You’re in charge of the Gov policy on tackling obesity. Give me your five point plan...

[MrsGrindah]

I’m sick of reading lots of vague pledges . What , in your experience , would work? NB I’m not Michael or Boris just interested having struggled with weight all my life. You don’t have to cost it etc..just what do you think would work if it could be done.

Mine would be:

1. Sugar fines or levies not taxes on producers of core foods eg processed food and drink manufacturing. Fines have a completely different association than taxes
2. Weight management education running through a variety of classes eg home Ed, biology, PE etc. at school and also part of any childcare classes
3. School meals to have complete overhaul. No pizza, chips etc. More expensive yes but cheaper than the cost of obesity
4. Zero tolerance on fat shaming in schools.
5. Doctors to have more rights to refuse treatment for weight related health problems ( unless life threatening) until patients agree to a weight loss plan of action that is supported by suitably trained healthcare professionals.

More nice, clean gyms/pools at low cost

Stop the clocks going back

Safe, joined up cycle paths and walking paths that are not creepy alleyways that a lone person wouldn't want to walk down

More frequent rural/suburban bus services so less car use

More gastric band nhs surgery

Another thought how about tackling lack of sleep. What about a national bedtime or a blue screen on late night TV?

And on another thread people are saying why it’s fine for schools and nurseries to give dessert after every meal and that dessert after meals is normal.

As someone who is overweight I think it really is as simple as eat less and move more.( I do neither at the moment)

I have a Fitbit and gym membership and equipment to move at home, I'm just totally unmotivated at the moment.
I'm also a chef so can and do cook healthy food from scratch but I snack a lot, on crap!

I'm not sure what the answer is but I've downloaded the app and will attempt to get motivated and start tomorrow.

@Cherrypi A national bedtime? How would that work?

@Cherrypi

Another thought how about tackling lack of sleep. What about a national bedtime or a blue screen on late night TV?

Talk about nanny state, do you want your bum wiped too?

It's bad enough in a hospital ward getting told its lights out time at 10pm.

Seriously adults are more than capable of turning off their own telly. Not to mention what about the folks who work shifts or folk who can't sleep telly.

I know this is going to sound nuts but maybe once an hour or a couple of times in the evening they should do an "active 10 mins" Encourage people to march on the spot, low impact aerobics, pilates, tie chi, dance, anything that gets folk off the couch.

Posted by @ToffeeYoghurt on a previous thread and i agree with it.

A guide for Boris re tackling obesity.
Ensuring people have proper housing with access to proper cooking facilities and storage.
Enough money (be it through employment, pension, or benefits) to afford healthy fresh food (no food banks).
An overhauled NHS so people are no longer (as they were pre pandemic) left waiting months on end for treatment (suffering prolonged mobility issues as a consequence).
Also good mental health provision including help and support for comfort eating, and looking again at the pros and cons of the different mental health drugs.
In some cases, certainly when its long-term use, it's perhaps preferable to prescribe the out of fashion benzodiazepines rather than the modern anti depressants that often cause weight gain.
Oh and we'd need to stop dismissing patients symptoms, especially women, as mental health or hormones. I've heard several people talk about this sort of experience when they had undiagnosed thyroid conditions (which can lead to weight gain).
Boris- over to you

The national bedtime could be like cbeebies. There could be a sleepy show at say 1030 that makes you yawn and want to go to bed. What's the difference between expecting the state to deal with the consequences of obesity and preventing it?

As someone who is overweight I think it really is as simple as eat less and move more.( I do neither at the moment)

I'm not overweight currently, but I have been. I don't 'struggle' with my weight but I have the potential to do so.

For years, i kept my weight in check with low calorie diets - and use to use mfp to ensure my intake was around 1200 calories a day. I was always hungry, rarely satiated. But at least my weight was managed.

I switched to a lchf woe and now consume between 1500 and 1800 calories a day. I do pretty much zero exercise since lockdown and lost and now maintain my weight easily prior to that.

In addition, i'm never hungry, never crave foods, feel more alert and awake, and my skin is in better condition. I stopped eating bread years ago because I found i was really sluggish and in need of a nap every afternoon. Cutting down on carbs in general has stopped the need for that altogether.

I know it doesn't appeal to, or suit, everyone but reducing carb intake has massively improved my overall health.

I think it's more to do with the quality of the calories we eat more than the quantity. Eliminating sugars from my diet has had the biggest impact of all!

"What's the difference between expecting the state to deal with the consequences of obesity and preventing it?"

Because it costs the state shitloads to have lots of obese people.

@Cherrypi What about the hundreds of thousands of obese people who work evenings or don't have TVs?

Imprison people until they've lost enough weight. I'll be the first one in. They'll have to put me back in jail every year though.

1. Judge schools of the food that children eat, not on the food that gets offered.
2. teach children about health, fitness, and good diets.
3. Encourage people to be active by:

3a. Wide RANGE of sport in schools. The aim being to help children find a sport they love, not just make them run round a field for an hour per week. 3b. Financial help for sport clubs and people taking part in sport.

1. More USEFUL cycle lanes. Ones designed by cyclists.

What an interesting thread, thanks OP! Having read the whole thing (which has taken me 2 days!!), mine would be:

1. 4 day week (with flexible working hours) so that people don’t have to rely on ready meals and takeaways due to lack of time and exhaustion, plus have more time to exercise.

1. Massive tax on processed food and drink. Use the revenue from that to subsidise seasonal fruit and veg, or maybe as financial incentives for farmers to farm in sustainable ways.

1. Focus on school PE lessons being about fitness and fun, including yoga, aerobics, dance as well as football, netball and running. I hadn’t really thought about it before reading this thread but it is so true that bad PE lessons put people off exercise for life. I thought I hated running until I discovered parkrun as an adult.

1. Change language from being fat to having fat, zero tolerance for fat shaming, destigmatise obesity so that it can openly be talked about. When a friend calls themselves fat my immediate reaction is to reassure them that they’re not, even when they clearly do have obesity, and that’s not necessarily helpful.

1. Better mental health services and counselling offered to people struggling with obesity, alongside tailored eating plans.

I put on a lot of weight after baby number 2, and I only managed to shift it because a friend who’s a nutritionist worked with me to do a tailored eating plan. It wasn’t anything radical but I stuck to it because it was stuff that I like to eat and cook anyway and made me more mindful of where and when I was consuming calories I didn’t need.

To be honest it seems like we need a whole culture shift in the way we view food and eating. And a complete overhaul of our economic system which puts profit ahead of well-being. Until that changes I can’t see our obesity crisis going anywhere. There’s too much money to be had by selling as much highly processed crap as possible.

I like your ideas particularly 1, 3, 4 and 5.

Healthy ready meals and take outs are a really good idea .

Along with the idea of cycle and walking paths , another poster commented on outdoor gyms and privacy and I think that's a good idea as the one in our park is between the kids playground and the football pitch and I would feel very self
Conscious using it .

Absolutely agree with a culture change around baking , cupcakes ,
Prosecco and gin

Teach proper practical cooking skills and nutrition in schools. Taking a jar of pasta sauce and some pasta is not learning to cook.

The government mustn't submit to food industry lobbying. Obviously Nestle (for eg) will not want to lose parts of their market, but government shouldn't roll over under their pressure.

Poverty needs to be dealt with. Food deserts are in areas of the greatest poverty. It's no wonder that people in poverty struggle to eat healthily when the accessible choice is a burger shop or a high priced Nisa local.

Health services should offer free nutrition, exercise and diet clubs. Prescribed and if necessary incentivised. Also needs to include some mental health support and counselling.

Less focus on children and young people only seeing achievement as an academic thing. Change attitudes so that things like cooking skills and PE are as valued as maths and English. Rethink the way PE is taught to incorporate health and well-being and fitness activities that don't need equipment or a team.

another poster commented on outdoor gyms and privacy and I think that's a good idea as the one in our park is between the kids playground and the football pitch and I would feel very self Conscious using it

That's probably the reason I've never seen them used nobody wants to be seen using them. But at the same time if they make them secluded they become a target for vandalism and teens messing around at night.

Oh. I've got another one. Please make the water temperature in local authority leisure centres a little warmer so that I can face going
Into the water ! Love swimming and aqua aerobics but I hate cold
Water .

Oh, and stop the characters in TV shows constantly drinking large glasses of red wine . It's subliminal advertising and always sends me into the kitchen to get a glass of wine .

UBI
Lots of accessible MH support

1. Reintroduce mandatory minimums hours of PE for all school aged children until 18. Forbid schools from using this time to ‘catch up’ or ‘Intervene’ in other subjects.
2. Correctly train primary school teachers in PE and give it more than 1 day training out of the year.
3. Introduction of education to parents and ensuring access to quality fresh food is not more expensive than processed crap

4.allow schools space and funding And time to adequately allow all pupils a sit down main meal. Fund 1 main meal for all pupil

1. Introduce a sugar and fast food tax to fund the above

@DippySticky

3. Massive drive to encourage intermittent fasting for adults

Utterly stupid and dangerous advice for anyone suffering with an eating disorder. I treat anorexics and bulimics.

Agree - some posters are getting on their personal soap boxes , another one was suggesting a move towards eating low carb and keto for everyone

I wonder if it would help for all published diets to be independently scrutinised, ie. You can only publish a diet / healthy living plan if it can be proven to work. I'm sure lots of diets are designed to encourage repeat business.

So the diet must be trialled by say 1000 people and a minimum of 70% of them must have lost weight.

With follow ups so people can see when looking at a diet book 80% of the women lose but only 70% of them men. With detailed reviews and follow ups.

Another thought would be for all prepackaged food to say how far you'd need to walk to burn it off. Yes we all know Mars Bars aren't great for us but how far do I need to walk to shift it off my ass?

@LaurieFairyCake That documentary was absolutely fascinating and really eye-opening, I didn't know any of that about the hormones from the gut affecting taste and hunger levels (I'd assumed it was just a physical thing that if you make the stomach smaller then you are forced to eat less.)

And the fact that it can fix diabetes withing 24 hours of the surgery so you no longer need medication. That's absolutely astonishing.

Why isn't this being promoted. (Well. I know why, the documentary also mentioned the wide-spread prejudice against fat people, even within the NHS itself.)

On other fronts, I think fat-shaming needs to be made totally unacceptable. There needs to be the same loathing towards it that there is towards racism and sexism.

On the way to work today I saw a very obese man jogging. I thought "Good for you, I really admire you." But I bet he suffers no end of abusive comments shouted at him from passing cars, I hope he powers through it and continues, but I know I wouldn't have the emotional strength to go through that.

I need to lose weight but would never try exercising in view of anyone else. I enjoyed jogging when I was a totally reasonable weight...just to keep fit...and the amount of malicious, spiteful comments shouted at me (it's a cliche, but often by men in white vans), made me give up.

Maybe if I hadn't had that then I would have carried on exercising and wouldn't be so overweight several years later.