NHS costs attributable to overweight and obesity are projected to reach £9.7 billion by 2050

[hellymissy]

So many posters keep banging on about people not wearing masks, spreading the virus and overwhelming the nhs, people breaking rules etc which is obviously an issue - but we also need to focus on some bigger issues around the long and short term sustainability of the NHS a d consider ways to fix them.

Extracts from government website shows that;

“UK and international evidence suggests that being severely overweight puts people at greater risk of hospitalisation, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission and death from COVID-19, with risk growing substantially as body mass index (BMI) increases.

The current evidence does not suggest that having excess weight increases people’s chances of contracting COVID-19. However, the data does show that obese people are significantly more likely to become seriously ill and be admitted to intensive care with COVID-19 compared to those with a healthy BMI.

The UK-wide NHS costs attributable to overweight and obesity are projected to reach £9.7 billion by 2050, with wider costs to society estimated to reach £49.9 billion per year.”

If anything will cripple the NHS it’s the direct and indirect impact of obesity on ICU units, and long term pressure obesity puts on the NHS.

Seriously, What else can we do to tackle obesity?

**this is NOT a fat shaming thread, purely a thread to redirect some peoples attention towards some of the real issues around COVID

@hellymissy wow! That's one of the most disgusting fascist things I've ever read on here. I feel really sad anyone would think this. But I'm so very glad I'm not one of those people.

@GreenlandTheMovie have you heard of mental health issues or emotional issues leading to weight gain? Or medication side effects and health issues leading to weigh 5 gain? Therefore it's not as simple as movement and calories is it?

'Give people enough money to buy decent cookery books and ingredients'

Oh fgs we don't need to fund the purchase of cookery books.

Any discussion about the UK obesity problem is met with wails of 'fat shaming'. It is a fact we have access to decent food. Jacket potatoes and mince costs no more than junk food.

People eat too much. They need to take some responsibility and stop expecting the government to fix everything.

Mince % isnt about healthy/ not healthy. Both are ok as a part of a balanced diet. Where the fat is important is what you plan on doing with it.
Burgers are better with high %
Sauces with less %

@hamstersarse. Because you feel fuller for longer with high fat stuff? We get such mixed messages it’s untrue. I’m actually quite good at not snacking so personally I feel ok with low fat stuff but appreciate if you feel hungry again an hour later the higher fat stuff might be better. It’s all so confusing.

Low fat. Low carb. ImI’m aware organisations like weight watchers and the other one pedal incorrect advice. Eat as much pasta as you want on a green day? What’s that about? I put weight on with slimming world as I’d eat two punnets of free grapes a day....not sure if that advice is still the same that was ages ago.

The views in this thread are fucking disgusting. All I can hope is that some of the people who hold these views may experience things beyond their control that lead to weight gain. Then you might feel regret at how disgusting your views were.

I might be fat but I'm not a fascist. I pity you and your friends and family. Imagine actually knowing you. Eeew. Just so disgusting people like this actually exist.

'have you heard of mental health issues or emotional issues leading to weight gain? Or medication side effects and health issues leading to weigh 5 gain?'

A minority will have significant mh issues causing eating disorders. The majority eat too much. It is an unpopular opinion on mn but true nonetheless. We have to stop beating about the bush with this. I would of course never be unpleasant to an obese person but nor will I go along with the it's everyone else's fault mindset either.

Why do people need incentives to look after themselves?

Why is it always the government's fault that there is an obesity crisis.

Is it not the responsibility of the individual to look after their health and make sensible decisions on what to eat and how much of it. I grew up with an overweight mother. Size 22. It's was no one's fault but hers.

I think it’s like anything else. If you’ve never been anxious about anything it’s hard to understand why people struggle with things that seem mundane. If you are amazing at maths it’s hard to understand why people can’t grasp something that seems simple to you. If you’ve got a healthy relationship with food and you eat because you are hungry rather than because you are sad or stressed or similar you struggle to understand why it’s hard for people to break those habits. I do also think though that where we go wrong is gaining that weight in the first place. I’m so so cross with myself for letting it happen as if it hadn’t even if I was gaining some weight periodically I’d just need to be strict with myself for a few weeks to get back to a reasonable weight, which is very doable. Sticking with a lower calorie diet for months and months on end is significantly harder to manage and if you have emotional issues around food it’s very hard to get back on it and not beat yourself up if you have one bad day/week. I might take a look at the Cambridge plan. I’m in a good place at the moment to try something new as I lost some weight through lockdown and I’m managing to control urges to binge inspite of being pretty stressed lately

[quote JacobReesMogadishu]@hamstersarse. Because you feel fuller for longer with high fat stuff? We get such mixed messages it’s untrue. I’m actually quite good at not snacking so personally I feel ok with low fat stuff but appreciate if you feel hungry again an hour later the higher fat stuff might be better. It’s all so confusing.

Low fat. Low carb. ImI’m aware organisations like weight watchers and the other one pedal incorrect advice. Eat as much pasta as you want on a green day? What’s that about? I put weight on with slimming world as I’d eat two punnets of free grapes a day....not sure if that advice is still the same that was ages ago.[/quote]
Yeah, the dietary advice is just so inconsistent it’s no wonder people struggle to maintain a healthy weight.

We’ve a long way to go

And for the record, I simply don’t ever blame any individual for being obese, there are always multiple personal reasons. But this thread is about the environment in which individuals find themselves - conflicting and bad advice, toxic food sold as a luxury freely etc

Unsure what the options are?

Refuse NHS treatment if morbidly obese?

Surcharge treatment if obese?

@Fischliweiss
It's horrible isn't it.
But take comfort in knowing that even harder to change than weight is personality...

I don’t agree with punishing people for being obese as suggested with access to the NHS

It is such a cop out

How can 63% of our country collectively had a failing of personal responsibility in the last 50 years?

There is a serious complex problem in the food environment that is failing people

The information on what is healthy is out there but it’s really hard to find / trust because most people follow and trust the government guidelines, which patently don’t work

'If you’ve never been anxious about anything it’s hard to understand why people struggle with things that seem mundane'

I've had many struggles in life like most people. Tbh I think it is people who have had actual serious health issues or have close family members that have, that just cannot understand the culture in this country not so much for obesity but for constantly passing the buck and blaming it on anxiety, medical problems etc etc.

A minority will have an eating disorder. The majority eat too much, you know it's in your control so do something about it.

The snack culture in this country is huge. I grew up elsewhere and it's really obvious how everything is geared towards constant eating here. Crisps as part of lunch meal deals whereas in my childhood crisps would have been a special treat at the weekend. All the multipacks of "fun sized" chocolate bars, sugary yoghurt etc.

Also school meals here set kids up with bad habits. Many other European countries give free school meals to every child in primary school and you have to eat that meal, you can't bring in your own sandwiches and biscuits. The school lunches I grew up with were real food - always a salad on the side, and then a variety of stews, soups, pasta bakes, rice, potatoes etc. packed full of veg, meat and generally healthy meals.

@grassgreenthisside

Unsure what the options are?

Refuse NHS treatment if morbidly obese?

Surcharge treatment if obese?

That goes against everything NYE Bevan stood for. If you were looking to do that, you’d also not treat smoking related disease, alcohol related disease or injury, sun damage, most road traffic accidents, RSI, back pain or anything else ‘self inflicted’.

The answer is not to withhold treatment-although it’s already a bit of a CCG funding lottery and exclusion based on judgement being misold as risk based.

The answer has to be public health funding for preventative support. That’s what has been stripped away.

Fischliweiss @GreenlandTheMovie have you heard of mental health issues or emotional issues leading to weight gain? Or medication side effects and health issues leading to weigh 5 gain? Therefore it's not as simple as movement and calories is it?

No, its only you, in your grandiose sense of omnipitence, that has heard of such issues. Honestly.

The point is, the infrastructure and culture in this country also lead to a llifestyle which is extremely prone to obesity. Levels of obesity in this country are much higher than elsewhere, but people in other countries also have MH issues and health problems. But rates of obesity are much higher than in other European countries.

It really does help with everything that people move more, leave the house, have a network of friends and hobbies (many are free or near free) but in this country it seems more normal to just sit on a sofa watching tv and not have any or many real life friends. There are hobbies in other countries that are really popular with a lot of participants that people would consider far too square to get involved in here. eg choir singing or folk singing, meeting up 2 or 3 times a week in a hall to practice and going away for weekends together (obviously not at the moment).

This attitude that many people are completely helpless and their over eating can be excused is incredibly harmful. Some of course have valid reasons but the sheer level of obesity in this country cannot be justified by this.

I might be fat but I'm not a fascist. I pity you and your friends and family. Imagine actually knowing you. Eeew. Just so disgusting people like this actually exist.

Mmmn. You really do need to think about what a person you are, that you are writing this sort of thing on an internet forum.

@grassgreenthisside

Unsure what the options are?

Refuse NHS treatment if morbidly obese?

Surcharge treatment if obese?

Affordable stable housing.

Cookers, fridge, freezer, storage.

Access to affordable fresh food (ensuring it's a varied diet because variety is an important part of a healthy diet).

Money for gas and electric (for cooking and fridge/freezer).

Better resourced mental health care.

Prompt NHS diagnosis and treatment. To avoid the current status quo of people stuck immobile because of long waiting lists and/or weight gain conditions such as thyroid issues getting worse because of delayed diagnosis and treatment.

Rethink mental health medication. Consider prescribing sedatives for intolerable life circumstances/extreme trauma/chronic suffering instead of weight gain linked anti depressants.

Make sure we have billions and billions to pay for the consequences of more people living longer - pensions and social care costs.

'The answer has to be public health funding for preventative support. That’s what has been stripped away.'

Yes PHE telling people to eat their fruit and veg will be useful 🙄.

The answer is to talk about it openly without accusations of fat shaming. I'm no more repulsed by a fat person than I am by a binge drinker but the fact is both are incredibly unhealthy so let's be honest about it. Hcps should be allowed to tell people they won't get a knee replacement until they lose 3 stone as it is a waste of everyone's time without the fat shaming klaxon going off.

Cookbooks and pamphlets won't change our junk food culture.

I’m absolutely certain the only thing that can reduce obesity levels is a total change in the food that’s available.

There’s always been poorer people, people without time/resources to cook etc, all that’s changed is the overwhelming amount of tempting yet harmful rubbish food in the shops.

Very few people are resisting, it’s so frigging hard. Teams of experts are working on undermining our resistance and they’ve become excellent at it.

There’s clearly no benefit in continuing to try to fix it by targeting individuals. Fat shaming and health advice has been around for ages. It’s not working.

Laws reducing fast food outlets would be great. More fast food outlets in an area = higher rates of obesity.
It really is about structural issues not individuals.

Exercise is good for mental health but not likely to help you loose weight.

Unless junk food outlets are dramatically reduced and taxes added to all processed foods, we face an impossible task.

Gyms and organised outdoor sport closed but Macd's and KFC open, says it all really.

'Rethink mental health medication. Consider prescribing sedatives for intolerable life circumstances/extreme trauma/chronic suffering instead of weight gain linked anti depressants.'

Sedatives??!

Or, use cbt counselling and lifestyle changes to give people strategies to manage their circumstances.

There’s clearly no benefit in continuing to try to fix it by targeting individuals. Fat shaming and health advice has been around for ages. It’s not working.

Valid point but where do we go from here because 63% of the country being overweight Is going to continue growing unless intervention is used

Affordable stable housing.
Cookers, fridge, freezer, storage
etc.

Absolutely! But, what about the 25% of wealthy (in the highest 50% of the income quartile) 50-60 year old men who are obese? They are not obese due to poverty, we need to look at measures for them too.

Female obesity is much more correlated with income than male, (likely because poor men of tend to have less sedentary jobs so consume more incidental calories)

I have no idea OP! The type of change dramatic enough to have an effect would make any government fatally unelectable.