In thinking the govts new obesity strategy is

[laptopdancer]

well, a bit pants?

They shouldn't be taxing food high in fat. Why should I have to pay more for a nice cheesecake treat once a week just because fatties cannot control themselves .

I don't think making stuff more expensive will put people off so that's the wrong approach. Telling them might help a bit.

I hate fruit btw, very rarely eat the stuff, I would rather eat nothing than an apple, yuck. Never been overweight so perhaps fruit is the enemy .

Surely the whole point of the government getting involved in the population's weight is the fact that there are far too many obese people around in recent years.

I've definitely noticed that at the school gates, for example, being a mum the second time round, the amount of overweight mums (and most of them in their 20s) has greatly increased.

Personally I think it is shocking that being overweight has become so acceptable. Don't these people care about their appearance or health?

Also all the comments about food, fast food being more accessible etc don't cut the mustard. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE FAT, DON'T STUFF YOUR FACE.

When I've put on weight its only ever been because I've been greedy pig and the way I've lost it is by not eating so much.

OK
so we do not tax bad food
and we blame the corporates
but I see nothing on this thread which actually accepts the fact that WE CAN CHOOSE to buy the shit and are therefore responsible if we do

you do not HAVE to buy a takeout, walk down the confectionery aisle
its not up to the government / supermarkets to take that choice away from you

is it?

But surely all the obesity will impact on the Health Service in years to come??

The government does not want the obesity strategy to work. If obese people die early, often of sudden cardiac deaths due to diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and so on, it will mean there are less older people to need pensions and long term care.

As Bonsoir said the junk food industry is propping up the economy.

No one gets rich selling onions and carrots...

But wilfully obese people don't contribute anywhere near the money that smokers do in terms of taxes paid, surely?

I wish there were signs (like the smoking ones) prohibiting the eating of crap anywhere in the hospital grounds but if that were the case they would have to close the canteens and sack the contract "food" providers

I thought CrackFox made an excellent point at 14:53

It'll be far better for the national coffers if we all eat shedloads of sugary crap and die young, thus relieving the burden of healthcare and pensions. In fact, the govt should subsidise my fags, send me free chocolate biscuits and buy me a car, to hasten my demise.

Sorted

bike lane

I can't find the article I had last year explaining how for every 1 euro spent on cycle lanes it saved 5 euros on health care.

with 1 million pounds being spent every hour on type 2 D, if we could spend on cycle lanes - proper cycle lanes that segregate motors form leg power - it would have a wonderful effect on reducing people from becoming over weight and reduce congestion as more people would cycle if they felt it was safer.

People could cycle to the shops on a Sunday

The only short term problem is the tax revenue from fuel for motors

This isn't a one solution solves the problem we need to change habits and I agree about Sunday trading (though I can't see trading stopping)

this is amazing

"pathetic and stupid" - love the BBC's no nonsense reporting on this 'strategy'.

Obese people are often overweight but undernourished.

More fruit and veg is the answer - swap some of the food for fruit or veg and you get more vitamins and less heavy calories.

More cycle lanes too please.

TP - Watch "Tales of the green valley" see how bloody hard it was to afford enough food to stay alive only 300 years ago

You don't have to go that far back, a century or so will do it. Are you suggesting that starvation is preferable to plenty?

Are you Naomi Campbell?

Hmm.
I think it is actually quite sensible to try to get people to take responsibility for themselves - but it could be backed up in the school curriculum and school canteens!
Get rid of the fast food shite that is served, bring back proper food school dinners; no "tuck shops" or Coca Cola vending machines and TEACH the children about nutrition and cooking properly.

The incentives for exercise should be improved massively - yes to extra cycle lanes but STOP the loss of cheap/free exercise and leisure facilities. In my old town in the UK, we had a school that had sufficiently good gym and sport facilities (including an open air swimming pool) that it could be used by people outside the school, for a £12 annual membership and a pay-per-visit fee (about £3). This was then revamped by the Council and turned into a Leisure complex (still part of the school) that involved a £600 annual fee (and probably no pay per visit) - which effectively removed it from most local people's access. Now THAT was pathetic.

Tennis courts in our town were pay per use; the ones in the next town were free. The ones in our town were always empty - making these things free to use might encourage people onto them a little more.

Having more open/easy access sport clubs etc. would help - but people have to become used to doing the stuff AT SCHOOL - so STOP the sale of school sports fields for development!!

Sort out the allotment situation - MAKE every school have a vegetable garden that the children help out with, and they might even manage to supply some of their own veg for the proper school dinners.

"Fat tax" is hopeless. All it will do is encourage more 98% fat-free-but-laden-with-other-shite-including-extra-SUGAR-to-make-it-edible diet foods - since the explosion of these diet foods onto our supermarket shelves, people have got noticeably fatter, not the opposite! Sugar is a real problem - if you want to tax any food group, let it be sugar and the added sugar family that isn't always immediately obvious (dextrose, HFCS high fructose corn syrup, partially inverted dextrose syrup etc. etc.) Agree that artificially altered fats are bad - trans fats and hydrogenated vegetable oils - they should be reduced too.

Encouraging outdoor thinking more - so many people seem to think they will melt if there is the slightest hint of rain (it's exactly the same here in Australia) so the only thing people do is sit indoors or go shopping in vast covered malls, with fast food outlets every couple of hundred metres.

Get rid of drivethrough fast food places as well (ideally I'd like to get rid of them completely but they have their place) - make people get up on their feet for at least 5 minutes to get their stuff!

Agree to getting rid of the advertising - increasing the cost of fast food would be a good plan too. If you have a system where raw ingredients cost more than a burger-inna-bun, people on low income are going to choose the burger-inna-bun more often --> overweight and unhealthy tendencies.

Those are some of my thoughts on the matter. I'm sure I could think of a load more given half a chance but I need to go and have breakfast.

eat less and exercise more. fuck me, really??????

I know exactly what is in the shite i shovel in my face day in day out. I know that i do not do nearly enough exercise. and i know what it is doing to my body. I can afford to buy fruit and veg and healthy foods (which i do, just on top of the crap) so that's not my reason. I have self-control when it comes to practically everything else but food. I don't know why i still do it. If there was a "fat tax" i'd still pay it. I do not have mirrors in my house because seeing myself makes me want to actually kill myself. .I am crying at least once a week because I need surgery to sort out a problem i have inflicted on myself (gallstones) that causes me great agony. i would rather have my teenage diary published than exercise in public (the humiliation!)

I really do not have the answer to solve obesity, if i did i wouldn't be obese myself. I have educated myself to the hilt about fats and sugars, i have seen a useless dietician, i have taken the xenical that makes you shit yourself. The shock tactics don't work, i have seen the hearts and arteries of those who ate themselves to death yet I still am a big fat horrible lump of lard. I know I am going to die of a heart attack or stroke or kill myself from the shame of looking how i do. nothing is going to change that, and nothing that the government do certainly won't.

My solution would be to smack a huge label on the front of every single food item proclaiming the food to be ''TOTALLY SHIT', 'SHIT' 'MODERATELY SHIT' 'OKAY-ISH' 'OKAY' 'GOOD' and 'EXCELLENT'. I reckon after a while folk would would feel a bit mortified about filling the trolley with items labelled as 'TOTALLY SHIT' and would start modifying their buying choices to save face at the check-out. Manufacturers might also start altering their ingredients in order to avoid the 'TOTALLY SHIT' label.

For a slightly more interventionist stance I would slap a large tax on the 'TOTALLY SHIT' products (to be paid by the manufacturers but not the consumers). The 'TOTALLY SHIT' products would then cease to be produced and then I'd move the large tax onto the 'SHIT' products. Repeat ad. infinitum.

Oh, and I'd ban cars for any journey of less than a mile.

Then two miles.

And bring back playing fields.

Though personally I hate sport of any description...

The government need to ban crisps, or at least educate the public what it is made of. Seems to me that Crisps is a staple of every British child's diet, and even seem to have a place in a schools "healthy eating policy".

It is potato, so vegetable, therefore healthy, innit!

i agree with the strategy

no one forces people to eat - the weight comes from the plate - we're all adults - EAT LESS....

i want my taxes to pay for critical cancer care not gastric bands

"i want my taxes to pay for critical cancer care not gastric bands"

Applause

Oh I so wish there was a like button NotonOtter

The problem with all strategies which demonise certain foods is that there is no such thing as good and bad foods, only good and bad diets.

eg If you tax high fat food, you'd have to tax cheese. Yes, it's high in fat but also a good source of protein and calcium. It's a nutritious food when eaten in moderation.

While the western world is full of tasty, high calorie foods, a lot of people will be fat. No government strategy can beat the rap because we are designed to like high calorie food.

maighdlin there aren't any miracles in this. It's a long road and I can promise you it's worth it but you have to ask yourself: what's worse, eating veg and exercising in public, or the slow and painful death you're predicted for yourself?

You're not a lump of lard. You're another person with everything that goes with it. Nobody here would want to see anything unpleasant happen to you. It's up to you to see to that, though, so you should get your ass in gear!

maighdlin I understand where you are at about exercising in public. I walk a lot and do in places such as the stairwell at the office so others dont see me. Also, just getting up and dancing at home is a great way to be more active. When you get down to a more comfortable weight you can move onto fitness DVDs that you do at home such as the shred by Jillian Michaels.

It takes 3500 calories to gain or lose a 1lb. If you cut out 100 calories from your diet everyday you will lose 10lbs a year.

Obesity affects the poor much more than the wealthy, particularly in the case of children. It's hardly surprising that the more affluent you are the easier it is to live healthier lives as you have more choice re: food, housing, jobs, transport, healthcare, leisure activities. I agree that personal responsibility should be half the equation but our country's food policies are equally important in determining what we eat and the latter is the job of government of which they seem to have absolved their responsibility.

I think the government's obesity strategy should have been this : taxed junk foods and used the tax to subsidise healthier foods. Bought back compulsory cooking and healthy eating lessons in all schools so by the time kids left at 16 they could cook 10 cheap healthy meals . Focus on increasing the range of sports kids can do either in school or extra curricular. Stop the opening of ever increasing numbers of fast food outlets particularly around schools . Bring back park wardens so kids and families feel safe playing there and to stop vandalism.