Planet Rugby Forum

Millennials are set to be the fattest generation of Britons, with 70% dangerously overweight before they hit middle age, research shows.

People born between the early 1980s and mid-1990s are set to overtake baby boomers as the age group with the highest proportion of overweight or obese people, according to Cancer Research UK.

While half the postwar generation were too heavy by the time they reached 35 to 44, more than seven in 10 millennials will be by 2026-28. That would make them the most overweight age group in British history, Cancer Research said.

Prof Linda Bauld, a cancer prevention expert at the charity, said the projection showed many millennials, despite their reputation for “following seemingly healthy food trends”, needed to improve their eating habits, cut down on junk food and eat more fruit, vegetables and fibre.

The trend among millennials is worrying because carrying excess weight as an adult is linked to 13 types of cancer, including breast, bowel and kidney cancer, Cancer Research said.


“These figures paint a worrying picture for the future. We cannot overlook concrete evidence that being overweight increases the risk of developing breast cancer,” said Rachel Rawson, a senior clinical nurse specialist at Breast Cancer Care.


“It’s within our grasp to make simple lifestyle changes like bumping up exercise and eating a healthy balanced diet. However, other risk factors – such as being a woman and getting older – remain out of women’s control,” she added.


The World Cancer Research Fund said the number of adults and children worldwide at increased risk of the disease because they are obese had risen sharply since 1975.


Kate Allen, the fund’s science and public affairs director, said: “The increase in numbers over the past 40 years is truly astronomical, over 1,000% in some cases – and these numbers just cover obesity. An additional 213 million children and adolescents and 1.3 billion adults are in the overweight range, even if they are below the threshold for obesity. So, a disturbingly sizeable proportion of the population of our planet is overweight or obese.


“Given the global burden of cancers linked to weight, plus declining smoking rates, at least in the developed world, [being] overweight and obesity could overtake smoking as the main preventable risk for cancer within our lifetimes. That’s why it’s so important to step up global efforts now.”

Polling evidence that just 15% of Britons know that obesity increases the risk of cancer has prompted Cancer Research to launch a campaign on Monday highlighting the link. Advertisements will use a hangman-style game to ask: “Guess what is the biggest preventable cause of cancer after smoking.”


It will also use online ads that have the same question displayed on the side of what looks like a packet of cigarettes, which then opens to reveal that the carton is full of chips. A pilot of the campaign in the West Midlands in 2016 raised awareness by 22%, Cancer Research claims.


Prof Russell Viner, the officer for health promotion at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “This campaign is hugely welcome, long overdue and is necessarily hard-hitting as we know that despite the well-publicised obesity problem, there remains limited appetite to take bold steps to combat it. There is a danger that being overweight is becoming normalised, as we know that many people struggle to recognise obesity in themselves, and often are unable to see when their child is overweight.”


He added: “Knowledge of the links between cancer and smoking have driven smoking rates down dramatically amongst our young people. We need the same recognition of the dangers of obesity.”

Public Health England is working with many major food manufacturers to try and get them to reformulate their products to make them healthier, for example by reducing sugar content.

Prof Louis Levy, its head of nutrition science, said: “We know overweight and obese children are likely to be the same when they become adults. The majority of UK adults are already overweight or obese and, in addition to some cancers, it is a cause of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.”

J Man wrote:There is a partitioning off happening here.

The upper stratum is eating chicken and broccoli, going to the gym and posting pictures of their abs on Instagram. The riff-raff are eating KFC, drinking K cider and watching 'The kardashians'.

There is a new apartheid based on not being a useless knacker. Inequality is a natural, human trait - and it's getting worse.

J Man wrote:There is a new apartheid

eldanielfire wrote:

J Man wrote:There is a partitioning off happening here.

The upper stratum is eating chicken and broccoli, going to the gym and posting pictures of their abs on Instagram. The riff-raff are eating KFC, drinking K cider and watching 'The kardashians'.

There is a new apartheid based on not being a useless knacker. Inequality is a natural, human trait - and it's getting worse.

That's exactly how I observe it too.

Zakar wrote:

eldanielfire wrote:

J Man wrote:There is a partitioning off happening here.

The upper stratum is eating chicken and broccoli, going to the gym and posting pictures of their abs on Instagram. The riff-raff are eating KFC, drinking K cider and watching 'The kardashians'.

There is a new apartheid based on not being a useless knacker. Inequality is a natural, human trait - and it's getting worse.

That's exactly how I observe it too.

Yep.

It's also why amature rugby is so much more physical (where the laws allow that is) than it has ever been. Every fit bloke has 5-10kgs more muscle than they would have in the 80s.

It's also possibly skewing BMI figures.

Sandstorm wrote:

Zakar wrote:

eldanielfire wrote:

J Man wrote:There is a partitioning off happening here.

The upper stratum is eating chicken and broccoli, going to the gym and posting pictures of their abs on Instagram. The riff-raff are eating KFC, drinking K cider and watching 'The kardashians'.

There is a new apartheid based on not being a useless knacker. Inequality is a natural, human trait - and it's getting worse.

That's exactly how I observe it too.

Yep.

It's also why amature rugby is so much more physical (where the laws allow that is) than it has ever been. Every fit bloke has 5-10kgs more muscle than they would have in the 80s.

It's also possibly skewing BMI figures.

Rugby players make up 0.02% of the population.

Zakar wrote:

Sandstorm wrote:

Zakar wrote:

eldanielfire wrote:

J Man wrote:There is a partitioning off happening here.

The upper stratum is eating chicken and broccoli, going to the gym and posting pictures of their abs on Instagram. The riff-raff are eating KFC, drinking K cider and watching 'The kardashians'.

There is a new apartheid based on not being a useless knacker. Inequality is a natural, human trait - and it's getting worse.

That's exactly how I observe it too.

Yep.

It's also why amature rugby is so much more physical (where the laws allow that is) than it has ever been. Every fit bloke has 5-10kgs more muscle than they would have in the 80s.

It's also possibly skewing BMI figures.

Rugby players make up 0.02% of the population.

So?

We're talking about the increasing disparity between the fit and fat. Quite a lot of the fit will be classed as fat when reviewing people on a population wide basis, particularly amongst Millenials who are between 35 and 20

Zakar wrote:

eldanielfire wrote:

J Man wrote:There is a partitioning off happening here.

The upper stratum is eating chicken and broccoli, going to the gym and posting pictures of their abs on Instagram. The riff-raff are eating KFC, drinking K cider and watching 'The kardashians'.

There is a new apartheid based on not being a useless knacker. Inequality is a natural, human trait - and it's getting worse.

That's exactly how I observe it too.

Yep.

It's also why amature rugby is so much more physical (where the laws allow that is) than it has ever been. Every fit bloke has 5-10kgs more muscle than they would have in the 80s.

It's also possibly skewing BMI figures.

Lorthern Nights wrote:

Zakar wrote:

eldanielfire wrote:

J Man wrote:There is a partitioning off happening here.

The upper stratum is eating chicken and broccoli, going to the gym and posting pictures of their abs on Instagram. The riff-raff are eating KFC, drinking K cider and watching 'The kardashians'.

There is a new apartheid based on not being a useless knacker. Inequality is a natural, human trait - and it's getting worse.

That's exactly how I observe it too.

Yep.

It's also why amature rugby is so much more physical (where the laws allow that is) than it has ever been. Every fit bloke has 5-10kgs more muscle than they would have in the 80s.

It's also possibly skewing BMI figures.

Bollocks, teams of the 80's would shit all over the modern amateur teams.

Lorthern Nights wrote:

Zakar wrote:

eldanielfire wrote:

J Man wrote:There is a partitioning off happening here.

The upper stratum is eating chicken and broccoli, going to the gym and posting pictures of their abs on Instagram. The riff-raff are eating KFC, drinking K cider and watching 'The kardashians'.

There is a new apartheid based on not being a useless knacker. Inequality is a natural, human trait - and it's getting worse.

That's exactly how I observe it too.

Yep.

It's also why amature rugby is so much more physical (where the laws allow that is) than it has ever been. Every fit bloke has 5-10kgs more muscle than they would have in the 80s.

It's also possibly skewing BMI figures.

Bollocks, teams of the 80's would shit all over the modern amateur teams.

danny_fitz wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... arch-shows

People born between the early 1980s and mid-1990s

Demilich wrote:

danny_fitz wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... arch-shows

People born between the early 1980s and mid-1990s

Wait... I'm a millennial? I thought those plum were the ones born in the 90s-early 2000's and we were generation Y or something?

SaintK wrote:

Lorthern Nights wrote:

Zakar wrote:

eldanielfire wrote:

J Man wrote:There is a partitioning off happening here.

The upper stratum is eating chicken and broccoli, going to the gym and posting pictures of their abs on Instagram. The riff-raff are eating KFC, drinking K cider and watching 'The kardashians'.

There is a new apartheid based on not being a useless knacker. Inequality is a natural, human trait - and it's getting worse.

That's exactly how I observe it too.

Yep.

It's also why amature rugby is so much more physical (where the laws allow that is) than it has ever been. Every fit bloke has 5-10kgs more muscle than they would have in the 80s.

It's also possibly skewing BMI figures.

Bollocks, teams of the 80's would shit all over the modern amateur teams.

Was having a discussion about this at my club yesterday. The general concencus from us oldies was that our first XV's from the pre-league era would indeed have been better than any of our most recent first XV's. In fact most of the 2nd XV's of that era would have been as well!!!

SaintK wrote: Was having a discussion about this at my club yesterday. The general concencus from us oldies was that our first XV's from the pre-league era would indeed have been better than any of our most recent first XV's. In fact most of the 2nd XV's of that era would have been as well!!!

SaintK wrote:

Lorthern Nights wrote:
Bollocks, teams of the 80's would shit all over the modern amateur teams.

Was having a discussion about this at my club yesterday. The general concencus from us oldies was that our first XV's from the pre-league era would indeed have been better than any of our most recent first XV's. In fact most of the 2nd XV's of that era would have been as well!!!

Nieghorn wrote:

SaintK wrote:

Lorthern Nights wrote:
Bollocks, teams of the 80's would shit all over the modern amateur teams.

Was having a discussion about this at my club yesterday. The general concencus from us oldies was that our first XV's from the pre-league era would indeed have been better than any of our most recent first XV's. In fact most of the 2nd XV's of that era would have been as well!!!

If you want players to smash into each other to "get over the gainline" and "win collisions", I'm a bit torn now that I think of it ... there are bigger guys now, for sure, but thinking of the old buggers I played with when I first started and watching games from the 80s and 90s, there are some proper nutters wearing single digit numbers flying into contact - when it happened.

Skill wise, and again by experience, I have to go with ye olden times. Modern players would outlast and out power them, and they did play against horrible defences, but, in general, the accuracy and timing of the pass you see in that era - with that slippery leather ball - is so beautiful most of the time.

I last played a season in 2005, for a 4ths team in Bristol. We had two fellas occasionally turn out who were in their mid 40s who, I'm told, played for Bristol back in that era. Their eye for space and the quality of their passing was just sublime, even at that age.

danny_fitz wrote:Ah, the older I get the better I was school of thought

Lorthern Nights wrote:

Zakar wrote:

eldanielfire wrote:

J Man wrote:There is a partitioning off happening here.

The upper stratum is eating chicken and broccoli, going to the gym and posting pictures of their abs on Instagram. The riff-raff are eating KFC, drinking K cider and watching 'The kardashians'.

There is a new apartheid based on not being a useless knacker. Inequality is a natural, human trait - and it's getting worse.

That's exactly how I observe it too.

Yep.

It's also why amature rugby is so much more physical (where the laws allow that is) than it has ever been. Every fit bloke has 5-10kgs more muscle than they would have in the 80s.

It's also possibly skewing BMI figures.

Bollocks, teams of the 80's would shit all over the modern amateur teams.

Nieghorn wrote:Clifton ... seemingly were lots of old boys from the various public schools, though.

Speaking of Old Colstonians, I still feel bad about throwing their kicker off for what would have been a match winning penalty. I didn't want to play that day as I had a bad cold, but came to watch the lads and they goaded me into it because they had just one prop. I'm stood 10m away from the kicking tee, back turned and dead still. It's a 25m sitter, so we're going to lose this one, but I feel a tremendous cough coming on. Not wanting to be a dick, as I'm a kicker too (have 2 career points for Clifton RFC when someone finally made our skipper let me have a shot), I'm trying to not cough but he's taking an age. Just as he finally makes his move, I erupt with a muffled but still audible phlegmy double one and he pushes his kick wide. We win.

Gwenno wrote:A woman on the radio was pointing out that after smoking, obesity is the leading risk factor for cancer. It makes the health promtion message in terms of priorities much easier - don't smoke, stay thin, and my favourite - keep exercising.

danny_fitz wrote:

Nieghorn wrote:Clifton ... seemingly were lots of old boys from the various public schools, though.

Speaking of Old Colstonians, I still feel bad about throwing their kicker off for what would have been a match winning penalty. I didn't want to play that day as I had a bad cold, but came to watch the lads and they goaded me into it because they had just one prop. I'm stood 10m away from the kicking tee, back turned and dead still. It's a 25m sitter, so we're going to lose this one, but I feel a tremendous cough coming on. Not wanting to be a dick, as I'm a kicker too (have 2 career points for Clifton RFC when someone finally made our skipper let me have a shot), I'm trying to not cough but he's taking an age. Just as he finally makes his move, I erupt with a muffled but still audible phlegmy double one and he pushes his kick wide. We win.

Lots of UWE / Bristol students ended up playing for Colstonians when for some unfathomable reason they did not want to neck a pint of piss through the captain skiddy underpants in order to play for their respective uni sides.

Nieghorn wrote:

danny_fitz wrote:

Nieghorn wrote:Clifton ... seemingly were lots of old boys from the various public schools, though.

Speaking of Old Colstonians, I still feel bad about throwing their kicker off for what would have been a match winning penalty. I didn't want to play that day as I had a bad cold, but came to watch the lads and they goaded me into it because they had just one prop. I'm stood 10m away from the kicking tee, back turned and dead still. It's a 25m sitter, so we're going to lose this one, but I feel a tremendous cough coming on. Not wanting to be a dick, as I'm a kicker too (have 2 career points for Clifton RFC when someone finally made our skipper let me have a shot), I'm trying to not cough but he's taking an age. Just as he finally makes his move, I erupt with a muffled but still audible phlegmy double one and he pushes his kick wide. We win.

Lots of UWE / Bristol students ended up playing for Colstonians when for some unfathomable reason they did not want to neck a pint of piss through the captain skiddy underpants in order to play for their respective uni sides.

That Varsity match is still the most surreal sporting experience I've ever attended. Not just drunken students chanting and the like, but a streaker (it was a Feb evening, just above zero), lads in their underwear mocking cheerleaders (which included young girls), and a man in a gorilla suit chasing them away ... and I was stood well away from the thick of it with my club's execs.

I had to laugh recently seeing a BUCS coach try and recruit on a mostly-Yank coaching forum I belong to. I don't know what it's like now, and certainly not his side so didn't throw any cautions, but couldn't help but think of Boredies' stories about what uni rugby is like. (That said, Yank uni rugby seems to be mostly about pissups, so maybe they'd be right at home?)

Nieghorn wrote:

That needs to be a film, like a Yank football movie!

backrow wrote:

Nieghorn wrote:

That needs to be a film, like a Yank football movie!

what would the film title be ? "Shitting in a Pint glass for the lolz" ?

Brazil wrote:

backrow wrote:

Nieghorn wrote:

That needs to be a film, like a Yank football movie!

what would the film title be ? "Shitting in a Pint glass for the lolz" ?

The Longest Yard of Piss Through the Captain's Jockstrap

Brazil wrote:

backrow wrote:

Nieghorn wrote:

That needs to be a film, like a Yank football movie!

what would the film title be ? "Shitting in a Pint glass for the lolz" ?

The Longest Yard of Piss Through the Captain's Jockstrap

Brazil wrote:

backrow wrote:

Nieghorn wrote:

That needs to be a film, like a Yank football movie!

what would the film title be ? "Shitting in a Pint glass for the lolz" ?

The Longest Yard of Piss Through the Captain's Jockstrap

backrow wrote:

Brazil wrote:

backrow wrote:

Nieghorn wrote:

That needs to be a film, like a Yank football movie!

what would the film title be ? "Shitting in a Pint glass for the lolz" ?

The Longest Yard of Piss Through the Captain's Jockstrap

I Pissed in a Shindlers Lift

happyhooker wrote:

backrow wrote:

Brazil wrote:

backrow wrote:

Nieghorn wrote:

That needs to be a film, like a Yank football movie!

what would the film title be ? "Shitting in a Pint glass for the lolz" ?

The Longest Yard of Piss Through the Captain's Jockstrap

I Pissed in a Shindlers Lift

Globus in 3,2,1.....

danny_fitz wrote:

happyhooker wrote: Globus in 3,2,1.....

Too late, we have already been subjected to some unlikely rambling not terribly relevant self aggrandising anecdote.