Fat people even more likely to be affected by COVID than previously thought

[pocketem]

UK government scientists are urgently investigating whether people living with obesity may be disproportionately affected by the coronavirus, after emerging data from intensive care units suggested a stronger link than previously thought.

New data from the UK’s Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre, which has been presented to ministers and SAGE scientists, has found that the proportion of severely obese patients in ICUs is twice the proportion in the general population.

Ministers have become increasingly alarmed by data coming out of Britain’s intensive care units, with some members of the government suggesting obesity may end up being a factor in the UK’s higher death toll.

The UK is currently projected to have the highest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe. Around 1 in 4 UK adults are obese. In 2018, the WHO found that the UK had the third highest obesity rate in Europe, behind only Malta and Turkey.

More here:
www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/alexwickham/uk-scientists-coronavirus-obesity-link

xenia you didn't see or didn't understand 1rdbra1n's message then. She very clearly stated her disgust for fat people.

Homemade pizza is perfectly healthy, and there’s no such thing as real food and (presumably) fake food.

My mum (born in the 1940s) was raised on sugar sandwiches, white bread, and fish and chips from the chippie. It was common for children to be fed sugar after rationing ended, because it was believed to be a good source of energy. White bread also used to be advertised as a health food. Even Mars Bars used to be advertised as being for athletes. Maybe some people in past generations were living on whelks but it was hardly commonplace.

My grandmother was tiny but quite grand no white bread and sugar for her😁 went to a vintage sale weekend before lockdown and lots of the clothes for the average woman very small

The mail is saying that obese workers would be given the chance to work from home to minimise the risk if offices went back in. It's probably a load of crap, but interesting that they have even published it.

Yes SW and the fake sugar. It's the only thing that I disagreed with when I did it. In every other way though it worked well and has re-set my eating habits.
But on the subject of previous generations it is interesting isn it? i too remember being given sugar sandwiches by my granny, and sugar and vinegar sprinkled on lettuce leaves as a treat. Weird but feather wonderful. And as a primary school child in the early seventies my mum sprinkled actual glucose on my cornflakes 'for energy'!! So sugar wasn't invented in the 1980's.
But I do think everyone was more active, and snacks were less frequent. You ate three good meals and day and that was it. No cheeky treat in front of the telly at 9pm or random wine drinking.

OneEnd, sorry did not see that bit. However I am sure most people are not disgusted by people who are fat. More people are over weight than not and most of them would prefer to be healthy weights but find it hard.

I don't mind if people think the idea of "real" food is not a thing. All I mean by the term is something you can pick or dig from the ground is likely to be better for you than something processed and full of complex ingredients. However whatever way gets people to eat fewer calories and get to a healthy weight is going to be a good thing given our current obesity epidemic.

I am not happy with all the suggestions old people should stay at home, fat people should, non white people should, even men should whilst women work even though all those people seem more at risk of covid 19 as it is very divisive for society.

Artificially sweeteners are fake food to me.

I think people were just not eating HUGE amounts of junk even in the 80s -there was no 24/7 McD’s etc availability (and delivery if you want) of fast food, fizzy drinks were for parties, it was once taboo to eat too much now it’s seen as “go on! You need this” - so many societal changes.

I was rather partial to an orange club biscuit in the 80s but you’d only get one. Now I see kids being given an adult sized bag of Haribo to eat after school. People have gone mad.

The actual recommendations under the Govt’s back to work proposals that Buzz Feed ran yesterday is that ANYONE on the (quite comprehensive) clinically vulnerable list should be helped by employers to work from home or in a socially distanced manner - but of course the Mail plucks out just obese people for the headline.

In terms of office staff it says everyone should continue to WFH if possible - vulnerable or not.

So people who are more at risk of developing complications or a more serious form of the disease should continue to be extra cautious - it is not just obese people.

It's a good thing though, if it is a risk factor which it seems to be, I am glad it is being considered.

Today 08:26Xenia - OneEnd, sorry did not see that bit.

It's OK. Think I'm just bemused by someone so openly spewing disgust at overweight people.

I agree with so much of what you say Goldenkelpie..and others
I’ve been sorting my ibs out for decades and I’m now in touching distance of being well again.
Trouble is Ive gained weight And naturally I hate that.
I need to tweak it.
First off I went gluten and dairy free..100 per cent
Breakfast is home Made gf oat muesli with nuts , seeds dried fruit. And fresh fruit with some almond or coconut milk. This keeps me regular and stops the bloat

Lunch is a banana spread over three KalLo Belgian choc covered rice cakes..my guilty pleasure

Dinner..animal protein, fresh veg and some carb ..sweet potatoes, rice, quinoa, buckwheat,

I don’t like pasta..

Liquid is water, peppermint tea
I don’t drink alcohol
I usually have 4 squares of dark choc on an evening ..and don’t eat again after evening meal till breakfast about 10 am..so a 14 to 15 hour fast

I hate exercise. So mine is just mainly daily living.
That’s a typical day/ diet every day
I might swap lunch for a few crisps and hummus
I don’t like calorie counting and hate ww and sw foods with a passion.

I’m probably about 7-10 lbs heavier than Id like to be as clothes are tight

How would an employer offer the chance to WFH to obese employees? They can hardly say “You’re fat, best stay where you are”?

HavartitoMeetYou - you are right about sugar sandwiches and chips - but it is the quantities that have changed.

We were not rich. We had a high proportion of cheap bread and potatoes. (Plus cabbage and cheap vegetables in season - no fruit except occasionally apples). But sweets once a week (and then only a small handful), no food outside mealtimes - at all! Hardly a healthy diet but not one that made you fat.

Your food intake sounds really good to me @Dowser. I eat in a similar way, looking at your typical day. We do need less calories as we get older, sad but true. I could happily stabilise my weight on 2000 calories a day in my thirties, two decades on and I gain if I eat more than 1500. I am really active too.

@TheoneandObi So glad SW worked for you. I think the basic premise of filling your plate with salad/veg is good - but it's the refined carbs and empty calories that floored me. But there are healthy ways to tweak it.

Kids and food! Tell me about it. I work in a school, on the way is our little Co Op. The amount of kids who use their dinner money to buy a massive packet of sweets, tube of Pringles, family packs of cakes and biscuits on the way in is horrifying.

People didn’t snack in our parents’ generation- if you eat three meals a day and don’t snack you will be a healthy weight

Fast800 is a great book explaining this

Remember the phase “you’ll spoil your lunch” if you asked for food outside a mealtime? no one says that anymore both my grandparents said it a lot!

I agree, I’m 49 and was never given snacks really. At school there was milk before Thatcher snatched it but I didn’t like it anyway. It was shredded wheat or ready break or eggs for breakfast , school lunch (70s meals were monitored) and a proper dinner in the evening. Plus we played out for hours.

I agree on snacks and i think in our house actually people would say even in 2020 if someone was going to eat a snack thing and dinner was coming up soon one of my twins would say to the other if you have that you won't want dinner as will a lot of parents. (They cook and eat together at lot of the time) I think the gaps between when we eat are important (even though scientifically it is the case that is you have 8 tiny meals a day with same calories as 2 or 3 you will put on the same weight). The gaps between eating seem to let the body rest and heal a bit more.

I agree with the person above that if employers are to say you are black or fat or an old man so you cannot come into the office but you are thin so you can is going to be a recipe for disaster. If the person gets full pay then people are going to be vying with each other to prove they are fat enough or sick enough to stay at home whilst getting paid.

I was thinking of this thread last night when I felt miserable and binged on 4 Wispa bars.

Even Mars Bars used to be advertised as being for athletes

Oh yes, I'd forgotten that... the slogan was 'a Mars a day helps you work, rest and play'.

@Xenia If the person gets full pay then people are going to be vying with each other to prove they are fat enough or sick enough to stay at home whilst getting paid.

🙄🙄 people can still work from home in most occupations. The furlough scheme stops in June so unless they decide to renew it people won't be sitting at home doing nothing.

However Xenia, you did say further down that obese people should have to pay for treatment etc as they are draining the NHS. It is therefore interesting that solutions to stop them getting seriously ill with covid thus stopping them ending up in hospital is a bad idea to you.
You can't have it both ways.

Thinking of snacks I always nagged my mum for a pack of Hedgehog crisps at ballet. This would’ve been mid to late 80s but obv the crisp packets are bigger now (“grab bag”).

Omg I remember hedgehog crisps! We would have a pack between us, not really because of any sort of diet, but because my parents had hardly any money and there weren't any foodbanks. I do remember one day I had the last few crisps from a big bag of onion rings in my lunchbox, and the dinner last told me off for being greedy. Wouldn't be able to do that now without someone kicking off I expect hah.

The science/medical argument as it stood last week.

What always put me off Servers is they were Hedgehog Flavoured.
I agree, you are seen as the devil now if you try to be even slightly sensible around food. People get very bristly and defensive for instance if you happen to refuse your young DC certain things when their DC is allowed (eg a gobstopper, my DD is 5) because they then feel judged (not my problem!).