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.

Stop selling off school playing fields.
Do better at encouraging walking rather than car use for short journeys.
More cycle lanes, better playgrounds, protect parks ...

I notice a few people are mentioning schools, this needs to focus on all ages.

Reduce wealth inequality. Cycle lanes, good ones separated with a physical barrier from the road. Fund sports and make walking to school and at school normal so in primary they do a mile a day together. Support vulnerable families with over weight children.

Oh and a four day week.

zonedoutallnight

You beat me too it. I was going to say exactly the same.

Oh wow, too many bad habits to undo; definitely start in schools, school dinners are atrocious. Some kind of lunchbox policy as well that must be adhered to... I am shocked at the contents of some lunchboxes in my school pepperami, lunchables, sausage rolls, adult sized chocolate bars.... none of which I would consider as 'cheap' either so I don't think cost is as much as an issue as we might think; it's definitely all about convenience (whatever can we grab that we don't have to spend time preparing).
I also think that children have issues with snacking, it's very rare that I go on a play date where the other mums don't have a bag full of biscuits, crisps (all under the guise of healthy 'goodies') By lunchtime in my class the children are starving and barely able to keep their eyes open having crashed from their sugary cereal breakfast high...
The free fruit provided in schools is low quality and moments away from going mouldy. It's usually squishy pears or carrots. It remains untouched. By comparison, we had a lady visit from Tesco who brought all kinds of freshly prepared fruit such as pineapple, melon and mango slices and it was demolished by the children in my class within seconds. Also there needs to be a lot more provision for sport and after school clubs that are FREE! Sainsbury's made a great start with their summer clubs last year instead of the vouchers for school; a whole day of sports activities for £7! This was great!

However, these things will only have an impact with education of PARENTS. I can tell my pupils about healthy food till I'm blue in the face, but they have absolutely 0 control over the food their parents buy and prepare and are always going to choose the most appealing option that they are allowed. Maybe some kind of fruit/veg hamper could be delivered at a heavily subsidised cost?
Jars of baby food should be heavily taxed, or better yet banned. I'm not entirely educated on the the health benefits or detriments that processed baby foods provide but they start parents off on the wrong foot with the 'convenient' option imo. Too many times I have watched a small baby having shepherds pie squirted down their throat through a spout. Not even time given to use a spoon, let alone heat to a desirable temperature and attempt some kind of proper mealtime experience. If parents were more inclined to prepare baby meals from scratch from the beginning it may start good habits with doing it later on.

In terms of public health, obesity is the new smoking, and sugar is the new tobacco, so treat it as such.

^This.

1. Each GP surgery to pair up with local ParkRun. A friendly low-key helper to encourage people to take part, register, walk it, keep people company, not care about coming last. Provide moral support & encouragement.

1. Ban sweets/chocolate at checkouts. WHSmith - you are the worst offender !

1. All workplaces over 20 employees to install showers/secure bike storage so people can cycle to work, exercise at lunchtime etc.

1. Standardise sizes for clothing. Stop claiming something is a size 10 when it’s really a 14. Twenty years ago, a size 10 was 34,24, 36. I wear a 10 but my tape measure says I am a 12-14. Lying to ourselves isn’t helping anyone.

1. Teach food prep in schools. Not cakes & pastry but quick healthy food - stir fries, decent salads, chunky soups etc

1. stop forcing people to work all the hours God sends in order to make ends meet because the cost of living is so high, or wages so low in min wage 0 hours type jobs, so they actually have the energy to cook something half decent at the end of the day.
2. stop shaming and ridiculing people for being overweight. As we have generally done this for years and still have an obesity problem, it clearly doesn't work. It just makes the people doing the shaming feel important and they can hide behind their concerns for health or the NHS etc. Talk about it openly and honestly without the need to blame. Address the issues that are brought up properly - mental health, lack of knowledge, finances, lack of facilities, lack of time rather than just shouting "move more and eat less!" Repeatedly. Encourage self awareness and responsibilities with assistance positively rather than trying to shame.
3. subsidise families on low incomes with vouchers to be spent on fruit/veg etc - I got something like this briefly when DD was small and I was on a low income. It was about £8 a week and could only be used towards fruit, veg and milk I think. It helped a lot to bulk up meals with healthier foods that I could get more of than without the vouchers. Then the food I did buy went further too.
4. educate from a young age that food is fuel, take the emphasis away from 'treating' and having to clear your plate regardless of if you're actually hungry or not. Teach about cooking, shopping, budgeting and how to do these things when you maybe don't have access to a full kitchen full of equipment or an endless supply of gas/electric at your disposal.
5. Give real actual meal breaks in work places and schools instead of people having to eat quick and convenient food rather than healthier and better options because they've only got limited time to eat, use the toilet etc and allow free access to water and toilets rather than getting a drink and going for a pee being seen as a way to skive.

All those above are the issues I personally faced over the years, low income and long, hard hours in physical jobs that left me knackered were a big problem, alongside being told by people who don't face those issues that they're just an excuse for me to be lazy.

1. Create a 'health tax' for companies earning over 1 million a year and profiting from sale of unhealthy high fat/sugar products (e.g. cadbury, mcdonalds, starbucks - not local bakeries). This is then used to heavily subsidise the cost of fruit/veg/grains.
2. Ensure that unsold or surplus healthy food from supermarkets and farms is always donated to foodbanks rather than binned. Fines for companies found binning healthy food.
3. Begin education on nutrition at school age. In early years think 'red foods are good for my heart' and building up to fully funded home economics programmes in high school. This should also include lessons on how to create healthy meals on a strict budget.
4. Ban sham weight loss products like laxative teas and make companies such as weight watchers and slimming world (that profit from yo-yo dieting) publish statistical reports on the long-term effectiveness of their programmes . How many people would pay for these resources if they knew they were likely to regain the weight within 5 years?
5. Do away with the idea of exercise as a prescription for weight loss. More often than not, this makes exercise feel punitive rather than enjoyable and puts people off. We should run more 'taster' sessions of different types of exercise at leisure centres so people can find a way to move their body that they actually enjoy and is sustainable long-term.

Promote fruit and veg in the way the bad stuff is promoted. So close up photos of juicy fruits, put the loveliest fruit at the front of the store, promotions on exotic fruit, fruit of the week, free samples etc. Retrain people's brains.

Whilst I have no fantastic ideas apart from the ones from PPs, I don't agree with those who think scrapping the shelves of sweets/biscuits/cakes or rationing them is an answer.

Those types of suggestions take away any accountability on the matter which is no help towards the root causes.

I would;

1. Overhaul the NHS.
   Those with injuries, illnesses and conditions that prevent exercise need to be examined and pointed in the right direction. Waiting lists of 18 months for operations, scans, specialist appointments, physio... aren't conducive to getting people moving.
   Start running health surveillance programmes. Keep an eye on at risk groups, bring them in for regular check-ups.
   Get the GPs to start seeing patients F2F again!
   I'd pour a lot of money into mental health services too, the provision in this country at the minute is piss poor.

2. UBI
   It's all well and good telling people how easy it is to cook cheap, healthy meals when they've the time, energy, appliances and utensils to do so.
   I've done a lot of work with people in poverty and have seen families having to survive without cookers and fridges/freezers or not being able to top up the gas/electric enough to run the cooker if they have one.
   Those families rely on tinned/convenience meals filled with fat, salt and sugar + cheap takeaways just to be able to eat.
   That's without taking into account families/people who have to work a full time job (plus extra usually) just to earn enough to live on.

3. Food Education.
   Start veg patches in schools again. Get the kids involved in cooking, show them how fun it can be and how vegetables don't taste awful.
   Run cookery glasses in the community and educate people on cheap, easy meals to make. Educate on nutrition and what needs to go into our diets.

4. Taxes on 'junk'(I'm reticent to label it junk food)
   Pretty self-explanatory.
   One thing I would change is the addition of sweeteners in everything. Keep the sugar and put the price up a bit (although not too much, poor people still need to be able to access something sweet every now and again!)
   Replacing something natural (albeit bad in large quantities) with chemicals is a terrible idea, we've no idea what effect they have on our health.

5. Maximise outdoor spaces.
   Add in more play equipment, goals, hoops, skating areas. Fund the maintenance of the parks.
   Play parks around my way are still shut. Kids who've been cooped up indoors since March are still unable to go out and play. The green spaces are dominated by dogs and, let's face it, kids get bored quickly (DD is 4 and will happily kick a ball, skip, play hide and seek, run around aimlessly for ten minutes before getting fed up; she'll play on the equipment for hours.)
   Have outdoor exercise groups of all abilities; not just HIIT sessions or park run - something accessible for everyone.

I agree with others about PE. When I was at school it was a popularity contest. If you were shit at/couldn't understand netball, hockey or running, you were useless - and they made sure to let you know that too. I hated all of them so bunked off the lessons for most of my secondary school life.
Sad to see it hasn't changed much even now.

1. Pour money into deprived areas so that people don’t have shit lives that cause them to overeat because cheap junk food is their only pleasure in life.

1. Fine companies that promote cheap junk food as some kind of fantastic lifestyle choice/supermarkets for running offers on cheap junk food/ cinemas etc for boosting their revenue by selling shit food to people at inflated prices. Use the revenue generated to help fund number 1.

1. Stop making school sports torture for the unco-ordinated and non-competitive. Focus on fitness, rather than games. Introduce Zumba, tai chi, walking, circuits - anything that gets them moving. Team games can still go on for the ones that like that stuff, but the school fitness programme should be the core of PE.

1. Make feeding yourself properly part of the PHSE curriculum. Proper cooking lessons for all kids. Not bloody food tech - cooking. There could be a scheme that allows kids to get involved with making lunch for their classmates, thus promoting cooking good food and eating around a table as a social activity.

1. Make life in this country better so that people aren’t stressed to fuck and producing vast amounts of cortisol. Make companies support a better work/life balance so that people have time to cook and eat better food. Make companies provide decent food prep areas and dining rooms and give people a decent lunch break so they’re not shoving a pastie down at their desk. Basically, make big business start treating their employees as human beings rather than economic units.

@Mintjulia in the 1960s/70s 34 - 24 - 36 was a size 14! And a 16 was the biggest you'd get in a normal range, over that you were into outsize territory.

Probably the biggest thing that would help is to sort out sport in schools.

School sport made me so utterly miserable that I binned my trainers the day I left at 18, and didn’t buy another pair until I was 48. Yet I run now, and cycle.
My skinny 11yo, after his last sports day at primary, said that if he ever had to do another sports day, he would kill himself. Nothing has changed.

Schools HAVE to offer non-competitive alternatives to team sport. 50% of the population is made to feel so bad about themselves, they’ve learned to loath physical activity before puberty. There has to be another way.

Better and cheaper childcare with realistic hours

Better working hours - cap it at 35, say

Better public transport so people are encouraged to take the bus instead of just taking the car everywhere

Get rid of junk food in schools completely

Food companies and supermarkets not allowed to do offers on junk food or advertise to children

@Mintjulia very good point. I thought I hated sport til I was about 30 and realised that hiking and cycling were great fun. But our PE classes were totally doninated by the boys and a few sporty girls. They need to give more options and divide classes better.

I think the culture around food has to change. Look at Veganism which is amazingly popular. Vegans have shown it’s perfectly easy to cut out entire food groups with the right motivation.
I don’t think people should become vegan ( I think we need to eat more locally sourced foods for financial and environmental reasons not jack fruit and soya from across the world) ) but I do think we could make processed food the equivalent of their eggs and milk.

Meals are to be valued more. Once you’ve eaten that’s it until the next meal.
We need to get back the idea that a bottle of cola is for birthdays and holidays not an everyday drink. Likewise crisps. Same way vegans refuse a cake with egg in we need people to say “no” to food.

"I think the culture around food has to change."

And how are you going to do that? It's very nice to think that people will just suddenly want to start depriving themselves, but the UK has a totally messed up mentality towards food, shit weather on a regular basis (so both depressing and not great for growing our own local produce), and many people for whom food is their only pleasure.

Healthy eating has been pushed in schools for decades, but it hasn't worked.

Your way of thinking is lovely, but very hard to implement.

Pizza and chips can be healthy. Depends on what's in them and how they're cooked.

I have pizza, chips and burgers. Plus a whole heap of other "junk" food. It's all about the nutritional value and portion size.

I'm in the Netherlands right now. Just cycling everywhere for a week has made my jeans fit better. Plus it's now free to go to different shops.

Ration ‘snack foods’ and sweets/crisps/cakes etc. Make it so you can only buy say one cake/ chic bar a week per person.

People don’t actually need to snack. If they have decent meals, it’s unnecessary. It’s all part of the habits we’ve gotten into in the last 30/40 years.

Also do the same for ready meals.

If you can’t buy it, you can’t eat it.

I would make physical activity more accessible to disabled people. My mother has had arthritis for 40 years and she is now confined to a wheelchair.

I would love to see some exercises for disabled people on YouTube (for free).

1. No more planning licences to be granted for takeaways/fast food restaurants.
2. Scheme where doctors can 'prescribe' free use of gyms/sports facilities/swimming pools to obese patients
3. Increase car tax with large increments for second or third household cars.
4. Scrap HS2 and use the money to improve local transport infrastructure in areas where it is currently unrealistic to rely on public transport; also put money into cycle ways.
5. Ban on sale of unhealthy foods specifically marketed at children. Labelling of v. unhealthy foods with health warning similar to cigarettes including gruesome photos.

As a teacher - one big change in schools has been a reduction in lunch times. Ours (secondary) now get 40 mins for lunch.

This has led to

• schools selling quick / easy to eat food (wraps / pizza etc) that is quick to eat
• no lunch time clubs really ( used to be loads of sports / active stuff at lunch)

School meals really need an overhaul. 10 years ago I would buy my lunch every day at school. We had a lovely fresh salad bar, fruit bar and healthy daily meals. I haven’t eaten the food from school in the past two years it’s just not good.