Is being Fat/Overweight more likely to affect working class ?

[geared]

Could that be because the working class make up the biggest social group? Serious question. There are certainly more people on £20,000 than £50,000.

 

Is the wage you are paid the only way to indicate your 'class'????????????

[Cyclone]

Would i be right in thinking that you are more likely to be fat/overweight if you are working class and of poor education/and/or come from an area of social housing. As opposed to someone who is middle class and professional?

 

Is being fat/overweight linked to poor education and where you live?

 

Statistically speaking, yes.

 

But be careful about assuming why the relationship exists.

[Daven]

I also think that peoples perceptions of what constitutes looking obese has changed hugely over the past 30 years.

Back in the 80's Alison Moyet and Demis Roussos where considered to be grossly overweight - yet looking at photos of them from that era they look of 'normal' build for a 21st century person. Being obese was far less socially acceptable then than it is today.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/3631530/We-were-so-slim-in-the-Seventies....html

Edited July 21, 2015 by Daven

[Cyclone]

Perhaps someone should do a study?

 

Or perhaps there are numerous studies that have been done and someone should just look them up.

 

---------- Post added 21-07-2015 at 11:05 ----------

 

Could that be because the working class make up the biggest social group? Serious question. There are certainly more people on £20,000 than £50,000.

 

No, as a % those with a lower income are more likely to be over weight.

 

---------- Post added 21-07-2015 at 11:08 ----------

 

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=obesity%20linked%20to%20low%20income

 

Lots of information regarding it easily available via google.

 

---------- Post added 21-07-2015 at 11:09 ----------

 

Is the wage you are paid the only way to indicate your 'class'????????????

 

The OP would have been more correct to talk about income, deprivation and poverty being linked to obesity than class.

 

---------- Post added 21-07-2015 at 11:14 ----------

 

The same character flaws that make someone poor are also likely to make them fat. Lack of motivation being the key thing.

 

This isn't supported by any of the studies into the link, it's just your own prejudice speaking.

[Anna B]

Is the wage you are paid the only way to indicate your 'class'????????????

 

No. But poverty and obesity tend to go hand in hand in my experience.

[Cyclone]

Poverty and class are not synonymous either though. The OP should have talked about poverty, not class.

[Halibut]

The same character flaws that make someone poor are also likely to make them fat. Lack of motivation being the key thing.

 

Ugh. You're one of those strange and nasty minded people who not only hate the poor but think it's their own fault.

[harvey19]

No. But poverty and obesity tend to go hand in hand in my experience.

I wonder why this is so, I would have expected the opposite.

[cassity]

I wonder why this is so, I would have expected the opposite.

 

Because it's obvious the discussion isn't about the crop destroying dust bowls of Africa.

[Cyclone]

I wonder why this is so, I would have expected the opposite.

 

Historically, like 100+ years ago, you'd have been correct. And in the 3rd world you still are.

 

But in the first world the well off don't display it by excessive consumption of food any more, they're wise to all the health issues that it creates and society has changed so that wealth is displayed in other ways.

The poor on the other hand are actually not all that poor (historically speaking) and have access to supermarkets with many cheap, unhealthy food options. Unfortunately being poor is also correlated with being less well educated and (thus) health conscious. So they make bad decisions (or, statistically speaking, more of them make bad decisions), and so obesity is higher amongst the poor than amongst the wealthy.

 

All statistically speaking of course, there are many clever, health conscious poor people who eat well and aren't at all overweight, and many well off people who make bad decisions and are obese.