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

Food manufacturers have no apparent conscience at all, it would take laws to hold them back.

The funding for the free weight management and physical activity service has been cut where I live. It was a county wide service that offered so much and got great results. It has been around for donkeys years. Speaks volumes. Obesity & exercise not a priority. County councillors need their chauffeur driven carsxand catered for meetings.

Unregulated Marketing has definitely been able to create a position for junk food as ‘pleasure’ ‘luxury’ etc etc

It is so far away from being fuel now

Just look at how people react when you say to cut out junk... “we need some pleasure in our lives” etc.

The marketing has worked

Put that alongside the fact that many of these foods are highly addictive, designed to be addictive, then we’ve got a serious problem

This is not a matter of willpower

It’s good marketing and fantastic science in creating addictive foods

CordylineKiwi. I'm sorry about your DH

We do need to explore, why, as a society this is happening. However, I always smile at the comments about how it’s socially acceptable in other countries or cultures to outright tell someone they are overweight. What’s the point?! The 5ft 4 woman who is 15 stone knows she’s not a size 6 with a washboard stomach. Do you really think very overweight or obese people think of themselves as fragile little waifs? There will be the minority who don’t notice they’ve gained half a stone over lockdown but most adults very much realise when their trousers are feeling a bit snug!

@DishingOutDone go and derail another thread, please.

If people knew the effort that food manufacturers go to to ensure their food is as addictive (or the somehow more marketable phrase ‘moreish’) I am sure they would be horrified. And feel very duped.

See I think to have a pleasant discussion on this, you’d practically need to enforce strict limits like only debating what government/regulations can do.

Otherwise it descends like this one has. Understandably imo. Anyone who feels superior to fat people has immediately diminished themselves by taking that view. And should have a good long think about what really makes a person valuable.

@hamstersarse

Unregulated Marketing has definitely been able to create a position for junk food as ‘pleasure’ ‘luxury’ etc etc

It is so far away from being fuel now

Just look at how people react when you say to cut out junk... “we need some pleasure in our lives” etc.

The marketing has worked

Put that alongside the fact that many of these foods are highly addictive, designed to be addictive, then we’ve got a serious problem

This is not a matter of willpower

It’s good marketing and fantastic science in creating addictive foods

I agree with this. One poster on this thread has repeatedly posited that treats are the only joy you can have if you're poor and appears to think arguing against unhealthy food is trying to take away the only pleasures they have.

I would strongly disagree that food is the only joy you can have if you're poor, and I think equating food with happiness is a dangerous thing to do and is telling of disordered (comfort) eating resulting from poor mental health, which is just one of the many reasons why obesity is a hard issue to tackle.

Targeting poverty, mental health, and the prevalence of junk food / fast food / snack marketing in our society would go a long way to making the UK a much healthier nation.

@Haenow it does help you not to fall into denial and actually get onto it early. As long as it's not in a nasty way, talking about these things should be ok within a family unit.

It's nkt about not noticing. It's about very heavily telling yourself that you are buying the bigger size because that's what models do and why it looks good on them, that you are just having bit of a cold and that's why you are running out of breath and so on. Having someone to talk to you in a factual non nasty weight and actually starting taht discussion can be beneficial to quite a few people.

@SchrodingersImmigrant

Honestly, I don’t see how or why one should take advice from Uncle Bob.
Most overweight or obese people will have seen a health care professional at some point. Yet, they don’t change their habits. It’s a much more complex problem than denial and bluntness. If doesn’t help to be clearly told your BMI is X and you have pre diabetes by someone who trained for years, then being told “it’s not good for your heart, lovey” by a well meaning relative probably won’t either.

Of course, instead of the need for soma comfort we could give people better lives instead of a semi brave new world.

Doubt it will happen. It's far cheaper to punish and blame people.

Btw what's people's preference wrt how to pay the additional pension and social care costs (when everybody loses weight and lives longer)?

Personally I'd go for tax increases but others might have another idea?

I think the going on a diet culture is part of the problem it is just temporarily replacing one type of disordered eating with another.
On a personal level I have been loosing weight very slowly by thinking about what I eat and being conscious of portion size, also if I want to eat a cake I eat a small one and don't eat an apple and a banana to justify eating it.
I find exercise useful it gives me something to do so I eat less as I am less bored I also have a social life built around the gym.
I think what I mean is that incorrect and misleading dietary information is part of the problem, along with bordem and lonelyness,.
If people are happy have good friends and interesting things to do they are less likely to turn to food for comfort.

Bad housing is a known health issue.

It's a shame that the same level of concern expressed here over obesity isn't seen wrt the lack of affordable stable housing.

Poverty and deprivation too. Both are health issues - with huge financial knock on effects.

I think those talking about food cultures being different elsewhere in their childhoods perhaps haven't looked at the obesity stats from recently- we definitely top the charts in Europe, sometimes tied with Hungary, but a quick google tells you that even places you think are full of slim people are not- it's almost impossible to find a European country where 50% of the population is not overweight or obese. Netherlands- 52%, Switzerland 49% and on track to increase more than most other nations.

In other words, although we can attribute a bit of difference to food cultures, we have more obese people than many other nations, and that undoubtedly is due to the snacking/junk food culture, being in a developed nation is synonymous with being fat for at least half the population, and so it isn't just lots and lots and lots of people all failing in their willpower at the same time, it's about a food industry that deliberately creates fattening satisfying (called hyperpalatable) food high in fat, sugar and salt because we are biologically programmed to want that stuff. Combine that with other changes around movement, and portion size (because in a capitalist culture, large portions sell) and you have a very large population across Europe, Mexico, US and so forth.

I also agree that there are lots of hidden reasons people become overweight- it's no coincidence that anti-ds and drugs that increase weight are most prescribed in the UK and the US, it's a vicious circle.

The idea everyone is slim in Europe except us is a load of rubbish though, these are global trends, most pronounced here, but we aren't the fattest nation in the world so something else must be going on.

Haenow We do need to explore, why, as a society this is happening. However, I always smile at the comments about how it’s socially acceptable in other countries or cultures to outright tell someone they are overweight. What’s the point?! The 5ft 4 woman who is 15 stone knows she’s not a size 6 with a washboard stomach. Do you really think very overweight or obese people think of themselves as fragile little waifs? grin There will be the minority who don’t notice they’ve gained half a stone over lockdown but most adults very much realise when their trousers are feeling a bit snug!

The point is I think that people in society look out for each other and they sort of think its a good thing to make someone aware if they are gaining weight. But in The Netherlands, total strangers will say it e g in a changing room or at a social meet up, if they get talking to you. I've also had a couple of people from non-European cultures say it to me too and to be honest, it was quite helpful as I'm slimmer than I was when I was younger and those sort of remarks helped me wake up to the fact that I could look better (and I was never very overweight, maybe 1 - 1/12 stones over my ideal, but I'm short so I don't carry it well).

I'm not sure it would be said to a person who weighs 15 stones so much. It depends on context. But different countries with different cultures exist, Britain isn't the only country in the world!

I've tracked my food on my fitness pal. I eat between 900-1200 cals a day to lose not very much (maybe 0.5lb a week)
Maybe if my thyroid was medicated properly, and I could exercise then yes I would lose weight. But given I can't even go for a walk, until that is sorted I'm a bit stuck

I wonder also what the effect of how we view our own bodies is. I notice in the UK people tend to find nudity unacceptable and are often uncomfortable with themselves. In some of the other European countries mentioned your body is seen as natural and people tend to be less self conscious.

I think this also makes the comments about how in some places pointing out someone has piled on the pounds is a statement of fact. Other UK based posters note that this would likely cause great offence and misery here.

It is also true that there is a more sedentary lifestyle in USA and UK, more snacking culture etc. I don't know what the solutions are but perhaps UK should look to their neighbours with lower obesity rates and try to work out what could work. It's not as simple as poverty/ cookbooks/ gym membership

Alpinia I wonder also what the effect of how we view our own bodies is. I notice in the UK people tend to find nudity unacceptable and are often uncomfortable with themselves. In some of the other European countries mentioned your body is seen as natural and people tend to be less self conscious.

Oh yes, definately. People are horrified here, as in literally disgusted, when I tell them I used to love going to a beautiful naked health spa back home. Unisex. All shapes and sizes there too, the point is that you don't look and everyone feels comfortable.

Magically create shorter work days for the same pay so people feel like they have time for scratch cooking and energy for exercise.

@alpinia absolutely. I made people blush by saying I used to sun tan without top all the time. It was absolutely acceptable by the pools and lakes.
I have never dared to nudist beach though. Altough I wanted. Not brave enough.

I think you are absolutely right about the different attitudes hence different reactions to talking about not so positive things.

@GlowingOrb

Magically create shorter work days for the same pay so people feel like they have time for scratch cooking and energy for exercise.

That reminds me. People talking about the past - saying how people weren't obese then. Perhaps that's down to the amphetamines they used to take as diet pills. They were also used to boost energy.

And, no, I'm not suggesting we start giving out pep pills. Just pointing out that comparing to the past isn't as simple as saying well we ate less/better then.

@hamstersarse

I agree OP

Covid isn’t the only epidemic. The health of our nation is awful and the spiralling costs for the NHS from lifestyle illness is just unacceptable. And we can’t just keep saying ‘more money more money’ we have to get to the root cause

Dietary advice is wrong.

Our food environment is criminal

Junk is seen as a normal diet

Slim is now a minority group

I have not read the whole thread but totally agree with this. Of course exercise is important but attitudes to food in the U.K. need a fundamental shift.