Labour should invest in weight loss medications immediately

[HowToSaveTheNHS]

AIBU to think the Labour government should seriously consider rolling out weight loss drugs to the obese population, to tackle obesity, diabetes and cut NHS waiting lists? Traditional public health measures to tackle obesity are not working.

We spend so much money treating disease associated with obesity and it’s only going to get worse as increasing numbers of people are living for decades with multiple health conditions associated with obesity. Even dementia’s leading cause is Type 2 diabetes.

Looking at the Mounjaro thread on here, huge numbers of Mumsnetters are successfully losing weight and improving their health. But people on lower incomes won’t have access because the drugs are expensive.

A course of drugs for a year will surely be money well spent if we can reduce heart disease/ diabetes/ dementia/ cancer etc… even hypertension.

What is recommended and what do you think low carb is?

So no food group is being cut out then?

Why should the taxpayer fund people who can't be bothered to eat healthier and take more exercise. It's a load of cobblers when they say they can't lose weight they could if they had the willpower and really tried I lost 4 stone without drugs and my daughters partner list 9 stone without drugs. Its a matter if self discipline.

I don’t know the amounts specifically and I imagine it’s different for everybody but eating so little that our bodies stop using them for energy isn’t good. Our bodies are designed to use carbs.

😂

I thought for most of human history we were hunter gatherers. There would have been sugar in fruits and wild honey but fruits were much smaller and often sour. Wild starchy roots are also small.

So you dont really understand about low carb but choose to say something like 'cutting out a food group is not a good thing'

Low carb (the clue is in the name) is about eating fewer carbohydrates that the modern diet would normally give and about those carbohydrates being unrefined. Its not cutting out a food group, that would be virtually impossible in the case of carbohydrates.

I eat 'low carb'. I have porridge and prunes for breakfast (carbs), with milk (carbs), I drink milk all day in tea and coffee (carbs), I eat fruit and veg (carbs), I eat legumes, pulses and lentils (carbs). I eat the odd bit of homemade cake or biscuit (very definitely carbs).

I run between 50 to 100g of carbs a day. Very low carbers are under 50, sometimes lower.

I completely agree. The NHS can't afford not to.

No, actually. I understand that for weight loss ‘low carb’ is used to mean eating low enough to switch from using glucose for energy. And that is not good because it is essentially cutting out that particular food group if you’re not consuming enough for it to have any effect on your body in terms of energy usage. I didn’t know specific numbers because that will probably vary for each indivdual.

And the person I quoted was specifically advocating switching from glucose for energy.

You're talking about keto. Not everyone eating low carb is doing it that way. People on keto are usually around 20g per day.

Please learn about it before spouting off about cutting out food groups.

The most up to date and informed diabetes services and staff advice lower carb.

Porridge. Who said significant? Not me.

And I see you edited your post which affects the flow of the conversation

Ultimately it is not cutting out a food group, it is virtually impossible to go carb free.

I’m not spouting about something I don’t know about. Atkins - probably the most well known low carb weight loss diet there is and what most people think of when talking about low carb weight loss was originally 20g (though now there is a 40g version too). In order to switch to fat for fuel

And that is classed as low carb in the context of what I am referring to - it’s far too low for what our bodies need.

If you look, I only edited it to say that the poster I quoted was referring to switching to fat from glucose which confirms why I said what I said in the first place.

Atkins/Keto - its much of a muchness because of the amount

The reality is that most people eating low carb arent at those levels, the NHS itself sets low carb to be under 100g.

Most people are not doing atkins or keto and even if they were its not cutting out a food group, which is what you claimed!!!

I see posters saying this about 'cutting out a food group' all the time low carb is mentioned, the clue is in the name 'LOW' carb.

We’ll agree to disagree. If you’re as low as 20g, you’re essentially cutting it out because that is absolutely not enough to have any benefit to your body.

Do you not know diabetics are routinely told they won’t lose mega pounds, these injections control blood sugar. Did you not read Women’s health magazine last month Ozempic caused a bowel blockage. These injections are taken at people’s own later risk.

Been lucky to get 6 full months on any one particular injection as they all to often go out of stock.

If the government want to get serious why not offer people the discomfort of inflatable ballon’s that last 6 months and close down many fast food joints.

When I attended for a colonoscopy I was asked if oral Rybelsus (Semiglutide) was a blood pressure medication because apparently it sounded like it. 😳

My paraplegic brother who is a severe type 2 diabetic almost bordering on type 1 gave up on last chance Rybelsus before I. He deeply couldn’t tolerate the side effects and as someone with decreased mobility even more painful. These injections ok as long as you move round.

Indeed it is - but that is still, in most cases, down to the person themselves. I'm overweight myself, and I know how to change that, and I know I can do it, and I will take the steps to do so.

Why should people (and I know this doesn't apply to SOME people) get a quick fix paid for by the government when there is something they could do to help themselves? Blaming UPFs is just a cop out also, they've been around for years. I eat plenty myself but I'm not "addicted" to them. People know how to eat right, they just don't want to put any effort into doing so.

Modern society seems to have become very lazy and too reliant on others for help.

Have you ever lost weight before? And if so, did you maintain that weight loss?

@NorthSouthLondon Interesting. I come from a very poor country in Africa which means most people cook for themselves. You buy the veggies off a woman typically the same day they are harvested and cook them. You get chicken relatively fresh or slaughter your own. Ditto other meats. At most its been frozen for quite a while. Corporations are pushing ultra cheap processed foods but most people still cant afford it. When I lived there I was never overweight. Am fast gaining weight here (a combination of snacking and being perimenopausal). Recently, I started noticing that when I go back, my body feels lighter, better. I don't know how to describe it except that I feel cleaner inside. I hate to use that phrase because I don't want it associated with clean eating. But the thing is I hardly eat processed food and I eat very little sugar. Since I never have sugar in tea or porridge, my sources of sugar here are snacks, restaurant food and supermarket ready meals. there my snacks are fruits, snacks, legumes, the occasional homemade donut (no filling, no dusting with sugar. we just dont). When I first started visiting my in-laws here several years ago, I think they thought me precious but I could taste sugar in many meals (these are people who thoroughly research their foods, buy organic and sustainable everything. So its wasnt "cheap rubbish"). The British palate has been so primed for sweetness that even vegetables here are bred to be sweet (think Beetroot, broccoli, carrot. They are getting sweeter every year. Yes perhaps more people eat them but what is the flip slide of it).

Also study after study shows that in Europe, UK ranks no 1 or 2 in consumption of Ultra Processed Foods. Strangely I used to live in a country where people depend a lot on bread and pre-made/packaged food. Yet that country -it turns out - consumes half the amount of UPFs as the UK. Some studies in fact show that as much as 60% of an average Brit's daily energy (not food which also has interesting implications) intake is from ultra processed food and drink (I guess in part because UPFs tend to be high energy foods as well. So people may eat small portions but are consuming lots of calories). I think most studies though estimate it at about 40 to 50% while many other countries in europe are at 20% or less.

For where UK is on the UPFs ladder in Europe, see below

"The proportion of daily food consumption amount deriving from UPFDs for men ranged from to 6.4% (Italy) and 6.7% (Estonia) to 20.0% (the Netherlands) and 22.9% (Sweden), of which on average around 55% was coming from UPFs. The consumption amount of UPDs was, however, higher than that of UPFs in Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal and Romania (2–4% higher) and similar in Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Romania, and Spain. The share of dietary energy coming from UPFDs for men ranged from 12.9% (Italy) and 14.6% (Romania) to 39.7% (the UK) and 40.6% (Sweden), with on average around 90% of the dietary energy from UPFDs was coming from UPFs.
Similarly, for women, proportion of daily food consumption amount from UPFDs was low for Estonia (5.7%) and Italy (6.1%), and high for the Netherlands (16.6%), the United Kingdom (17.2%), and Sweden (20.9%), while the consumption amount of UPDs was similar to that of UPFs in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, and Spain. The share of dietary energy coming from UPFDs for women was also low in Italy (13.8%) and Romania (15.8%), while high in the UK (41.3%) and Sweden (43.8%)." Source: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-021-02733-7)

@HowToSaveTheNHS Am not saying injections shouldn't be made available but that the problem goes deeper and injections alone are unlikely be adequate. Also to maintain, people might need to stay on these life-long with all the side effects. Its a tough one for sure but it needs a multi-prong approach

Obesity is not a problem just for the UK. Rates are increasing all over Europe. Even in countries we think of as being "healthier".

It's true rates are higher in UK (Turkey is highest) for obesity - but the number of overweight people is quite consistent across Europe.

No. That is not the answer. Instead they should make healthier food cheaper to buy. It’s far too easy to spend £5 on a weeks worth of ready meals that are full of saturated fats and sugar than it is to spend £5 on the ingredients necessary for a single healthier meal. It’s backwards. Fruit and veg shouldn’t cost as much as they do and reducing those prices would encourage people to buy more. I took weight loss drugs a few years ago. Yes they worked but when I came off them, I put the weight back on. This time I have lost weight in a more sustainable way by changing what I eat.

UPF are a huge issue. Operations and medications should be a last resort, there are always consequences.
We need better food regulation and more independent studies, that are actually real independent studies not funded by anyone with any connections to huge “food” (not food) businesses. Read ultra processed people by Chris van tulleken and food for life by Tim spectre
Listen to the various health podcasts by Steven Bartlett.

This was my experience too.

Whilst I absolutely agree food prices have skyrocketed and fruit and veg should be affordable for all.
I don’t agree that you can’t do a weeks worth of meals for £5. Assuming you have a freezer.
I regularly cook at the weekends for 20 people ( in one meal )
My budget is £10. On average I come out at £9 with spices and some ingredients over afterwards.
I usually make curries, Moroccan stews that sort of thing. ie. Large one pot meals.
With a freezer of course these meals could be stored.

Fruit is expensive but growers are struggling to keep the costs down so I think it would be better to put higher taxes on upf and high sugar foods.

The food industry is the problem. Manufacturers packing processed foods with sugar, salt and fats. Dangerous to many.
Hard to find low fat and low sugar food at affordable prices. Ketchup which is low sugar and salt is way more expensive than the usual 20% sugar kind. Particularly dearer than supermarket own brands. Any foods, such as bread or cake, for those sensitive to gluten or similar are very costly to families. Governments favour business interests over public health.I
Since having to cut saturated fats and sugar above 5% of food from my diet I find it hard to eat out in a restaurant, cafe or pub. My choice is limited to a salad in most places. Might as well eat at home!
Countries like America are decades ahead of us in offering healthier choices.
The GPs are not referring anyone to the weight loss clinic for the injections as demand has been too high. Won't even put them on a waiting list.
One drug causes diahorrea and sickness and another an increased risk of thyroid cancer.
I have lost weight since having to cut my fats and sugar/carbs drastically.
From March 2022 to December I have gone from a size 20 to a 10. Had been expensive buying new sizes every few months! Was a year to be size 14. In fact at Xmas my BMI went too low. I never thought I would be this small having been hefty since a child and trying many diets over the years.