What should the government do to reduce obesity at the societal level?

[waistchallenge]

We're the fattest country in Europe and the upshot is what you see here: people posting threads in desperation about their weight loss struggles. I think we can probably all agree it would be easier to never have gotten overweight in the first place and to never have had to go through these weight loss efforts and experiences.

Apart from the sugar tax, I cannot see that the government has done much, if anything, to reduce obesity in this country; it's higher than ever.

I'm asking here because we all have experience of this to be on here, what-if anything- should the government do to reduce obesity in this country? What would have helped you? Or is it all just ultimately a question of personal responsibility?

Your comment about how easy it is to quickly consume 400 calories is so on the nose. Costa is currently advertising hot chocolates to have as a “break” which are easily 300 calories. I’m beginning to think we need to regulate junk food in the same way we regulate alcohol and tobacco. It’s just too easy.

I run 5 k most Saturday mornings and aim to run twice a week on top of that and I walk my dog every day. I take a healthy packed lunch some of the time. My point is that sometimes I am tired and busy as I said and do what is easy. This thread is about what the government can do. Personal responsibility isn’t working.

Your lifestyle sounds pretty healthy so it sounds like you ARE taking personal responsibility. Why the need for any additional Government intervention?

As you say, the attitude of the individual, but also the attitude that a corporation has a responsibility towards the state and community. We are very far from that unfortunately.

Instead we have the availability of weight loss drugs. Wonder why they picked that to help reduce weight of the population?

Thanks - I am still obese though. I think the statistics show us that something about the environment must have changed to lead to more and more of us becoming obese. Who else can reverse some of those changes if not the government?

We are surrounded by cheap UPFs but I don’t know what can be done without major and very unpopular government policies essentially like cigarettes. Personal responsibility didn’t work for that either.

Yes it’s all about money - can’t regulate the food industry because they would lose money so let’s stick a plaster over the problem with drugs and then the pharmaceutical companies make money too. I see this and yet - full disclosure - part of my taking responsibility for myself is taking the meds.

Not sure if I would like to pay extra for unhealthy food stuffs that I only eat occasionally. I love a curry, fish and chips, pizza and a bottle of wine as much as the next person, I just don't eat or drink those things everyday. Healthy eating is not expensive, I wish this canard would be put to bed along with the 'exercise makes no difference'.

And what people fail to consider is that exercise makes a massive difference to health, regardless of weight. A fat person who exercises regularly will generally be healthier, and put less strain on the NHS, than a sedentary fat person.

Walking home from school - 1 mile - my son has to walk past a KFC, a Dominoes, 2 chip shops, a kebab shop and 4 sweet shops (newsagents but they only sell crap usually). This is a 100m stretch that there is no avoiding.

They set up shop there on purpose to lure in schoolkids on their way home. We are 3 miles away from the main town.

That's shocking, @saythebellsofstclements . Maybe these fast-food places (or even all places) should be banned from selling unhealthy food to under 16s? I'm just not sure how I would have felt about that at that age, but desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess?

I don't think this can be changed. People like salt and sugar laden convenience food too much and that's the bottom line.

I seem to remember reading something about new take aways being banned near schools, but it doesn't look like it's happening near you.

It's so much harder to control teenagers eating habits than smaller kids, putting temptation in their way doesn't help.

Walking home from school - 1 mile - my son has to walk past a KFC, a Dominoes, 2 chip shops, a kebab shop and 4 sweet shops (newsagents but they only sell crap usually). This is a 100m stretch that there is no avoiding.

If your son eats a healthy breakfast, lunch and family supper then surely the occasional treat after school won't do any harm. At that age they have a super high metabolism anyway.

The danger is they buy junk to have for lunch and then more junk on the way home so they don’t want the healthy supper. Mind you, mine do this sometimes and the only shop they pass is a Sainsbury’s. The absolute cheapness of junk food is part of it- I used to do very similar at their age but everything was relatively more expensive so I couldn’t afford enough to spoil my appetite regularly.

I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s and while take away food would be considered exotic, the unhealthy options were always there and I stuffed myself with crisps flushed down with pepsi or coke. My parents both worked full time and although my mum cooked from scratch, she’s always been a really bad cook and the food she cooks makes your arteries clogged just by looking at it.

I am a grown up and nobody is forcing unhealthy food on me, it’s my own choice. I’m surprised by all the weight loss injections threads here where PPs assume that people within the normal BMI range don’t feel hungry, don’t experience the constant food chatter in their heads and are not tempted by by cakes and all that crap. I do and I don’t think I’m an outlier. It’s normal to feel hungry and thinking about food has been crucial to our survival as a species. It’s the personal choice and responsibility to act on it or not.

Can't you send your children to school with a packed lunch and a bottle of water. Stop giving them money to buy crap food on the way home from school?

Do you think it’s reasonable to not allow teenagers to have pocket money?

It’s normal to feel hungry and thinking about food has been crucial to our survival as a species. It’s the personal choice and responsibility to act on it or not.

Well said!

Maybe but that does not explain the increasing obesity rates. Do we have less will power now than people did in the 70s?

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

Of course children should be aloud pocket money but if they are obese and you know they are spending that money on crisps and chocolate then monitor it.
I work with a woman whose teenage daughter has been told is 4 stone overweight. She then told me she'd found 5 empty Easter egg boxes under her bed, she thought it was shocking when I suggested she stopped letting her daughter carry spare money on her.. I can't understand why she won't monitor her daughter's money until her weight is more under control.
If she was spending her pocket money on fags like I used to at her age people would get it, I don't see the difference.
Instead of waiting for the government or shop keepers to to put a ban on selling sweets and crisps to children I think parents should do this simple thing.
Saying that my friend's daughter has been referred to a dietitian and counselling to figure out why she is binge eating and the waiting list is ridiculous, that is something that needs improving.

I think it’s very reasonable. If they spend all pocket money on treats in a couple of days then they have nothing left to buy things they want or things that need saving for.

Deliveries to these pedestrianised towns - and where does the traffic go? oh wait, a ring road around the town, with all that pollution and noise handily in one place.

TV and Wi Fi disabled - well sure, if you want a revolution on your hands.

How is this mandatory hour on a bike being enforced? what happens if you don't have a bike, do you get marched down the road by the block gauleiter to buy one?

There are two conclusions I can draw from this thread. One, the low level of personal accountability for what people shove into their mouths. Two, that some people really would love to live in the sort of state where everything's mandatory and government enforced and life's as grim as possible.

Yes, probably. I also think it's become more socially acceptable to be overweight. There's less stigma than there used to be.

The point I am making is that junk food is so unprecedentedly cheap that it takes very little money for them to spoil their appetite. You could do it for as little as a pound a day if you bought the right special offer snacks. So in order for them to have regularly spent all their money on snacks in a couple of days I would have to be giving them just £2 a week and immediately taking control of any birthday etc money from relatives, and I don’t know about you but I don’t think that is an appropriate way to treat teenagers.