The Guardian

We’re in a new age of obesity. How did it happen? You’d be surprised | George Monbiot

It’s not that we’re eating more, that we exercise less, or that we lack willpower. The shaming of overweight people has to stop
Illustration by Nicola Jennings

When I saw the photograph I could scarcely believe it was the same country. A picture of Brighton beach in 1976, featured in the Guardian a few weeks ago, appeared to show an alien race. Almost everyone was slim. I mentioned it on social media, then went on holiday. When I returned, I found that people were still debating it. The heated discussion prompted me to read more. How have we grown so fat, so fast? To my astonishment, almost every explanation proposed in the thread turned out to be untrue.

Unfortunately, there is no consistent obesity data in the United Kingdom , at which point the incidence was already rising sharply. But in. Suddenly, at around the time that the photograph was taken, people started becoming fatter – and the trend has continued ever since.

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