before they could take over from the regent.
Furthermore, if any other younger sibling was to be the air your just asking for fratricide.
That’s all good points, too.
Personal take… my brother would be better at running things. I’m noodling around with tech.
Arty Wanker – sounds like a stage name.
Should have been.
Older sisters are there to tell you you are doing everything wrong.
As with older sisters, so with wives: you will never have to wonder if you have any major character flaws…
I’ve always thought Connelly summed it up fairly well for MOST people:
” Eat Less- Move More”
“a variety of diets which all insisted on big piles of carbs and very little fat or protein”
Lots of carbs was government propaganda, at least here and in the US, for decades. The evidence base was a mixture of nothing at all and utter lies.
As for UPF, eat marge not butter was ditto, and there can’t be much that’s more ultra processed than marge – as we bloody learnt at school!
Me, I steer clear of mountains of sugar, aim for variety, ensure there’s plenty of fish in my diet (Thanks, Jeeves), and enjoy ice cream or chocolate or fruit crumbles as the mood takes me. And a gin and tonic in hot weather, with the lemon slice providing one of my five-a-day.
there can’t be much that’s more ultra processed than marge – as we bloody learnt at school!
Did you get those nice booklets from Unilever, given to all children in the class (this was at primary ~1960)? There were about 20 of them, since Unilever made everything from marge to soap (if there’s much difference).
I confused the two, once. I could barely tell the difference.
By golly, I do remember now that Unilever did some good booklets.
No prompt, no memory, so thank you.
No, I never did, but when I started primary school (under Attlee) butter was rationed so Unilever didn’t need to advertise magarine.
I avoid ultra-processed soya-based meat substitutes, mostly eating stuff I have cooked myself – meat, veg, mushrooms, (I do eat my local butchers hand-made sausages that lightly-processed because they taste nice), as well as fruit and bread and cheese – and cake made to my great-grandmother’s recipe that predates the invention of UPF – and fresh (well, caught the previous night) fish, occasionally a steak when I have an excuse to treat myself (I could afford lots of steak but then it wouldn’t be a treat because steak is cheaper than “healthy eating” fish).
A GP from “my” surgery has sent me a message telling me to read the NHS “eating well” “healthy eating” recommendations which are junk – the writer seems to know less than I, an amateur, do: they think I should live on potatoes and pasta and pulses (dried legumes), rather than carrots, fresh/frozen peas and beans, parsnips, meat and fruit …
I have eventually relaxed from being angry to merely being irritated that the NHS is promoting this unhealthy junk.
One of the great successes of our serially socialist governments is the eradication of intelligent thinking and scientific knowledge. I’m not saying public schools are necessarily better (Call me Dave, Boris) but the indoctrination to just believe without examination has certainly had its effects.
Joe, a diet of carefully non processed food would leave you at 7 stone spindly legs and spitting out sand every time you went to the beach…
Private schools are now rather a waste of money in that regard, because the laws are that they have to, basically, follow the national curriculum. You can’t set up a private school that ditches all the crap, or is based on the Bushido code.
It’s my biggest beef with schools. Not the quality of teaching but where time gets applied. Because of too much regulation, lack of markets, we don’t evolve schools much. There used to be reasons why kids learned RE and did PE at school but they make no sense today. History is a waste of time. Fun, but a waste of time. Foreign languages a waste of time when everyone in Paris speaks English and there’s Babbel and Google Translate.
everyone in Paris speaks English
I’ve lived in Paris & few people there speak English. Like in London, few people speak French or any other second language unless they’re immigrants. You learn French or you have a very difficult time.
Sure your phone can be a help, anywhere. But the people you’re dealing with have better things to do than coping with someone playing with their phone. Also, translation apps have their limits. Like the English, forriners have difficulty constructing a coherent written or spoken sentence in their own language. Try listening to how people actually talk.
Learning some English is a school requirement in France. Parisians can speak English; they choose not to. Perhaps it is you.
Learning English is a school requirement almost everywhere because it is the global lingua franca. It’s everyone’s second language. It’s the dream of Esperanto made real. Is that still a thing?
The thing I had in Paris is everyone twigging I was English and replying to me. But that is mostly touristy bits. In the outer areas, they didn’t do that.
You were brave enough to go to the banlieues? WTF for?
Oh no. I’m talking about the outer arrondisements like 19th. Cheaper for eating and dining, nice neighbourhood. I stayed there, but would then get a metro to see the sights.
Learning some French was a requirement when I was at school in the UK. I can’t say it was the slightest use in France. It wasn’t taught with a French accent for a start. I don’t suppose French schools teach English any better. Schools teach languages as written, primarily. I wouldn’t dream of teaching English like that. And I’ve taught a lot of people English. You do not need the written language. You’re hardly ever going to use it. You need conversational.
@WB below. Sure, within the central arrondissements you’ve a good chance of finding someone speaks some English. Because it’s touristville. Outside that it drops dramatically. I lived in Montmatre for a while. I couldn’t have done that without some colloquial French. It’d make shopping impossible, for a start. They’re not using the words in the textbooks.
Agreed. I think my point is most people do the tourist stuff. I have been to the rural Alsace, the Charente and the bits of the Loire without Chateau and there’s not many other people that go to them. Lots of German spoken in Colmar as I think people just nip over the border.
I’m talking about what 90% of people will do in France. Like go to touristy bits of Paris, some wine tasting in Beaune, a beach holiday in Royan.
I know French pretty well, but you go to the Charente-Maritime, you don’t need a whole lot of it.
I had to go to Bern in Switzerland on business, My German is poor, and I was fine. You touch down at Zurich airport, don’t need German. The ticket machine for a train to Bern had a an option to change to English. Bought ticket, showed it to bloke on train, said “danke” when he returned it to me. Got to Bern station. Cab. Told him the name of the hotel and “bitte”. He clocked I wasn’t local and pointed at the amount and also told me in English (although I can do German numbers). Paid. Hotel spoke English but I tried politely talking German. I generally know foods in German so ordered dinner. A few bittes and dankes. Looked up the tram details, that evening, so I could say the right words for a weekly ticket. Went to the office, where everyone spoke English.
For my trip to Verona in Italy, I did a load of Babbel beforehand, got the basics of some Italian and used Google translate quite a lot. It meant thinking about things in advance. So before I sat down, I figured out how to ask for a coffee and one of those lovely breakfast pastries they have.
None of this is at the level of living in a place, or drawing up contracts, or translating a website. That’s when I pay someone. Or would do a more serious commitment to the language. But which language are you going to need in adult life? Are you going to be going to Poland to talk to suppliers, or buying whisky from Japan, holidaying in France, Albania, Italy, meeting some bird who is over here from Korea and you have to go back home with her. It’s more of a thing of learning it as needs arise.
Someone who supposes that the purpose of studying a foreign language at school is simply to let you speak to the foreigners in question has missed much of the point of the exercise. Similarly the person who can’t see why you should study history.
It would seem that your education didn’t encourage you to reflect much.
What is the point, then?
My general take on history is that it’s enjoyable, but not actually of much value. The lessons of the past often don’t apply because changes in technology change the incentives (Sun Tzu didn’t have aerial warfare).
What gets you is when the conversation goes in directions you’ve not planned for or expected. When in Japan I spotted a Burger King, and thought: may as well try it. My reading isn’t very good, but my talking is ok.
* Hanbuga to furai onegaishimas, to fuanta.
* Setto desu ka?
errrr…. wot? My brain was set up to listen to a series of numbers telling me the price. wot’s “setto’?
There was another westerner in the queue behind me and he said: he’s asking if you want the set meal. Ah!!! Meal Deal!
C’mon, jgh. Japan is Set Menu Central. How else is everyone to order what the boss just has, with one finger point?
I’ve heard Japan is quite difficult. My daughter went and she has a friend there who knows the language well and reckoned she would have struggled without her.
But she loved it, plans to go back.
The women are great once you get them giggling with your outrageous cod-Japanese. After a few beers, all the blokes want to know is the size of your dick. Love the place.
They’re getting a Chinese and Kurdish immigration problem, so (probably) having Ms. Takaichi for PM is likely to be a good thing.
Showing willing goes a long way, even with Parisians.
Practicing shouting a foreigners just makes them mad at you and less willing to actually communicate.
Turn it around. Are you more or less willing to help someone who’s at least willing to come as far as they can, or someone who says the equivalent of “bloody wogs” when you can’t speak Farsi? In Liverpool?
Absolutely. People in rural France will help you if you’re struggling but showing effort. You don’t get a lot of English in the Charente or the Limousin.
But not quite knowing a thing on the menu, you can get there.
One of the resources I use for learning French is a YouTube channel from a Frenchwoman who lives in the Midlands. She talks about why the French you learn in school doesn’t help with day to day French because that’s not how they speak.
I also use a podcast that provides the script in French. He says that the French do learn English in school but they don’t like using it because they lack confidence.
I’m on a 3.5 week trip round France (currently just south of Castres), my 3rd trip to France this year, and it’s my experience that after a year of learning French and making an effort to speak it even young people in restaurants seem reluctant to speak English.
The secret to any language is getting over that embarrasment of being really bad at it – even if you’re not, in fact, really bad.
You’ve got to go there and got to *have* to speak it. The only way you’re getting a beer – or a pee, whatever – is if you do. It’s amazin’ how quickly it comes on after that.
When I was starting to learn German, self taught, I bought a couple of posters to cover style dreariness of my room in the mess. I wanted some Bluetack and couldn’t find any and the sales girl didn’t understand when I asked for it by name. In the end I used something I’d just learned and said I wanted to introduce the posters to my room.
The sales girl laughed and went and found their equivalent of Bluetack.
In Japan, in summer, and I’d run out of anti-perspirant. I thought for a bit, then approached the sales lady at the chemist counter:
“Sumimasen. Atsui desu, ne?” (Excuse me. It’s hot, isn’t it?)
(pointing at my armpit) “Coco wa dame desu, ne?” (Here is bad, isn’t it?)
She giggled, turned round, and came back with some anti-perspirant, then went and had a good laugh with her mate. All’s well that ends well.
All language teaching in school is “proper”. Like a video of a shopkeeper will have her saying “bonjour” when actually shopkeepers say “monsieur…”. which is like someone saying “yes sir…”.
France is variable, tourist/business or not. Lots of it in Charente-Maritime by the coast, Sarlat is charming, people go to Cognac for the distilleries, so that works too. But you go to Angouleme or get out into the rural bits around Aigre and Mansle and it’s nearly all locals.
Are you going North from there? Perigord is lovely. Old caves and things, pate de foie gras. And the coast around La Rochelle and Royan.
Nice sneaky Rocky Horror reference!
I was thinking Bonzo Dog Band…
What I’ve enjoyed watching the fat jab industry develop over the last few years is how its absolutely destroyed the ‘fat is beautiful’ ideological stance. Showed it up to be the massive cope it always was – I’m fat, I don’t want to be but don’t have the self discipline to do anything about it so I’ll pretend I like being the size of a whale, and declare that in fact I’m more attractive when fat anyway. Now the fatties can now get out of their predicament with zero hard work, and guess what, they’re all doing passible deflating balloon impressions left right and centre thanks to their monthly jab.
Revealed preferences for the win. Again.