Keep cake away from office, suggests food watchdog head

[weeksy]

I mean REALLY ??

Food Standards Agency chairwoman Prof Susan Jebb compared being around cake in the office to passive smoking.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384

If you work in an office, you know the drill. It's someone's birthday and the unwritten rules mean they or a generous boss supplies cake (or cakes) for all.

But is it time to kick the cupcakes, to get the gateaux away? A food regulator says workers should not bring in sweet treats - to avoid tempting colleagues.

Food Standards Agency chairwoman Prof Susan Jebb compared being around cake in the office to passive smoking.

She said: "If nobody brought cakes into the office, I would not eat cakes."

Interviewed by the Times newspaper, she says that workers should stop testing the willpower of colleagues.

But speaking to the BBC, GP Dr Helen Wall said people had to take responsibility for their own health.

The family doctor who practises in Bolton said: "If someone's got a cake next to you, you don't have to eat it, do you."

Prof Jebb, also a professor of diet and population at the University of Oxford, was speaking in a personal capacity when she argued eating cake is a choice but colleagues can help each other by providing "a supportive environment".

She said: "We all like to think we're rational, intelligent, educated people who make informed choices the whole time, and we undervalue the impact of the environment.

"If nobody brought cakes into the office, I would not eat cakes in the day. But because people do bring cakes in, I eat them. Now, OK, I have made a choice, but people were making a choice to go into a smoky pub.

"With smoking, after a very long time we have got to a place where we understand that individuals have to make some effort but that we can make their efforts more successful by having a supportive environment.

"But we still don't feel like that about food."

In many workplaces cake, biscuits and and sweets - brought by colleagues returning from holiday or to celebrate last days and birthdays - can start a scramble as hungry and sweet-toothed colleagues try to get their hands on the treats.

It is a rare workplace that breaks the tradition and supplies a fruit platter. And who wants to be known as the one staff members who brings in healthy nuts rather than chocolates as they regale colleagues about their weekend in Switzerland?

GP Dr Wall said it was fine to have some pleasures in the workplace.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, she said: "It does feel like we're trying to control everything. At the end of the day you've got to have a little bit of willpower, haven't you...

"If somebody's smoking next to you, you can't help but inhale that.

"If someone's got a cake next to you, you don't have to eat it, do you?"

According to the NHS website, a majority of adults in England are overweight. Regularly consuming foods and drinks high in sugar increases your risk of obesity and tooth decay.

The FSA is responsible for food safety and food hygiene in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Prof Jebb who is on the Times Health Commission, a year-long inquiry by the paper into the future of health and social care in the UK, expressed frustration at ministers' decision to delay the introduction of a TV watershed for junk food advertising.

The Department of Health said the plans would be deferred for a year while officials assessed the impact on household finances as families struggle with the increasing cost of living.

Prof Jebb also said it was not enough to rely on "extraordinary efforts" of willpower to avoid overeating in a society plying people with food.

[Skub]

Everything is the fault of someone else. Responsibility for one's actions is an outdated notion.

Apparently.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I'll just leave this here for all those svelt users who want to throw stones.

viewtopic.php?t=6846

[Yorick]

I used to work in a big office of about 20.
They all put a tenner in the kitty and the middle table was constantly piled high with buns, cakes and chocolate.

I didn't chip in so couldn't have any.
But having them sitting there was so tempting to maybe grab one, but hadn't paid so couldn't.

But better than paying a tenner to stuff your face full of shit.

[weeksy]

I used to work in a big office of about 20.
They all put a tenner in the kitty and the middle table was constantly piled high with buns, cakes and chocolate.

I didn't chip in so couldn't have any.
But having them sitting there was so tempting to maybe grab one, but hadn't paid so couldn't.

But better than paying a tenner to stuff your face full of shit.

Why wouldn't you pay even if you didn't want cake ? Surely that just marks you out as a miserable bugger ?

[Yorick]

I used to work in a big office of about 20.
They all put a tenner in the kitty and the middle table was constantly piled high with buns, cakes and chocolate.

I didn't chip in so couldn't have any.
But having them sitting there was so tempting to maybe grab one, but hadn't paid so couldn't.

But better than paying a tenner to stuff your face full of shit.

Why wouldn't you pay even if you didn't want cake ? Surely that just marks you out as a miserable bugger ?

Coz if I paid I'd just stuff my face full of shit.

[weeksy]

I used to work in a big office of about 20.
They all put a tenner in the kitty and the middle table was constantly piled high with buns, cakes and chocolate.

I didn't chip in so couldn't have any.
But having them sitting there was so tempting to maybe grab one, but hadn't paid so couldn't.

But better than paying a tenner to stuff your face full of shit.

Why wouldn't you pay even if you didn't want cake ? Surely that just marks you out as a miserable bugger ?

Coz if I paid I'd just stuff my face full of shit.

LOL you can still not eat it

[Yorick]

Why wouldn't you pay even if you didn't want cake ? Surely that just marks you out as a miserable bugger ?

Coz if I paid I'd just stuff my face full of shit.

LOL you can still not eat it

My desk faced the pile. I am only human.

[Greenman]

I'm so glad i don't work in an office and hopefully never will have to anymore.

I remember when i worked for the LA and i used to have to go back to the office for a bit if schools were closed or if there was a project going on in house over the holidays.

Used to drive me crazy. I get on with most people but some LA workers are just strange. We used to have an ex-forces guy who would pick fights with most people, literally call them out for fights (he didn't last long). A posh girl who would not stop going on about how rich she was, a french girl you couldn't understand and the typical old geezer who had been there for 50 years still working on the same Linux deploy server he was asked to setup on his first day, he was good at talking all sorts of shit and not actually letting you or himself complete anything you needed to do!

I got out of that job as soon as i could. Me and a colleague left but had to work 2 weeks notice in the office. We used to say all the things to the useless fuckers that we couldn't before we secured the new jobs, they didn't like the truth i can tell you that for fact!

Don't get me started on the office politics with heating/blinds/smoking/reserving spots in the fridge etc!

They are probably all still there now, chatting shit, fighting, eating snails and generally just doing fuck all!

[gremlin]

It get worse! In Canada they're advising that you only have TWO drinks before dinner.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64311705

Luckily common sense has prevailed and there's no such silliness in terms of after dinner drinking.



Wait...hang on...just re-read it. WHAT!!! TWO DRINKS A FUCKING WEEK!!???

[Yorick]

It get worse! In Canada they're advising that you only have TWO drinks before dinner.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64311705

Luckily common sense has prevailed and there's no such silliness in terms of after dinner drinking.



Wait...hang on...just re-read it. WHAT!!! TWO DRINKS A FUCKING WEEK!!???

[Yorick]

[McNab]

Food Standards Agency chairwoman Prof Susan Jebb compared being around cake in the office to passive smoking.

She said: "If nobody brought cakes into the office, I would not eat cakes."

Prof Jebb also said it was not enough to rely on "extraordinary efforts" of willpower to avoid overeating in a society plying people with food.

So because Professor Jebb has no willpower, everyone else should suffer? There was constantly cake available when I was in a big office and I used to partake most times. Then I realised I was getting a bit fat so stopped and never had any again, not even a quality street from those tubbs that seem to appear in the office at christmas time.

And to compare it to passive smoking is just idiotic. Is she somehow breathing in the calories of the person eating a doughnut across the office?

[Skub]

50% of the calories if you smell the food.

Fact.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

They are probably all still there now, chatting shit, fighting, eating snails and generally just doing fuck all!

And getting paid for it, and getting a very good pension, your the fool for leaving, all you had to do was keep your mouth shut and let the crap flow over you.

[DefTrap]

Some people are just habitual greedy bastards and the only way that they can control or break their eating / drinking habits is by forced deprivation and limiting temptation. It's not the worst tactic in the world, these things take a while to reinforce no matter your good intention. And in a sense there are similarities in the habitual practices of smoking.

Although aligning the proximity of cake with passive smoking is a bit of a stretch.
And why an actual professor wants to put their name to such a lowbrow theory is a bit baffling. Probably because the funding is available from some special interest group.

[Yorick]

50% of the calories if you smell the food.

Fact.

How much if you just lick it and put it back?

[Skub]

50% of the calories if you smell the food.

Fact.

How much if you just lick it and put it back?

A sniff and a lick combined will actually amount to 150%. If you just eat it quickly without smelling it,then it's only 100%.

Surprisingly most people don't know this and all that smelling and licking makes them fat and still hungry.

Something ought to be done.

[Yorick]

50% of the calories if you smell the food.

Fact.

How much if you just lick it and put it back?

A sniff and a lick combined will actually amount to 150%. If you just eat it quickly without smelling it,then it's only 100%.

Surprisingly most people don't know this and all that smelling and licking makes them fat and still hungry.

Something ought to be done.

I heard that if you put them on the top shelf in the cupboard, all the calories fall out ?

[Horse]

Some people are just habitual greedy bastards and the only way that they can control or break their eating / drinking habits is by forced deprivation and limiting temptation.

And despite the simple 'they're all just greedy, they just need to cut down' comments, for some people it's a mental health issue and for others partly due to gut biodiversity.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... flammation.