Labour should invest in weight loss medications immediately

There is no rocket science behind weight loss. Education and common sense and sensible eating along with exercise will work every time. Meds might work while they're being taken, and then what?
Anyway think what state we'd be in if instead of dying of obesity related conditions in our 60s we all started living to be 110 - that would be far more costly!

Mini work out as 13p per banana, but no, not 10p.

Please tell me where you're getting bananas for 10p Aldi they're at least 17p each.....

Yes its not new, that research and study was done years and years ago.

It needn't be plant based if you buy something cheaper like beef mince or chicken thigh fillets and bulk out with veggies and legumes, then serve with rice or potato. I did cut down the meat too low at one point, and we were hungry. I think to do plant based, you need to use a lot of legumes to veg.

No, although they do have some valid points. Dr David Unwin and the Public Health Collaboration are a great starting point with this way of eating

By research do you mean listening to Chris van Tulleken and Andrew Jenkinson?

I am not suggesting a diet high in processed carbs and sugar is going to be the healthiest. I refer you to my previous comments on my opinions on low carb as they cover pretty much everything I think.

This is the problem when people say that fruit and veg is 'cheaper'.

Yes it is, but not per calorie because you need far far more to provide the nutrients you need and to fill you up

Of course most people (given the majority are either overweight or obese) eat too many calories but you cant exist on some lentils and carrots

In order to get your protein and calorie and fat requirements from a largely plant based diet you have to eat a fairly high volume and have quite a lot of things to buy.

It certainly is for lots of people. Diabetes in remission, lower blood pressure, reversal of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, I could go on. For many people, it reverses and puts into remission a great number of metabolic diseases that have been caused by eating a diet which is high is carbohydrates, sugar, UPFs and inflammatory seed oils. I’ve spent a great deal of time researching this, please do yours - for some, reducing or virtually eliminating carbohydrates and sugar, is absolutely the best option. And many of these
people are the ones the NHS is struggling to treat and the OP suggests should have weight loss drugs prescribed to them. Changing your diet is more cost effective than the impact it has on the NHS and public finances

It certainly is for lots of people. Diabetes in remission, lower blood pressure, reversal of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, I could go on. For many people, it reverses and puts into remission a great number of metabolic diseases that have been caused by eating a diet which is high is carbohydrates, sugar, UPFs and inflammatory seed oils. I’ve spent a great deal of time researching this, please do yours - for some, reducing or virtually eliminating carbohydrates and sugar, is absolutely the best option. And many of these
people are the ones the NHS is struggling to treat and the OP suggests should have weight loss drugs prescribed to them. Changing your diet is more cost effective than the impact it has on the NHS and public finances

Way to stereotype there. PIP is a benefit for people both in work and out of work. And it’s awarded based on how your illness or disability affects you day to day. If you think it’s easy to get then you couldn’t be more wrong. And I’d recommend you search for the horror stories from people whose lives have been negatively affected by the process. Some people have even been driven to suicide.

A lot of people don't go gym, walk or eat good. I know food is full of rubbish but you can limit bread, pasta ect. Have no idea why people with diabetes get disabled badges or PIP how does that stop you from working?
Labour needs to rearrange the whole system NHS, benefits, tax everything but I have doubt they will

If you put a 20% tax on upf you could use the money to subsidise fresh food.

Tax the upf. Still plenty of cheap healthy food available, though subsidising could help as there is lots of healthy food that isn't cheap too. We've lived on a low budget and buying the same cheap fruit and veg over and over does get a bit boring. We cut protein too low at one point, too, and we were hungry. It would be good if protein sources were subsidised and fruit and veg so people could buy a punnet of strawberries, not just bananas.

Where will the government get all the billions to trillions to fund all of these things? If you put taxes on the "cheap food", how will the low income people eat? Subsidize good food? Nice idea but another many billion a year.

Truly interested on where people think the money will come from to pay for magic shots, good food, infrastructure for better exercise, more mental health care.....the list is endless it seems.

It isn't a myth at all. There's a difference between actual hunger and head hunger, and without the therapy that accompanies weight loss surgery on the NHS, those using injectable drugs will continue to fight the same battle and eat the same shite as before, just in lower quantities. As soon as the drugs stop, so do the effects so the hunger returns, the portion sizes increase and the snacking resumes.

My friend is constantly bouncing between 3 of these drugs. I was out with her yesterday and she drank a fair amount of wine, ate a family bag of crisps and then the food at bottomless brunch.

It isn't a magic solution and the NHS are absolutely correct to treat it with caution as the long term impacts of these drugs are as yet not proven, but studies show most regain lost weight when they stop using the drugs.

Fruit and veg is not expensive at all. Bananas are 10p each. Carrots even less.

The issue is that fruit and veg isn't filling.

The food industry is the problem. Manufacturers packing processed foods with sugar, salt and fats. Dangerous to many.
Hard to find low fat and low sugar food at affordable prices. Ketchup which is low sugar and salt is way more expensive than the usual 20% sugar kind. Particularly dearer than supermarket own brands. Any foods, such as bread or cake, for those sensitive to gluten or similar are very costly to families. Governments favour business interests over public health.I
Since having to cut saturated fats and sugar above 5% of food from my diet I find it hard to eat out in a restaurant, cafe or pub. My choice is limited to a salad in most places. Might as well eat at home!
Countries like America are decades ahead of us in offering healthier choices.
The GPs are not referring anyone to the weight loss clinic for the injections as demand has been too high. Won't even put them on a waiting list.
One drug causes diahorrea and sickness and another an increased risk of thyroid cancer.
I have lost weight since having to cut my fats and sugar/carbs drastically.
From March 2022 to December I have gone from a size 20 to a 10. Had been expensive buying new sizes every few months! Was a year to be size 14. In fact at Xmas my BMI went too low. I never thought I would be this small having been hefty since a child and trying many diets over the years.

Whilst I absolutely agree food prices have skyrocketed and fruit and veg should be affordable for all.
I don’t agree that you can’t do a weeks worth of meals for £5. Assuming you have a freezer.
I regularly cook at the weekends for 20 people ( in one meal )
My budget is £10. On average I come out at £9 with spices and some ingredients over afterwards.
I usually make curries, Moroccan stews that sort of thing. ie. Large one pot meals.
With a freezer of course these meals could be stored.

Fruit is expensive but growers are struggling to keep the costs down so I think it would be better to put higher taxes on upf and high sugar foods.

This was my experience too.

UPF are a huge issue. Operations and medications should be a last resort, there are always consequences.
We need better food regulation and more independent studies, that are actually real independent studies not funded by anyone with any connections to huge “food” (not food) businesses. Read ultra processed people by Chris van tulleken and food for life by Tim spectre
Listen to the various health podcasts by Steven Bartlett.

No. That is not the answer. Instead they should make healthier food cheaper to buy. It’s far too easy to spend £5 on a weeks worth of ready meals that are full of saturated fats and sugar than it is to spend £5 on the ingredients necessary for a single healthier meal. It’s backwards. Fruit and veg shouldn’t cost as much as they do and reducing those prices would encourage people to buy more. I took weight loss drugs a few years ago. Yes they worked but when I came off them, I put the weight back on. This time I have lost weight in a more sustainable way by changing what I eat.

Obesity is not a problem just for the UK. Rates are increasing all over Europe. Even in countries we think of as being "healthier".

It's true rates are higher in UK (Turkey is highest) for obesity - but the number of overweight people is quite consistent across Europe.

@NorthSouthLondon Interesting. I come from a very poor country in Africa which means most people cook for themselves. You buy the veggies off a woman typically the same day they are harvested and cook them. You get chicken relatively fresh or slaughter your own. Ditto other meats. At most its been frozen for quite a while. Corporations are pushing ultra cheap processed foods but most people still cant afford it. When I lived there I was never overweight. Am fast gaining weight here (a combination of snacking and being perimenopausal). Recently, I started noticing that when I go back, my body feels lighter, better. I don't know how to describe it except that I feel cleaner inside. I hate to use that phrase because I don't want it associated with clean eating. But the thing is I hardly eat processed food and I eat very little sugar. Since I never have sugar in tea or porridge, my sources of sugar here are snacks, restaurant food and supermarket ready meals. there my snacks are fruits, snacks, legumes, the occasional homemade donut (no filling, no dusting with sugar. we just dont). When I first started visiting my in-laws here several years ago, I think they thought me precious but I could taste sugar in many meals (these are people who thoroughly research their foods, buy organic and sustainable everything. So its wasnt "cheap rubbish"). The British palate has been so primed for sweetness that even vegetables here are bred to be sweet (think Beetroot, broccoli, carrot. They are getting sweeter every year. Yes perhaps more people eat them but what is the flip slide of it).

Also study after study shows that in Europe, UK ranks no 1 or 2 in consumption of Ultra Processed Foods. Strangely I used to live in a country where people depend a lot on bread and pre-made/packaged food. Yet that country -it turns out - consumes half the amount of UPFs as the UK. Some studies in fact show that as much as 60% of an average Brit's daily energy (not food which also has interesting implications) intake is from ultra processed food and drink (I guess in part because UPFs tend to be high energy foods as well. So people may eat small portions but are consuming lots of calories). I think most studies though estimate it at about 40 to 50% while many other countries in europe are at 20% or less.

For where UK is on the UPFs ladder in Europe, see below

"The proportion of daily food consumption amount deriving from UPFDs for men ranged from to 6.4% (Italy) and 6.7% (Estonia) to 20.0% (the Netherlands) and 22.9% (Sweden), of which on average around 55% was coming from UPFs. The consumption amount of UPDs was, however, higher than that of UPFs in Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal and Romania (2–4% higher) and similar in Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Romania, and Spain. The share of dietary energy coming from UPFDs for men ranged from 12.9% (Italy) and 14.6% (Romania) to 39.7% (the UK) and 40.6% (Sweden), with on average around 90% of the dietary energy from UPFDs was coming from UPFs.
Similarly, for women, proportion of daily food consumption amount from UPFDs was low for Estonia (5.7%) and Italy (6.1%), and high for the Netherlands (16.6%), the United Kingdom (17.2%), and Sweden (20.9%), while the consumption amount of UPDs was similar to that of UPFs in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, and Spain. The share of dietary energy coming from UPFDs for women was also low in Italy (13.8%) and Romania (15.8%), while high in the UK (41.3%) and Sweden (43.8%)." Source: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-021-02733-7)

@HowToSaveTheNHS Am not saying injections shouldn't be made available but that the problem goes deeper and injections alone are unlikely be adequate. Also to maintain, people might need to stay on these life-long with all the side effects. Its a tough one for sure but it needs a multi-prong approach