> Prof Susan Jebb, chairwoman of the Food Standards Agency, also lamented that the advertising of junk food is “undermining people’s free will”.
> She said while it is a choice to eat sweet treats, people can help each other by providing a “supportive environment”. She told the Times: “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.
Chairwoman has poor impulse control. More at 11.
It should go without saying that bringing cake into your office is not like a smoky pub.
In a smoky pub you had no choice but to inhale the smoke of others or leave. In an office with cake in it, you only consume what you personally decide to consume. I could bring a dozen cakes into an office but if you consume none, *nothing happens to you.*
Supportive environments are a fine thing and it’d be rude for me to shove cake in your face and demand you take a big bite. But I’m not undermining your environment simply by putting a cake in your general vicinity. Stop expecting the world to wrap you in cotton wool.
The public sector gets more and more like an unofficial politburo every day
Once again they find another minor joy they can snuff out to make office life just that little bit more miserable. Don’t want to eat cake? DON’T EAT CAKE.
Yeah, no.
agreed. Forced social interaction in an office fucking sucks. Just going to an office sucks fullstop, its been nearly 2 years now im kinda shocked people still put up with it.
These new puritans are a dreadful bore. Let’s suck even more joy out of our dystopian lives.
I once worked somewhere where there was an almost dislike supply of cakes/doughnuts/biscuits that someone had brought in for something or other.
Also a high obesity rate. It was especially tempting to take advantage of the perma-pile of cake when I was tired and low on will power
Someone brought in fruit once instead with I think is a much better idea
Watchdog Chief dramatically underestimating how significant the communal cake supply is to reducing the possibility of a mental health crisis in many offices
Should we start bringing in salad bowls instead of cake then? What a joke.
I’m fine with people bringing any food they want into the office, as long as it’s from a shop and sealed packaging.
What I don’t want to eat is someone’s muffins where they’ve baked them at home with questionable levels of hygiene.
I’ve seen far too many people not wash their hands after using the toilets. I do not trust them to follow proper hygiene procedures for cooking.
I hereby rename her Susan whiteadder – because this truly belongs in a comedy sketch about puritans hating fun.
Just say no!
In the 1990s a young user of cake is known to have cried all the water from his body, and another vomited out her own pelvis bone.
So I can’t get potable fizzy juice anymore all because some fat bastards have no self control, now I can’t eat cake for the same reason, how about you go for a fucking jog Susan.
Why don’t we all just give up, would that make them happy?
Do these people think before they speak?
If you want people to take your message seriously, describing taking cake into an office as akin to passive smoking is not the way to do it.
What’s the point of going in the office then? It’s all about the cake!
I get the folks who obviously point out that it’s a choice to just not eat the cake. And I agree on one way and I don’t eat cake.
But honestly how’s that working out on the national level for us all? What is the percentage of the nhs time and money spent dealing with obesity.
Yeah sure people should have self control….have you seen much evidence of that happening recently?
When I don’t want cake, I don’t eat it. Not difficult.
I don’t get that choice with second hand smoke
Provision of choice is undermining free will. Right.
How long before she starts a campaign to stop the Great British Bake Off from being broadcast as it’s promoting an unhealthy lifestyle? 😬
Anybody? No? Dust?
For some reason I am imagining the person who came out with this statement looks like the leader of “Fat Fighters” 🤣
This story is also currently on the front page of the BBC news website, and she is a professor at Oxford University. WTF is going on? I appreciate the laugh this morning though.
I thought maybe this was something about food poisoning risks if it was something home made brought in but saying people shouldn’t bring junk food into the office is stupid.
Seems a bit of a dead cat story. Inflation is bad but oh boy someone who no one has heard of says no cake
Breaking! No fun or socialising allowed in any office, all office staff will be chained to their desks and cannot leave even for toilet breaks
What’s that? A little bit of joy in the office? We can’t have that!
It’s not undermining free will at all. Its providing temptation but ultimately it is a choice to stick cake in your mouth.
Sometimes we bring fruit into the office as an alternative.
I’m not forcing any cake down anyone.
One of the stupidest stories you’ll ever see. The smoking comparison adds to it and just takes the cake.
From the BBC article:
“As to the government’s official position, the prime minister’s official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believes “personal choice should be baked into our approach”.”
I mean you gotta give credit where credit is due…
Meanwhile the UK government have coke and sex parties, likely funded by the public purse, as they gut the economy and take what they can for themselves.
But you can’t take food in to the office! It might not be good for others. Ignore the rest of what we just accept that’s multitudes worse, because those are your betters! /s
I mean I find bringing cake into the office stupid because I have to hear chubby people (often women who do weight watchers yet never lose weight) bitch about how it’s spoiling their diet.
If you sit on your arse all day, you don’t need cake. But you probably already knew that
I wouldn’t say you shouldn’t be allowed to bring it in though. Just don’t bother me with it
It’s really stupid to conflate taking a cake into work with passive smoking. No one had a choice not to breath at work. They obviously have a choice not to eat cake.
If you lack the impulse control not to eat then you need to find a way of dealing with that because the world is full of rooms that have food in them. We can’t remove them all. We can with smoking but if you don’t eat then you die so food is pretty much going to be a thing forever.
*She told the Times: “We all like to think we’re rational, intelligent, educated people who make informed choices the whole time -* well no Susan, clearly you’re not – nevertheless you’re not fat and I’d guess that has nothing to do with people not taking cakes into work.
I would like to take cake into work sometimes to be nice, but I haven’t because all but one of my coworkers are morbidly obese. I can’t think of anything else to take in, if I take something healthy they might be offended. I have eaten their cake, and I feel awkward that I haven’t returned the favour. It would be better for everyone if it just wasn’t the done thing.
I mean she is right she just doesn’t go far enough but it is a start. Has it really escaped everyones attention that the western diet is fucked by sugar and its pushed on us at every possible venue? The voluntary cake is really the least of it when it comes to impulse control it is every concession counter and the hidden sugars in almost everything.
And you should know how it really isn’t like that in many other parts of the world. If it was just about willpower and people want to be thin how come the western world keeps getting fatter and fatter and its killing our health systems.
The vending machines were removed from my office as the company did want to be seen to provide unhealthy snacks.
No biccies at meetings either.
37 comments
> Prof Susan Jebb, chairwoman of the Food Standards Agency, also lamented that the advertising of junk food is “undermining people’s free will”.
> She said while it is a choice to eat sweet treats, people can help each other by providing a “supportive environment”. She told the Times: “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.
Chairwoman has poor impulse control. More at 11.
It should go without saying that bringing cake into your office is not like a smoky pub.
In a smoky pub you had no choice but to inhale the smoke of others or leave. In an office with cake in it, you only consume what you personally decide to consume. I could bring a dozen cakes into an office but if you consume none, *nothing happens to you.*
Supportive environments are a fine thing and it’d be rude for me to shove cake in your face and demand you take a big bite. But I’m not undermining your environment simply by putting a cake in your general vicinity. Stop expecting the world to wrap you in cotton wool.
The public sector gets more and more like an unofficial politburo every day
Once again they find another minor joy they can snuff out to make office life just that little bit more miserable. Don’t want to eat cake? DON’T EAT CAKE.
Yeah, no.
agreed. Forced social interaction in an office fucking sucks. Just going to an office sucks fullstop, its been nearly 2 years now im kinda shocked people still put up with it.
These new puritans are a dreadful bore. Let’s suck even more joy out of our dystopian lives.
I once worked somewhere where there was an almost dislike supply of cakes/doughnuts/biscuits that someone had brought in for something or other.
Also a high obesity rate. It was especially tempting to take advantage of the perma-pile of cake when I was tired and low on will power
Someone brought in fruit once instead with I think is a much better idea
Watchdog Chief dramatically underestimating how significant the communal cake supply is to reducing the possibility of a mental health crisis in many offices
Should we start bringing in salad bowls instead of cake then? What a joke.
I’m fine with people bringing any food they want into the office, as long as it’s from a shop and sealed packaging.
What I don’t want to eat is someone’s muffins where they’ve baked them at home with questionable levels of hygiene.
I’ve seen far too many people not wash their hands after using the toilets. I do not trust them to follow proper hygiene procedures for cooking.
I hereby rename her Susan whiteadder – because this truly belongs in a comedy sketch about puritans hating fun.
Just say no!
In the 1990s a young user of cake is known to have cried all the water from his body, and another vomited out her own pelvis bone.
So I can’t get potable fizzy juice anymore all because some fat bastards have no self control, now I can’t eat cake for the same reason, how about you go for a fucking jog Susan.
Why don’t we all just give up, would that make them happy?
Do these people think before they speak?
If you want people to take your message seriously, describing taking cake into an office as akin to passive smoking is not the way to do it.
What’s the point of going in the office then? It’s all about the cake!
I get the folks who obviously point out that it’s a choice to just not eat the cake. And I agree on one way and I don’t eat cake.
But honestly how’s that working out on the national level for us all? What is the percentage of the nhs time and money spent dealing with obesity.
Yeah sure people should have self control….have you seen much evidence of that happening recently?
When I don’t want cake, I don’t eat it. Not difficult.
I don’t get that choice with second hand smoke
Provision of choice is undermining free will. Right.
This stuff?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbq3kc29Tmg
How long before she starts a campaign to stop the Great British Bake Off from being broadcast as it’s promoting an unhealthy lifestyle? 😬
Anybody? No? Dust?
For some reason I am imagining the person who came out with this statement looks like the leader of “Fat Fighters” 🤣
This story is also currently on the front page of the BBC news website, and she is a professor at Oxford University. WTF is going on? I appreciate the laugh this morning though.
I thought maybe this was something about food poisoning risks if it was something home made brought in but saying people shouldn’t bring junk food into the office is stupid.
Seems a bit of a dead cat story. Inflation is bad but oh boy someone who no one has heard of says no cake
Breaking! No fun or socialising allowed in any office, all office staff will be chained to their desks and cannot leave even for toilet breaks
What’s that? A little bit of joy in the office? We can’t have that!
It’s not undermining free will at all. Its providing temptation but ultimately it is a choice to stick cake in your mouth.
Sometimes we bring fruit into the office as an alternative.
I’m not forcing any cake down anyone.
One of the stupidest stories you’ll ever see. The smoking comparison adds to it and just takes the cake.
From the BBC article:
“As to the government’s official position, the prime minister’s official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believes “personal choice should be baked into our approach”.”
I mean you gotta give credit where credit is due…
Meanwhile the UK government have coke and sex parties, likely funded by the public purse, as they gut the economy and take what they can for themselves.
But you can’t take food in to the office! It might not be good for others. Ignore the rest of what we just accept that’s multitudes worse, because those are your betters! /s
I mean I find bringing cake into the office stupid because I have to hear chubby people (often women who do weight watchers yet never lose weight) bitch about how it’s spoiling their diet.
If you sit on your arse all day, you don’t need cake. But you probably already knew that
I wouldn’t say you shouldn’t be allowed to bring it in though. Just don’t bother me with it
It’s really stupid to conflate taking a cake into work with passive smoking. No one had a choice not to breath at work. They obviously have a choice not to eat cake.
If you lack the impulse control not to eat then you need to find a way of dealing with that because the world is full of rooms that have food in them. We can’t remove them all. We can with smoking but if you don’t eat then you die so food is pretty much going to be a thing forever.
*She told the Times: “We all like to think we’re rational, intelligent, educated people who make informed choices the whole time -* well no Susan, clearly you’re not – nevertheless you’re not fat and I’d guess that has nothing to do with people not taking cakes into work.
I would like to take cake into work sometimes to be nice, but I haven’t because all but one of my coworkers are morbidly obese. I can’t think of anything else to take in, if I take something healthy they might be offended. I have eaten their cake, and I feel awkward that I haven’t returned the favour. It would be better for everyone if it just wasn’t the done thing.
I mean she is right she just doesn’t go far enough but it is a start. Has it really escaped everyones attention that the western diet is fucked by sugar and its pushed on us at every possible venue? The voluntary cake is really the least of it when it comes to impulse control it is every concession counter and the hidden sugars in almost everything.
And you should know how it really isn’t like that in many other parts of the world. If it was just about willpower and people want to be thin how come the western world keeps getting fatter and fatter and its killing our health systems.
The vending machines were removed from my office as the company did want to be seen to provide unhealthy snacks.
No biccies at meetings either.