Weight loss injections for children

🙈🙈 That's a terrible idea. Children as Guinea pigs?

And I think there have been studies - can't name them, sorry - about some people's bodies and brains just being far less interested in food gratification, so it's not like they are all strong and moral and able to resist temptation. I'm one of these - I'm just not very interested in food or taste. Eating is frequently a hassle.

Well quite clearly large numbers of people are unable to make the "right choices".

The problem in a nutshell is the very existence of the "choice", coupled with the more sedentary modern lifestyle.

I live very similarly to you - no takeaway deliveries at all. Some nights when I just can't be bothered I find myself wishing that Deliveroo or Just Eat or one of those services came out here - but I have to cook myself something instead. I actually find the Just Eat adverts on TV every five minutes a little bit unsettling - they make it sound as though you have to eat every time you're a wee bit peckish, and a pizza or curry is just a phone call away, instead of 'you're a bit hungry? Have an apple, it's only an hour until lunch' which is what I grew up with.

People are learning to fear hunger as though it was hypothermia. The slightest twinge sends them to the snack cupboard or, as I said, calling Just Eat. I think we need to learn not to be afraid of the discomfort of being a bit peckish.

Living remotely means I have no just eat deliveries (or similar). No ‘local’ takeaways deliver to us at all.

All food has to be planned, and cooked by us. Occasionally we will drive to get a takeaway, but it’s faff and only bother once every couple of months or so.

Having to plan in advance means no spur of the moment high fat/ highly processed shit.

Our diets are not perfect, and could really be improved. But a lot less temptation then living somewhere else.

I’d suggest most people living in locations like ours are similar?

But in another note, we have to drive everywhere - although dog walks help!

But it’s not really about each individual being able to make choices. It’s about what the majority do when they aren’t thinking about it given the options available.

I can be really motivated and eat really healthily and lose some weight but this does take thought and effort. However if I am tired or stressed or feeling like I am already quite slim so no need to make the extra effort then I will do what is easy and tempting. Loads of people are busy, tired and stressed and UPFs are cheaply and easily available so at a societal level we are gaining weight.

In the 1950s everyone bought fresh food, and dry ingredients and there were no ready meals to put in the microwave. There must have been sweets I guess but just not in the quantities that we have now.

We don't all have the same choices. Consider living in Archway, London with Nags Head food market 5 min walk away, Hampstead heath 15 min walk away, multiple gyms and reliable public transport to take you everywhere you need to go (school, work etc.). Now consider moving from there to, say, Avonmouth, Bristol. There are no food markets, the nearest supermarket is 15 min drive away. There is a bus every 30 minutes which is often late or cancelled. There are no green spaces around you so you can't go for a walk unless you have a car. The nearest gym is 20 minutes drive away or you can cycle but only in good weather because the footpath running along the motorway gets flooded in the rain. Do you honestly think the people living in those two locations have the exact same choices?

Its environment and culture predominantly. We know this because as Italian and Spanish and French food culture changes slightly to become more American, more 'snacks on the go'. less routine, longer working hours, more UPFs, they too have increasing overweight and obesity. No where near ours but increasing.

It can be a combination of environment, culture and genetics.

Besides, many Australians and Americans are descended from Brits. Similar genes and culture.

My concern for children is nutrition. They need less calories but more nutrients. Reducing food intake will mean for many a small amount of upf is eaten each day which is insufficient nutrients for growing children.

Looks like Wegovy is already licensed for 12-17 year olds in America and here is an article arguing the case for it.

Interesting, I just quickly researched it and although nothing is approved yet it looks like studies so far have found that some types of weightloss injections could work for them while others like ozempic won't.

You're looking at it too specifically. Everyone has a vice which is where it's societal. It's just not necessarily always food, but if it's not food it's something else.

You need to treat UPFs like cigarettes and return to a society where far fewer journeys are made by car, tbh.

I have a relative who has Prader-Willi Syndrome and one terrible (and in incurable) side effect is hyperphagia - the feeling of never being full / always feeling hungry/ compulsion to eat.

Hyperphagia in PWS is due to the part of the brain that controls the hypothalamus not working correctly due to a missing part of chromosome 15 it's a lot more complicated than that but that's it in layman's terms and weightloss drugs have not yet been used in the UK for kids (or adults) with PWS - despite hyperphagia meaning people with PWS are much more likely to be morbidly obese. In the US this is now being researched but again hasn't been rolled out as a general treatment (and the US are a good decade ahead with treatment and research for PWS)

I cannot see MJ and the like being rolled out to the general child population when it's not being rolled out to children with medical conditions which cause morbid obesity.

Well if you include overweight and obesity and morbid obesity I believe its a majority of the population

If you dont believe its environment, what is it about the UK body that is different to the Spanish or Italian or French body? (as examples off the top of my head)

Why are we similar to the US and Australian body?

There are a group of obese children who have what is known as hypothalamic obesity. This can sometimes be as a result of cancer treatment or injury, or can be a congenital difference. For these children no amount of healthy eating limits their obesity.
We have such a child and were watching these drugs make their way through the testing processes for years. The last time we spoke to our consultant a year or two ago, he said he was beginning to prescribe from age 12, but slowly and carefully and only where strictly necessary.

Poverty is associated with higher rates of obesity. Roughly 30% of children in the UK live in poverty. There is a desperate need to tackle that.

We are not all obese because we have genetic variation. But why are more people obese today than were in the 1970s? We haven’t changed as a species but the food environment has.

You assume that we all have equal capacity to make the rational choice.

We’re not all blank slates.