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?

@saythebellsofstclements I take your point but how many of the obese, or morbidly obese people in the UK, live three miles from where fresh produce is sold?

Are seasonal fresh fruit and veg more tedious than doughnuts and pasties? Surely the corner shops stock what the local populace wants to buy.

An additional thought is that presumably some of the people who live in the proximity of the corner shop must go to a local town to work - no? Aah, but perhaps they don't, in which case they have time to walk the three miles and back and it would probably do them good.

"the walk would do them good"

Ahh that old chestnut.

Some twat said that to me when they saw me waiting for a lift. I have a serious invisible disability. I am under strict orders from my medical team to be very careful how much I exercise. and that day I could feel my symptoms flaring.

And there are so many people like me. But you wouldn't know from looking at them whether they are someone you can smugly judge (wtf anyway!) or someone battling with hefty medication and /or a health condition

But I get that noone wants to listen because feeling better than other people gives insecure people a bit of a boost.

If people are too ill to walk then obviously they can't but there are plenty of people who could walk but won't.

Rain, cold, ice, preschoolers in tow, aching joints, dodgy hip, depression, anxiety.
There are a whole load of reasons that people can't venture far from their homes on foot.

Also, minimum charges for delivery are £50 tesco (plus £5-7 delivery fee), £40 sainsbury (£5 delivery fee), £25 morrisons (£2.5 - 6 delivery). Home delivery isn't always accessible to people who may not have much money in their bank account at any given time.

I'm not just trying to make excuses for people - there are many genuine reasons why people struggle to eat healthily day to day, week to week.

Exactly. And pretending it would be easy for people isn't going to fix things

Perhaps supermarket should deliver free to fat people but only for healthy shopping.

And should they deliver extra calorific food to people with anorexia and refuse to deliver salads, or are we only policing certain eating disorders?

I’d rather see healthy models. There’s somewhere inbetween a size 0 and a size 18-20

I think most people are referring to those without medical conditions that affect their weight or ability to exercise or get to the shops.

It's easy to see from this thread why some people aren't taking responsibility. It's a pity that being healthy or making healthier choices is seen so negatively. Health isn't a priority. It seems people think they deserve a treat of high fat, high sugar food on a daily basis instead of fuelling their bodies with nutrient dense foods. Society as a whole wants instant gratification. There's no culture of working towards anything anymore and that includes health. Then when they become unwell they look to the NHS to fix them and often appear bewildered as to their role in their own health. It's very sad.

Ok, so people with disordered eating which makes them fat (binge eating disorder etc) should pay extra tax, but people with disordered eating which makes them thin (anorexia, for example) are exempt from that?

Quite.

The majority of people who are overweight already know and likely feel a good level of shame. Shaming them won’t do anything. It’s an awful idea.

Reduce poverty
Teach healthy cooking in schools
Have healthy cooking demos in e.g. local libraries
Subsidise greengrocers
Promote days like “apple day” etc where free apples are given out and apple recipes discussed etc
Make free exercise widely available such as community walking groups and open air exercise classes
Increase cycle lanes
Ban advertisements for junk food
Tax fast food heavily
Make it difficult for fast food outlets to get planning permission

It's easy to see from this thread why some people aren't taking responsibility. It's a pity that being healthy or making healthier choices is seen so negatively. Health isn't a priority. It seems people think they deserve a treat of high fat, high sugar food on a daily basis instead of fuelling their bodies with nutrient dense foods. Society as a whole wants instant gratification. There's no culture of working towards anything anymore and that includes health. Then when they become unwell they look to the NHS to fix them and often appear bewildered as to their role in their own health. It's very sad.

I agree. I'm shocked at the lack of personal responsibility taken. There is a lot of blaming others - food manufacturers, the lack of parks, high gym membership costs etc etc.

It's not meant to be easy. We are designed to crave calories - that's how we survived in the past, but we really do have to take more responsibility for our own health!

It’s clear from this thread that overweight people are generally seen as greedy, thick, they have no self control etc. Trust me, most fat people know that’s how they’re perceived, and feel a lot of shame. So maybe shame doesn’t help people to lose weight? Just as shaming my underweight son wouldn’t make him suddenly eat more food.

People have eaten seasonal vegetables for millennia, and suddenly a diet that follows the seasons is not varied enough (whereas alternating sweet and salty snacks is so interesting).

I made a conscious decision to buy seasonal produce several years ago and it made a big, positive impact on our food budget and health. In winter we eat cabbage, kale, onion, leek, carrot, beetroot, swede, parsnip, celery, potatoes, pumpkin and butternut squash, majrova (no idea how it’s called in English) and winter radish, brussel sprouts. We also buy frozen vegetables (sprout beans mainly) that were grown and frozen in summer. There are tons of ways to prepare these vegetables: cooking in several ways, fermenting, eating fresh, baking, stir-frying. Potatoes can be made into chips, they can also be cooked a day before and turned into a source of resistant starches that are beneficial for gut health and have very low GI. Cooking doesn’t have to take long or involve advanced skills, there are so many recipes available online nowadays that were not available to our parents and grandparents.

It’s difficult if the supply isn’t great but supply also depends on demand. I live in a small village and our local shop sells vegetables, beans, meat, fish and other basic ingredients because people buy them.

Why are you overweight? http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weightlosss_chat/5012412-why-are-you-overweight

This thread was very interesting. I don't recall any excuses being made and it was refreshingly honest with most people saying they essentially ate too much for whatever reason.

I have been dieting since last August. And I have become very aware of how many calories there are on foods that I was eating.

I also have a bad gallbladder. And if you spent time looking at labels you would be stunned at how much fat is in some of these pre packed food in the supermarket.

I have had genuine conversations with people that didn’t have a clue as to how to read labels, shocked when they are told how many calories they should be eating everyday and how many they were eating when they didn’t read the labels.( no I didn’t push it at them they asked when they saw me loosing weight )
Our food today is full of crap and so many calories. I added up the total of calories in just a burger and fried at a restaurant near me. It was nearly 4000 just for both of them.

Education. Education. Education. Learn what is in your food and what it contains. it starts with the younger generation I think. I know people even after learning this and not really caring.

A relative had a heart attack and has diabetes. The hospital told them to loose weight and eat better. But they told me that didn’t want to bother with that. I was stunned. You can lead a horse to water but u cannot make it drink.

Health is a funny one. It's used to mean 'not fat' but nothing else is really taken into account. My ex was thin, he ate one meal a day, no veg or fruit, smoked and drank. But in society's eyes he was obviously seen as healthier than me, as a short, size 16 woman.
I have been a size 16 since I was 16. In those years I have been the manager of a chain coffee shop in a city centre where I did not stop for 9 hours a day. Carrying four x four pint milk bottles up and down three flights of stairs three times a day. I also worked in a local shop where I carried pallets of tinned goods,porridge oats, 25kg bags of rice. We had no other way as the delivery truck would take it to the end of the road.
I'm not being rude but very few of the slim women we hired could hack the physical stuff. They got exhausted easily whilst I carried on throughout two pregnancies.

So health... well I think I'm healthy. I can out lift many women. I'm not so hot on the cardio. I didn't take one day off both times I was pregnant.
I'm in a sedentary job now and I'm still a 16. I was bigger at 22 when I was at uni, getting to a size 18, and marginally smaller after trying fasting where I ate nothing until 4pm Monday to Friday for six months but it wasn't sustainable and I was still 'a fat girl'. No one can really work out how I stay the same weight, even GPs.
It has to be genetics.

Yes, my dad is thin but he drinks a bottle of wine a day and I can’t remember the last time he did any form of exercise except walking to the pub and back.
I am overweight, but I walk 10000 steps a day easily and go to the gym 3 times a week, plus a Pilates class at the weekend. I suspect I am healthier than him.

Those of us with a 'genetic predisposition' will have to work harder at reducing calories and increasing exercise. In fact, the benefits of regular physical exercise appear more impactful in subjects who are more predisposed to obesity.

Health is a funny one. It's used to mean 'not fat' but nothing else is really taken into account.

I don't think that's true at all. The GP health check measures a person's health based on lots of factors including cardiovascular health, alcohol intake, cholesterol levels, lung capacity, bone density etc etc!

Being able to lift heavy things isn't an indicator of health. The attached photo shows visceral fat differences. Weight and fat levels are only one measure of health though. Lifting heavy weights when already putting the body under considerable strain from being overweight just increases that strain especially on the cardiovascular system.
I do t think anyone would look at a smoker and seem them healthy even if they are thin. Thin isn't healthy either. Extremes of either end of the weight scale cause stress on the cardiovascular system. People can be fat and malnourished as well as thin and malnourished.

The pressure needs to go onto employers too. No sitting at desks for hours on end or meetings without a decent break every hour. No sitting at desk through lunch. Better conditions for hospital and school staff so they can eat a decent lunch and get away for 30 mins.
It won't happen though because money.

But there needs to a more personalised approach to weight loss. At the time when I was on my feet all day, carrying all these things, constantly bending and stretching to restock shelves, working 8-6.30 every day AND pregnant, the midwife suggested gentle exercise. I was probably doing several thousand steps more than her at the time.
Plus the medical professionals talk to everyone like we all binge eat mars bars whilst crying. I'm not a secret eater, I'm a social eater. I eat big curries, bean chillis, cheese and crackers, loads of fruit and veg though. Obviously I eat too much but it's so demoralising to be handed leaflets on take aways when you don't eat them, and nutritional information aimed at five year olds. No wonder fat people don't go to the GP.
No one asked me why I eat.
No one asked about my ethnic background where 70% of women are overweight and 24% of women are obese.
No one asked why white people get let off lecturing people about food choices when they have flooded colonised countries with cheap, fattening foods and crushed local industries. Take Tonga, take El Salvador, take Louisiana.
It boils my piss that this is still being talked about in terms of personal responsibility when a huge proportion of the population are living in nutritional wastelands, no access to green space, forced to work gruelling minimum wage jobs, kids have to sit at their desks whilst people 'working from home' with gym memberships and pelotons talk about health. Take a walk in your lunch break... I haven't had a lunch break in ten years. I could walk around the industrial estate I work on. If I were at home I could walk around the crackhead estate I live on.
It's not about choices.

Overall people are way fatter than they used to be...and honestly I think a lot of that is society saying it's OK to be fat. It didn't use to be.

The methods used to stay slim, smoking, amphetamines, the egg diet, weren't great though...