You brits are a bunch of fatties too.
In the UK, a quarter of adults are obese – with a body mass index (BMI) over 30.
It compares to just one in 35 in the 70s.
And one million British kids are also dangerously fat, around eight per cent.
Don’t worry though @Jen your government has a solution:
My numbers are US numbers from the CDC.
Your numbers exclude pre diabetic numbers which turn into full blown diabetes every year.
There were days when the perception was if you were thin you were poor.
If you had a tan or sunburn you were a laborer.
The body wants to store fat as a precaution against starvation.
IMO, if the SHTF, the fatties will be around longer than you or I. Ironic, isn’t it?
A few years ago, I was a bit overweight; but nothing I couldn’t live with ( 6 foot & maybe 20 + pounds over at 210 pounds). I picked up West Nile & really couldn’t eat much for almost two weeks. I lost 24 pounds, and never gained it back; but I know it was the extra fat that saved me. The only time I can remember being so sick it frightened me.
Yes of course, but my point was about the difference HFCS makes.
Not quite sure about that. The body and mind are not two separate entities. Healthy body, healthy mind. I can spout on about the science behind it, but look up BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor), when you get it and what it does. Basically, excess insulin inhibits the growth of new neurons. The fatties will freak out and just be a mess if SHTF.
That to me is rather like the research that tells you eggs are bad for you then corrects itself to say they are good for you.
Why does the body want to store fat, Jen?
Not all bodies want to store fat. So what is the difference, why do some people look at a doughnut and put on 5kgs and some gorge themselves and not put on anything?
The body has no means of measuring calories. Also counting calories is assuming that the body absorbs everything, assuming that what comes out the other end has zero calories! Of course that is not the case.
The answer is insulin. Insulin is an anabolic hormone and its function is to store fat. Every time you eat you get an insulin spike, so if you are constantly eating, your insulin is constantly high. Sugar and carbs create the highest spikes, fat very little and protein in between. The body is not so stupid as to store fat and burn fat at the same time, so in the presence of insulin, no fat burning can happen. Over time, the receptors in the cells become less sensitive due to the constant bombardment of insulin, so more insulin is needed and the pancreas produces more. That is insulin resistance. Then quite rapidly, one day the pancreas cannot produce enough or gives up and there is not enough to pack the sugar away as fat so blood sugar levels rise i.e. type 2 diabetes. In an average adult, there is about 5 litres of blood. In that there should be the equivalent of 1 teaspoon of sugar. That is all! If you keep eating sugar, it needs to be taken out of the blood quickly and the body will do all it can to maintain that equilibrium.
It is insulin which makes the body store fat, not genes, not big bones or any other BS. Base levels of insulin of someone with insulin resistance and who is most probably obese would be far higher then the spikes of insulin of a slim person, with low body fat, when they eat. That is why some people have more of a tendency to store fat. Insulin also prohibits the feedback loop of satiety hormones (leptin) as well as promoting a craving for sugar. So when someone says they have a sweet tooth, like they were born that way, what most probably is going on is that they are insulin resistant and that is because they never stop eating.
Have you heard of dementia being called type 3 diabetes? That is because the cause is the same as for type 2. Just because a person is not diagnosed as having a dementia disease, same as they are not (yet) diagnosed as having full blown type 2 diabetes, it does not mean they are not somewhere on the scale, which could take decades to fully manifest. This is another example of the mind /body connection.
I don’t take medication to lower it. It stay away from sweets and high sugar foods. I don’t ingest high fructose corn syrup. I drink black coffee (when I drink coffee at all).
I test only to be aware of what my level is. That doesn’t add or subtract from it.
I was talking generally… 
If you have a concern about pre diabetes or diabetes, one meal a day with no snacking will sort it. You will see marked improvements within a few months. You can go keto as well or at least cut out refined carbs and sugar. We are not designed to graze; we’re not bloody herbivores.