To not be surprised the NHS is in trouble…

[Itmakesnosensetome]

We’re on holiday in Tenerife. We’re in a pretty nice hotel, fairly pricey so quite a lot of wealthy retired people . Pretty much every single person is very overweight or obese. I don’t mean a bit of a tum and hips- I’m talking huge, hard bellies on the men and massive women. there has always been overweight people but this feels unbelievable. There are some Spanish, Norwegian and Swedish people and none of them are fat - how can the NHS cope with this problem?

There is a difference between countries like Spain and France, and the UK, and I've lived in all three.

The two former have easier access to a very wide variety of fruit and vegetables. Their lettuces are varied and enormous, for example. The best we have is thr comparatively unappetising little gem. The side salad we would get next to a sandwich in this country is generally seen as a garnish, but abroad its very much part of the meal. In short, our relationship with vegetables is not what it should be, and we have easy access to beige, processed foods that make us lazy chefs.

There is another problem of course, and I think it comes down to housing costs. Houses in the UK are so costly that both partners have to work, where traditionally one partner couls stay at home and prepare healthy meals. This is a very difficult one to unpick, after all, who wants to sell their house for less so that the buyers can work less? Housing in france is much cheaper and pricing is less volatile.

In terms of beer bellies, it is true that beer here usually comes in pints, but in france and Spain a portion is smaller. You do see beer bellies in germany, and they have big glasses there too.

Lastly, as English speakers, we are strongly influenced by American culture, which includes their food, and that's not quite the case in france and Spain.

I am overweight: the cause - my cravings for chocolate bars in pregnancy, and the ease to buy them, though again, the kind of 50g portion snack product isn't really available over there. They do have them, but it's usually a multi pack of four so a bit less of an impulse buy at the newsagents. Their newsagents are also mostly news and mags, rather than chocolate. The range of magazines available in the average town in france is mind boggling, so much more than you could find in the spar here. They are as such exposed to much more inspiration for hobbies. Further, there is massive funding at a local level for grass roots sports of all kinds, think stuff like archery, which is sometimes seen as a bit niche here and is underfunded (I am an archer)

I've cost the nhs nearly £1 million over the last 8 years with the treatment I've had so far. None of it related to obesity, smoking or drinking though. I was always as fit as a fiddle until one day I wasn't. I'm thankful every day for our nhs

With some people it isn't how much you eat though, it can't be as I sometimes eat a load of crap but my weight is always the same, about 21.5 BMI, some fat people probably don't eat as much as me and are still fat, I also sit on my arse a lot so it not all the exercise I do. I think some are just naturally fat like some are very naturally thin and its genetic

YANBU

I am obese, it isn't good and I need to sort it out.

That being said, the support isn't there for people who are struggling with food issues. I have a cyclical eating disorder and go through phases of severe restriction (I've received help for this), binge/purging (I've received help for this) and just binging (where I am now) and there is zero help if you are a binge eater. Getting help for the other two issues with my eating was hard, but it is not there for binge eaters at all. I have been in contact with doctors for around a year trying to get help, but there is none - absolutely none!

I'm not a weak willed person, I've given up smoking in the past and have maintained 200 calorie per day diets whilst exercising for four hours per day. I need some help, I can't seem to fix this on my own, I fail over and over again. I approach every day with a plan on how to improve my diet, but fail, it isn't a will or discipline thing, it is a mental health issue.

It can be more complex than just being greedy and lazy. I don't even enjoy the food I eat, I actively dislike the feeling of eating and the tastes involved, I would describe it more as a form of slow self-harm.

Friend of mine who has always had manual physical jobs can no longer excersise while waiting for the NHS to pull their finger out and do his knee replacement

Anecdata warning! We have late DFIL's and GFIL's cine films of Canterbury daily life in the 1950s and 60s. Just people going about their business. And there is no one who is outside a bit "stout" or slightly tubby. Most of the women, of all ages, would fit into a current 8-12 dress size. There are no chubby children, at all. These are untouched, unedited contemporary amateur footage, and there is not a single person who I would consider overweight.

@htdef2 I sympathise with you and understand how difficult it must be to find a sensible balance of eating well, healthily and to find and maintain a balance after a life of yo-yo eating/dieting.

Sorry to seem like I posted and ran - haven’t checked phone as we’ve been doing stuff on holiday.

i see I’ve been accused of being ignorant/not understanding the true problems of the NHS and yes, from my original post I understand why this might be the case! I had been observing for a few days round the pool and the obesity problem was just so clear. I totally understand the NHS has so many issues, mainly to do with under investment and funding. I also get that dementia, which is not caused by any lifestyle choices we know about, is the number 1 killer in the UK. However, IN GENERAL (I get there are exceptions) obesity is caused by overeating and inactive lifestyle. It is IN GENERAL a person’s lifestyle choices that make them obese. I’m not a martyr - I eat pizza, drink wine etc but I also eat heartily most of the time (no, not lettuce leaves from buffets 🙄🙄🙄) and exercise regularly. So I just maintain a reasonable lifestyle.

to the person who was apparently the 15th person to point out that tits cheaper to holiday in February than the summer, this resort is expensive year round and many of the older people here are owner/members so the outlay is pretty huge. I was trying to point out that this isn’t a class issue, it’s epidemic.

thanks to those that highlighted that being severely overweight (again, I’m not talking about people who are carrying a little excess - I’m not body shaming and no, I haven’t felt that the men have hard bellies but you can see it) can cause cancers, are responsible for many hip and knee replacements, heart attacks, as well as by-pass surgery.

So what's your master plan for turning this around then @Itmakesnosensetome ?

@Itmakesnosensetome I completely agree. I'm currently in Thailand and it's obvious who the Brits are round the pool. It's really made me think about my own weight and lifestyle. I've put on a huge amount of weight over the last 2 years. I comfort eat, do little exercise and my mental health is suffering. This has been quite an active holiday but my body is aching, probably because of inflammation and I have poor circulation. I'm now opting for healthy food and doing gentle yoga in the morning. I don't need a doctor to tell me I'm overweight or what I should be doing about it. I already know but it's interesting to note how the Thai people eat. Their portions are smaller and they seem much more aware of how much food is enough. It's really brought home to me how bad the obesity epidemic is in the UK.

I think the idea is for people to be more aware and responsible for there OWN health

in this day and age should we really have to have our arsed wiped and be told be the government to look after our health

The fact it’s so widespread shows there’s a society wide issue though. Our eating / exercise habits that have become “normal” are actually wrong and damaging. Food that should be an occasional treat is eaten daily. Processed food and sedentary lifestyle leads to this. I am approaching 50 and down to 2 meals a day and daily cardio just to stay in a normal bmi.

I'm overweight and agree with you that it's a big problem op.

I don't think any of us can blame the government, the medical professionals, wider society or anyone but ourselves really.

Healthy eating and the importance of exercise is taught throughout fifteen years of compulsory education and calories are printed on everything.

Children are weighed in Year 6 and mn is full of people who are outraged that they've had a letter telling them that their child is overweight, explaining why they aren't and so on.

With the exception of a medical condition that exacerbated weight gain I think it is mostly down to poor impulse and self control, entitlement and denial.

Even knowing that obesity is likely to lead to poor health, lower quality of life and early death doesn't seem to deter us. I don't know what the answer is but it would have to be something radical at this point.

If it were up to me there would be a massive education campaign with proper nutrition advice and stats about what obesity can lead to like with smoking, We changed societal attitudes to drink driving / smoking same needs to be done for personal responsibility for your own health.

I would legislate so supermarkets can’t push shit processed food and ensure every teen taught proper nutrition/ health/exercise and easy healthy recipes. Lots of teens and young adults are very into the gym healthy eating lifestyle anyway the boomers and gen x need to take a leaf out if their book…

They didn't drive every

I suppose it’s normalisation. If all your family and friends are overweight, it’s nothing out of the ordinary to be a larger size.

I slob around in old clothes and no make-up; that’s fine round here - absolutely normal. When I lived in Manhattan I’d have stuck out like a sore thumb.

Adverts featuring very fat people and wide availability of vanity-sized clothes - including school uniform - all go to helping people think it’s quite all right to be what is actually a very unhealthy weight.

It really is as simple as eating not eating more calories than you burn off. There's always excuses as to why that isn't the case for particular posters - I eat 700 calories a day and walk everywhere but I'm STILL overweight type posts - but honestly that's all there is to it.
I definitely think lots of people need a reality check as to what a normal weight looks like and normal portion size etc.
If everyone around you is big as well then you quite possibly don't notice.

Obviously OP on wind up, yet the sad sad fuckers who rushed to agree with them purely to spit their venom about fat people 😂always makes me chuckle.

This topic always gets backlash on mn but I hope people are considering this and age related impact as it’s going to get even tougher

It's a complex issue. Of course there are healthy overweight people but at a population level, it is a massive strain on the NHS (more likely to have health issues, more likely to get complications from other non obesity health issues, longer recovery times, specialist equipment needed, more people to lift etc).

But there are also other significant issues such as chronic underfunding, lack of preventative medicine, an aging population with no functioning care system and a culture of not taking responsibility for personal health. It's strange to pick out just one factor and focus solely on that. Even if everyone was skinny and fit, a health system with not enough funding and a majority of beds taken by elderly people who could be in care homes, would still not function

yet the sad sad fuckers who rushed to agree with them purely to spit their venom about fat people

I dunno. Maybe there are some people who want to spit venom but most of what I can see is just people being honest. Obesity IS a huge problem for the NHS. Other than an aging population it's probably the biggest cost. Since we can't do anything about population aging - it's definitely worth trying to get on top of obesity, which people CAN do something about. People just don't like to hear it.

@QuertyGirl On the button. There are people on foot, carrying shopping bags, pushing prams, buses and bikes ... but hardly any cars.

@DrinkFeckArseBrick In real (inflation-adjusted) terms, the NHS budget has quadrupled since 1979-80, according to an article I've just read in today's FT by Camilla Cavendish, if you want to read it: I would post a link but it's behind their paywall.

Obviously, lots of that gets soaked up by more sophisticated treatments for a rapidly ageing population living with chronic long-term conditions, the Big Three being diabetes, heart disease and arthritis: together, those three represent two-thirds of NHS spending. Arthritis may not be caused by obesity, but it's often a contributing factor in the other two. SO I agree with what @Swiftbushome wrote above.

And as yet, there's no good way to treat dementia medically, so the burden on social care is crushing the system as the aged population increases. We shall eventually have to have a social care insurance system that everyone contributes to individually rather than shifting the burden to local authorities via council tax.

It's absolutely true that obesity isn't a pure cals in versus cals out problem in everyone.
Some people will, for example, have mental health problems that they "medicate" with over eating; some people will have hypothyroidism etc etc

But for all the people posting on these sorts of threads explaining that they work out every day, eat like a bird, but are still obese, there are people posting on the weight-loss boards saying:
"Ooh, tee hee - don't know what happened, but six biscuits jumped into my mouth this morning! And next week I'm going out so I know I won't have any will power after a few glasses of wine..."

I started looking on the low carb boards for recipe ideas due to having diabetes (not weight related) and was amazed that a lot of people just delude themselves and play at getting the weight off.
Bit like alcoholics who say "Boring old farts who don't drink! I'm here for a good time, not a long time - it's gin o'clock! Haha".

And there are loads of posts suggesting that overweight people be referred to a dietitian - like dietitians will know some magic way of eating exactly what you want while losing weight.
Dietitians will trot out the same "boring" healthy eating ideas that nobody wants to hear.

The reason I was looking for low carb ideas was because I'd been diagnosed with diabetes. I was referred to a dietitian and, 2 years later, I'm still waiting. Good luck with seeing one for just Eating-too-much-itis.

Maybe the best thing to do is eat what you want, snigger at the "teeny-tinies" and tell them to "stuff a biscuit in your gob, love!". But there will be consequences for some and there'll still be a load of fat people for whom posting on the various weight loss boards is their only exercise.

It's really not complex at all.

We drive everywhere.

People have forgotten what their bodies are for- moving.