Hi, everyone and welcome back to happy hour, 歡迎回來酒館.

Hi, 安瀾.

Hi Lulu, hi, everyone.

So we talked about the general situations. Let's go around the world and look at some real life examples and maybe we can take it as a reference of how each country tried to control or combat the whole obesity epidemic.

Yes.

Let's start with the UK.

The UK there is a sugar tax and that came into effect in 2018. So the UK has a tax on sugary drinks to reduce sugar consumption. Now if you go to the UK you can see that drinking things like coke, fizzy drinks, sugary drinks are incredibly common. You can find them everywhere.

Same as in China now.

So same as in China now. So companies have reduced the amount of sugar in their drinks so that they can avoid this tax. And the result is that people now consume fewer sugary drinks. It's still there. People are trying to actively encourage people to drink more water. So there is actually a drive now that if you go into cafes and if you go into restaurants, they are actively encouraged to provide free water.

Okay. So they would try to convince people not to drink sugary drinks, yeah. The thing is sugary drinks, the problem is not just definitely will make you put on weight, but it's also sugar can be really addictive.

It can be really really addictive.

And the problem is that when people drinking sugary drinks, they're not thinking about how much sugar is actually in the drink.

Exactly, because you don't see the actual sugar.

Exactly. It's not like for example chocolate. You know If someone has a bar of chocolate, then you feel oh, okay, should I eat so much? But when people are thirsty, when people want to have a drink or something, they will drink normally faster. And without thinking about what is actually in the drink.

I think for us, the problem is not really like fizzy drinks, like Coke or Sprite, for us is the bubble tea, isn't it? Oh yeah.

The bubble tea I've read quite a few surveys and research about how much sugar is in any of those drinks, even if you ask for less sugar, there is still a huge amount of sugar far more than what you need every day.

Oh exactly, And for example, drinks like Starbucks, you can have coffees at Starbucks, drinks at Starbucks, they can go over like 500 calories.

Yeah, it's crazy. Okay , So now you talked about the UK, now I can share with our audience, some of my research findings which is about this country that is known for healthy eating and all that, Japan.

Yes.

Everyone's saying all Japanese are so skinny, but that is not without a reason, it's not just people naturally eat healthy food.

Now Japan has relevant laws. For example, there is a policy that requires company to even measure employee's waist lines to keep them under certain....Waistline definitely has to do with your promotion opportunities I think, in that sense.

Yeah. I have heard about this law. Personally, I don't quite understand it because you're making it about the company's problem. You're making it the company's problem rather than the individuals.

I think because government can't really just go to individuals and force them to, you know, because like you said “nanny state” and all that, so it's more like the companies will incentivize or regulate because it's like you can quit the company. Right? If you don't agree with this you can go. But if you want to work for the company, then this incentivizes or penalizes you, so that you will be more careful with your diet and exercise.

I guess so.

I think it's also like just a general thing about not being overweight this whole huge culture about staying not just healthy weight, but also staying slender in Japan.

Oh yeah I guess so. And to be honest, I've been to Japan lots of times and you don't really see many overweight people in Japan.

It's also the portion control. Actually Japanese food are not really as healthy as people think. They do have a lot of carbs, they do have a lot of sugary things. They do have a lot of fried things.

It's just when people eat things, they control the portion, Yes. They eat sets, right? So that's something that's another thing. And then also countries like Singapore there's healthy living campaign. I think we are probably going down that path about like the healthy China initiative, so where government promotes healthy eating exercise through education, bans on food, advertising and also through public fitness programs. I think this is probably what we're gonna do.

Oh exactly, it's best to start very early. So schools are teaching children about healthy lifestyles from an early age you get into that habit.

Now towards the end of this topic, let us talk about some of the challenges and also criticism. Yeah. Do these policies always work? It's difficult because there's a fine line between urging people to be healthier and controlling people too much and thus limiting their freedom.

Oh yeah. So for example, one of the most common challenges and criticisms is that some people say that taxes on food and drink affect poor people the most.

Now in the UK there's been research that in poorer areas there were more fast food restaurants simply because they are cheaper.

And also in the UK I've noticed one of the cheaper supermarkets is basically mainly selling frozen food that you can fry.

Yeah, that you can fry,that you can reheat. And this is one of the issues that you notice, particularly in the UK the more money of household has probably the thinner they are. Yeah.

So this is a complete reversal you think about a hundred two hundred years ago that it was the wealthier you are, the bigger you are. Yeah. Now it's the complete opposite, the wealthier you are, the healthier you are most likely to be.

Because you are more health conscious, you have more time to exercise, and also you have the money and the know-how to shop sensibly.

Exactly.

I mean this is why obesity is a social issue. It's not just because I mean it's easy for us to just point fingers at some people and say you're just lazy, blame them. But it is not as simple as that. No. Imagine if your work is basically heavy manual labor, how can we require you to eat salad?

Well exactly, or for example, if you are doing shift work and you have very irregular hours.

Exactly, you have to work night shift, then when do you eat and what do you eat?

Yeah.

So I think this is why things are quite difficult. It's not as black and white. And ultimately it boils down to, first of all, free will, a personal... individuals’ intentions and will, choices. But obviously, it is also education and the availability of resources.

Oh Yeah. There are always gonna be some companies that try to find loopholes ways of avoiding regulations using artificial sweeteners instead of sugar.

I have to admit I do drink diet things like diet Coke from time to time. And you sort of make yourself believe I'm drinking diet sugary drinks, so it doesn't really contain sugar. I think artificial sweeteners are also not good for you.

There's a lot of research that says that they're not good for you, but a lot of that research is not very conclusive.

Yeah. It's not very conclusive, but I've even read research results saying that drinking diet Coke or diet sprite like that, the original sugar drink but without the actual sugar but with artificial sweeteners, it's actually more fattening than drinking the same drink with actual sugar.

Well, I can somewhat believe that. And for me I honestly feel that it comes down to creating the right environment. So for example, when I'm in the UK, I actually do find it easier to control what I eat because I can see the labeling. I can see if something is very healthy or something is not healthy. In the UK it's very simple. You have like a traffic light system.

Oh yeah, it's the green which is very very healthy(yeah) and then you have the amber or yellow (Yeah) which is borderline, and a red which is very unhealthy.

Yeah. So the idea is that you can eat anything that is mostly green as much as you want; something that is mostly amber, then you have to sort of watch out for; anything that is purely red, then you've got to control, you have got to control,

Yeah, you got a limit amount.

Yeah.

And when people talk about these kind of things, I think one very important thing is to become informed. So education is often more important than taxes and these constraints.

Because for example, especially the older generation in China, there's a lot of misunderstanding. For example, I always remember my mom thinking fruits are healthy, right?

Yeah.

So you can eat fruits, and she gained a lot of weight after she got a juicer. Because she thought fruits are healthy. So she bought lots of oranges and she was drinking two glasses of pure orange juice a day for a period of time, and she gained weight, and she's like I'm not eating more. What is wrong with me.

And then I talked to her and I was like, mom, do you know you needed four oranges to squeeze out that one glass of juice. So literally you're consuming the sugar from eight oranges a day.Yeah. 不胖你胖誰 ?

Not just because they sound healthy like fresh fruits so that they don't have sugar or they can make you fat or unhealthy.

Exactly. So it's about kind of understanding.

Exactly. I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about nutrition, about what makes you fat, what makes you put on weight and what makes you lose weight. And this is what I think the healthy China initiative is probably going to aim, to achieve, to promote that kind of information, to raise awareness of healthy eating and healthy living.

Yeah. But I’m still gonna have a pizza tonight so.

You're underweight, remember? you're saying that you're getting dangerously close to underweight, so don't show off.

All right, and on that note we're going to wrap up this episode, share with us in the comment what do you think about the obesity epidemic or obesity issue? What are your ways to diet and exercise really.

Let us know in the comment section.

We'll see you next time.

Bye bye.