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?

One ds is into computing but in a programming and gaming way rather than a gadget-acquiring one. In fact he was recently very close to winning a £200 prize in an international tournament so it’s close to being a source of money rather than an expense! The other reads, writes and makes stop motion animation, so since he got a big box of plasticine one Christmas he has also had absolutely nothing he lacked. Neither of them have any interest in clothes, sports equipment, nice things for their rooms…. On the one hand it’s nice (and cheap) to have produced unmaterialistic children but it does mean there are certain sources of influence we don’t have.
(Dd has always been the opposite but she worked from the moment her GCSEs were over so different ball game. Materialism can be a good motivator.)

While this is obviously just my two, I wonder if it actually applies to quite a lot of young people: as so much life is lived online, all you need is one working device and an internet connection, and you can stay in your room and eat junk food as you have nothing else to spend your money on. Not a great way to live imo.

Mine definitely have hobbies but not ones they can really spend money on. Neither DD is into clothes and make-up at all, their hobbies are singing, drama and competitive swimming. Not much gear needed, other than the basics such as a swimming costume and goggles. They like to save their money, although they do sometimes buy a packet of sweets or a chocolate bar.

Of all the fat people I know, myself included, we are all very different and the reasons we eat are very different. I've asked it before on MN and I'll ask it again:

Why are there fat doctors?

Education? Yes they know about nutrition.
Exercise? Yes they can afford it and know if it's benefits.
Will power? It must take a lot of will power to become a consultant, to study to that level.
So why are there fat doctors?
Therefore no amount of 'education' or public campaign, taxation etc will impact obesity. The poor and thick are not the only fat people you know!
My opinion, it's 90% hormone imbalance.
Just roll out ozempic on the NHS and we will save millions as a country.
Why wouldn't we when it is the single most impactful medical intervention which has been used in clinical settings. The hospital I used to work in used to offer it to patients on high dose antipsychotics who were likely to put on weight, it worked brilliantly.

If it were 90% hormones then why do interventions in countries such as Japan work? I'm not sure there is any causation determined regarding hormone imbalance causes obesity. It might be the obesity causing the hormone imbalance and once that happens it becomes difficult to shift the weight.

Someone pointed out on a thread about obesity that there were no obese prisoners in concentration camps. A truly horrible point.

Lots of doctors smoke, take drugs, drink in excess etc but they are human like everyone else.

What percentage of doctors are fat, though? I know a couple of doctors personally and they're very slim.

It's not the percentages of doctors being fat which is the point, it's the fact that there are fat doctors at all. Because none of the reasons trotted out on these threads apply to doctors. These are driven, educated, busy but well off people, so why are some of them fat?
I haven't seen the evidence from the Japanese study but I do believe that once you are substantially overweight for long enough, it is very difficult to lose weight and keep it off. Using rationale, if we accept that many people will put on weight more easily than others, then it stands to reason that once you are overweight, it is significantly tougher to lose weight. I cannot believe that this is due to purely social and environmental factors. For example, Lydia puts on a stone, now weighs ten stone when she likes to weigh nine, cuts out booze and biscuits and gets down to nine stone again, this cannot be in any way comparable to Sandra at twenty stone, losing ten stone. Sandra is fucked, quite frankly, and if you look at the stats, people who lose huge amounts of body weight and never regain it are very close to zero.

I find it interesting that on this thread there is very little recognition of the role some (widely) prescribed medications play. I was slim until I was ill and was prescribed prednisolone. I ballooned in size. Thankfully I had an adverse reaction to it and am tapering off, and as I taper the dose my weight/puffy face.

People on threads about Kate Middleton seem quite happy to accept she might look different as a result of steroids but in conversations where people enjoy judging fat people it is rarely accepted as a reason.

I was at high school from late 80s. I had pocket money and bought sweets once a week. I also had dinner money for school and there were crisps, fizzy drinks and ice lollies on offer. That was after I’d eaten the chips and sausage roll they served up for main. They also sold cakes at break.
Something else has changed as few kids were overweight then.

The NHS should give out weight loss medication to all obese patients, supported by nutrition and exercise advice. It would save huge amounts of money within a decade and pay for itself. Obesity and its related conditions will bankrupt the NHS so we can’t afford not to.

@Namechange25793 I totally disagree. If people.can afford enough food to become obese, they can cut down a bit and pay for their own medication.

I don’t know if these weight loss medications will be the answer we hope. So far they are only allowed for short term use, so surely most people will regain the weight. Maybe in time they will be proved safe for long term use but the results are not in yet.

It’s simple economics though. Invest to save.

I would not set foot through the door of that shop, I would shop on line from my sofa, exacerbating the problem.

@Namechange25793 - absolutely it's economics but individuals have to take responsibility for their actions and personally suffer some economic consequence. Why should the majority pay for it?

Why aren't the consequences spelled out to them. You are obese because you eat too much. If this continues you will develop x, y and z Developing chronic and life threatening illness is within your power to control. There is a treatment called Wefovy, it costs £x pcm. If you stop noshing rubbish for a month, you will be able to pay for it if you won't take the consequences.

On most weight loss medication threads on MN, if that can be representative of a wider population, people continue to eat really badly, just very little because they don’t feel hungry.

My 14 yr old only buys from the KFC once a month on the way back from school and always lets me know. Luckily at home we eat well and healthily and he takes a packed lunch so I'm very much happy with what he eats.

However, if there are children with a no so good home diet and bad choices for their school dinners (fried chicken wraps, burgers, pizzas, chips on offer everyday) then these are the children that are going to come a cropper with their health. It's unfair as these kids probably don't even realise and they'll be the worst hit.

Make sports activities free for children with a wide choice to try out and be active , make all schools provide sports clubs after school not just for those who can pay . Introduce proper support for obese children to lose weight . Introduce proper cookery lessons in food tech not a tin of apples and ready made pastry with time to choose and make healthy food .

@RosesAndHellebores you know crap food is less expensive right? You know there's loads of places where you can't buy any fresh food. Walking distance from my old house was a 7-11 type store with no fresh food, a takeaway and that was it. If you can't drive, what can you do? Minimum order for supermarket delivery is about £30

Not true of the threads I’ve read. This is an over generalisation and comes across as judgemental.

To go along with proper labelling on food - what about labels on food like biscuits that say something along the lines of 'you would need to run half a mile to use up the calories from one of these biscuits'. Or 'you would need to walk seven miles to use up the calories of these sandwiches.'

It might help those people who are deluded into thinking that running a couple of miles once a week means that they can eat what they like, and help those of us who get back from a run from turning to the biscuits (or crisps or other snack foods) to reward ourselves.

This is fair, but at a population level the impact will be far greater if you improve access… that could range from a big discount negotiated by the NHS through to means testing to universal access. Lots of options.

We know what healthy food is, and there are millions of recipes online. People don’t cook because they can’t be arsed, not because they can’t cook. It’s just an excuse. Just like they don’t get fat because they don’t know crisps and chocolate and takeaways are bad for them.

My DS was diagnosed with oral allergy syndrome 25 years ago. There was no allergy advice on food back then. I had to learn to cook everything from scratch, including basics like bread, wraps etc, not just meals. I was a single mum of 3 working full-time. I didn’t have the luxury of saying I was too tired or busy to cook after work, and grabbing a ready meal. I had to do it or my child’s life was at risk. Anyone can cook if they put their mind to it.

To go along with proper labelling on food - what about labels on food like biscuits that say something along the lines of 'you would need to run half a mile to use up the calories from one of these biscuits'. Or 'you would need to walk seven miles to use up the calories of these sandwiches.'

Now that is an interesting and novel suggestion, @Vroomfondleswaistcoat. My only worry would be that they would base the calculation on the standard 2000 calories per day, which is a figure that seems to be a botch of male and female recommend daily calories, to the detriment of women. Still, even if it were it would be better than nothing.

make school meals healthier

have children cook healthy meals weekly in school from 4-14 years. Aged 4 they can be making sandwiches, fruit salads and other basics. At 7 or 8 years they can make very simple cooked meals. Aged 11 they can start to make more complex cooked meals.

This is a really bad idea for anorexics and those with anxiety/ disordered eating.