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.

Good eating habits have to start when young. There needs to be more involvement from GPs and health visitors with pictures of 'normal weight' bodies used. Many parents don't believe their child is overweight when they clearly are to me or even when the weight checks tell them they are. Parents need to be educated as most food is given at home/by family.

To be honest I think parents should be told that feeding children to the point of morbid obesity is child abuse. They need to be educated that being active doesn't mean the obesity is ok.

Schools need to stop rewarding children for finishing lunches (stickers etc). Children should be taught to stop eating when full. No eating for eatings sake.

Schools need to promote active learning and healthy diets. No sweet rewards and more honest teaching about what illnesses obesity can lead to and what this lifestyle could lead to instead of just a vague 'it's unhealthy'.

Basically being overweight needs to be nipped in the bud quickly. It's much easier to lose half a stone than 5. Early intervention by parents, health visitors, GPs and school is important.

I'm significantly overweight and it impacts on my life a lot.

1. I agree with bariatric surgery for every morbidly obese parent/ ‘pre-parent’ provided they commit to following a programme of family nutrition learning.

1. Charge for drugs needed for direct obesity related illnesses if a warning was given prior to development of disease and no effort has been made to reduce weight.

1. Massive drive to encourage intermittent fasting for adults.

1. Make daily feeding children sugary cereals/sweets etc and eating sugar and refined carbs around children socially unacceptable. In a relatively short time we did that with smoking.

1. Free delivered protein, fruit and veg boxes for all who sign onto a national health education programme and let it continue as long as they are showing health improvements.

1. Reduce income inequality, a book called The Spirit Level shows that less equal societies are much more unhealthy. That requires action on housing and on asset tax, for starters.

1. Universally available cookery classes for all (kids and grown ups). Led by community kitchens, not top down by Serco or Compass, or other stuff.

1. Massively increase the land available for community growing, allotments, community farms, community orchards etc. Put people back in touch with unprocessed food.

1. Ultra high processed food has been shown to make us fatter. In an experiment where people were locked in a facility and offered the same foods, the ultra high processed group ate more. We need to tax processing. Not sugar.

1. Pay farmers to produce food in a way that's good for the soil, good for other animals. That means diversifying away from monoculture production of endless carbs. We need to eat a wide range of different foods. We need to eat more vegetables to act on climate change, but this would also help people's health.

1. Accessible exercise (so removal of barriers - cost, childcare, time)
2. Decent mental health services
3. Better employment laws to create better work/life balance 4)Overhaul ironically named ‘healthy’ school meals
4. Canf think of one at the moment but it certainly wouldn’t include punishing people or denying human rights.

Oh yes - point 5 close the ‘legal’ taxation loopholes for our island of billionaires to help fund decent health and social care initiatives.

Schools with real kitchens cooking food properly every day. Not ordering it in hot from catering companies to be kept warm for hours with tiny portions and ALWAYS a stodgy unhealty pudding regardless of whether the dc have eaten the usually unappetising and unidentidiable main.
Teach cooking from primary on.
Proper time and equipment for PE. Start building swimming pools in schools so it's not a massive palaver / half a day trip for a 20 minute lesson.
Make exercise cheaper. (Costs me £8 / swim or class which is eye-watering)
Proper bike lanes rather than 20m on the pavement before you're blocked by a bollard / chucked back on the road (to ride across all the drains etc.).
Stop building over every available inch. When you build estates / roads etc think about the provision of open spaces / walks too. Often there's nowhere to get out too except into the traffic.
Invest in the open spaces that there are - paths that are accessible all year round for example. Maintain the kids playgrounds. Think about reopening some youth centres so the teenagers aren't constantly hanging around in / damaging / vandalising the playgrounds.

Agree about lunch hours at school being too short too. Dc don't have enough time to sit and enjoy their lunch (30 minutes).

Basic education on calories in and calories out within secondary schools. Heath and well-being lessons.

@Graphista

In an ideal world I'd also set a limit on plate size!

Ww first alerted me to this and as a result of the discussion in one meeting next time I went to my mums for dinner I took one of my plates with me - it was almost double the size of mums 70's plates!

They don't even fit in the bloody cupboards! I've tried to find smaller ones to no avail! But what I have done is bought ones with a larger "border" and I endeavour to only fill the center and not pile high but this definitely makes it harder for people to assess a reasonable portion

The easiest way round this is to buy side plates, rather than dinner plates.

1. A complete re-haul of school cirriculum. Exercise morning and afternoon and Wednesday afternoon devoted to sports. Weekly lessons on nutrition health cooking from scratch. Better school lunches. Ban sweets ( my Dd brought home at least a bag a week band teachers use them to bribe the kids).
2. Free weight loss support for adults (but proper education and linked to life style and exercise not dieting).
3. Insert cycle lanes on pavement wherever possible. They do this in Germany and it would give many more people the confidence to cycle.
4. Money to regenerate local village shops etc. If we can get what we want without jumping in the car all the better.
5. Massive tax on snack foods. Particularly those aimed at kids.

Oops sorry, I see someone else already suggested side plates

Those who keep wanting to push it onto the schools, how are you fitting it into the timetable ie what are you dropping to fit it in?
And regardless of what kids are taught the kids aren't the ones who do the shopping or who prepare dinner. Educate Adults!

I'd agree with clothing sizes. Also lycra in clothes doesn't help either. Back in the day if your jeans didn't fit, they didn't fit, now they just stretch to fit.

I don't think sugar tax is the answer either, it's just encouraged companies to fill products with sweet palm oil and sweeteners. Tax them and encourage small amounts of real sugar.

People are blaming poverty, in the past people were poorer than now and didn't have an obesity problem. So what did poor people do in the 70s that they aren't doing now?

The answer has to be teaching adults about food, and giving people more time. Many are cash rich, time poor who also struggle with obesity.

Encourage a 30min - 60min walk a day. In exactly the same way as we all know about 5 a day.

1. universal basic income or anything else that will decrease inequality

1. no fat shaming by the whole of society - no saying doctors shouldn't treat overweight people, no saying that clothes shops shouldn't normalise it by having nice clothes in their size, no photos of fat people exercising put on social media for people to laugh at, anything to change this constant drip of shame that causes low self esteem and makes it so people don't feel they're worth doing anything about

1. cheaper exercise options in pools, gyms, classes, etc. I can't run because I get injuries. I might go to cheaper classes in dance or something, swimming maybe, if they were cheaper, if there were more times, if there were some sex-segregated times

1. smaller portions of treats available in cafes and restaurants. I know it seems counter intuitive, everyone thinking we should get rid of that, promote healthy food etc, but sometimes it's nice to have something that's a treat. But if you go out, your choices are often things like a massive cookie or huge slice of cake/squares etc, so that they can charge more and you get more for your money. I'd rather pay half the price and get half the portion. And no, I don't have the will power to throw half of it away once I've paid for it. One of the coffee shops did a thing for a while with mini versions of treats, but you had to buy them in multi-packs, which was fine if you went with other people, but otherwise useless. But I'd like small size ice creams. Small size drinks. Not just massive sized ones replaced with sweetener, or with 'healthy ingredients' that taste terrible. Just mini portions of normal food more easily available.

1. more low carb options available as take aways, for lunches or snacks, etc., interesting ones, not just a little packet of almonds

What an interesting thread. Mine would be:

1. All workplaces to have a mandatory 1 hour lunch break (or dinner break for shift workers) where the shop/factory floor/office etc all close and employees are encouraged to have a proper leisurely break. A subsidised canteen selling nutritious and wholesome food would be good as well.

1. Co-operatives to be set up in deprived areas. Access to local shops mainly selling cheap local nutritious produce; ultra processed food vastly reduced. Set up community allotments and encourage residents to get involved.

1. Set up many more free outdoor gyms, particularly in poor areas. Also walking trails, cycle and running paths, etc. Things that can be done cheaply or free.

1. Address zero hours contracts, people busting a gut working appallingly long hours for crap money, etc. Yes, basic universal income as a PP said. We need a shorter working week so people have time and energy for cooking and exercise. We can't expect a household where both adults are working full time and commuting to embrace cooking from scratch. We're not in the 1950s anymore - it's rare to have 1 parent being a housewife/husband these days. That needs taking into consideration.

1. Address the power the industrial manufacturers of ultra-processed foods holds. Already they're releasing statements about their "grave misgivings" about the government dealing with obesity. It won't be long before they're heading campaigns about "taking away people's choices". The advertising ban and BOGOF ban are steps in the right direction. We need to be encouraging and subsidising British farming too.

It’s not as simple as having “healthy” school dinners or banning chocolate adverts.

There’s now this pervasive ethos that no one should ever be hungry. I don’t mean genuinely starving through lack of food, I mean the idea that people should keep “topping up” constantly. Back when I was young no one ever ate between meals unless it was a rare ice cream or packet of crisps (small - not a family pack to oneself). But I have no idea how we put the genie back in the bottle on this one.

Also I simply don’t understand the new thing of showing obese models. Take the Florence & Fred advert, if anyone has seen that. Large women (only large women ) modelling the clothes, accompanied by “fit” men (no advert ever shows a porky bloke with a paunch). Of course chubby shaming and any body shaming is wrong, but so is promoting the fact that being badly overweight is absolutely normal and fine is not good.

And as for that singer Lizzo - she does not look empowered. She is simply a very fat person - a too fat person.

There needs to be more involvement from GPs and health visitors with pictures of 'normal weight' bodies used.
So true for DS, people always mention DS1 is skinny but he's been average weight all his life (usually between 25th and 50th percentile).

I think we need to decrease income inequality, and the number of hours families need to work so people have more time to cook/are less exhausted.

I think home economics sounds like a more useful subject than the 'food tech' I did at secondary school.

Free support groups like the NHS quit smoking ones, not WW that costs £20+ a week.

Incentivise weight loss for the most severe cases - financially if necessary.

FREE and timely (i.e not a six month waiting list) mental health/ counselling to get to the route of why people can’t control their eating.

FREE or heavily subsidised personal trainers/ exercise classes, perhaps segregated for those wanting to lose weight so that there is no fear of judgement.

All those saying education is the key - there has never been more easy access to healthy eating information, recipes etc. It’s already covered heavily in schools. People know that unprocessed food is better and how to eat healthily. The key is to remove the barriers.

Not supportive of charging for medical care for those who are overweight, unless you’re also going to start charging people with COPD who smoked all their lives, alcoholics with liver disease or sports people with self inflicted injuries.

WW £20 a month, sorry.

I think food manufacturing is a place to start. Choc bars and similar products have had an increase in sugar content over the years. Why? I don't remember people clamouring for this.

I also think the question about poverty in the 70s is interesting. I wonder if we were time rich in the 70s. It was certainly possible to have only one parent working. Now both parents are probably working and you have people working long hours and still struggling. As someone said exhausted people will often turn to processed foods for convenience etc.... And we know processed foods are a problem. That's why focusing on food production would help. Universal Basic Income would help a lot too. Obesity is higher in poorer households.

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.

oh I have a number 6 too.

1. Make PE classes much more inclusive and encouraging, including activities that are not team sports that depend on other team mates shaming those who aren't as good. Yoga, aerobics, climbing, cycling, I don't know what exactly, but the sports that people are more likely to be able to carry on into the future. And teaching children how to do them well and not injure themselves, rather than just shouting at those who aren't fast or good to be faster or better. And letting pupils wear the clothes they want that they're comfortable in for exercise

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

And also...I just don't want to? It has zero appeal to me at all and is totally impractical for many people.

its very telling only one person has suggested counselling, obesity (not just a bit overweight) is a serious psychological issue. penalising overweight people will simply put them in more danger, obese people often avoid drs for stigma/medical neglect reasons anyway.

Really good post Grumblyberries

I danced all my childhood and really enjoyed it but memories of PE, with horrible skimpy shorts and being made to go on the evil horse, or hockey in the pouring rain and worrying about being picked last still bring me out in a cold sweat.

"but sometimes it's nice to have something that's a treat"

I think this whole way of thinking is why there are so many overweight people. This idea that we deserve treats. I eat chocolate because it's delicious and I want to, not because I want to treat myself. This whole "binge and starve" mindset is the root of so much problematic eating and other behaviours.