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?

I always think supermarket meal deals get a bad press. My supermarket meal deal today was a sweet potato and falafel grains salad, vegan sushi as the snack and a costa latte for £3.50. 450 calories in the food plus the coffee which Id’d of had regardless. Completely possible to make healthy choices with a meal deal.

And there we see some of the problem... a meal that's mostly carbs being considered as healthy. Sushi has much the same effect on blood sugar as eating - well, sugar (probably worse if it's vegan without even a bit of fish on it).

I see more of you are carrot vs. my stick 😬

Lots of mention of fruit and vegetable pricing, but is this really a determining factor? If you've ten pounds you can easily buy lots of fruit and vegetables as things stand rather than a multi pack of crisps or a family pack of chocolate or a box of yum-yums. I think people choose not to (for the most part, admittedly this might differ in situations where there is extreme poverty).

We need what the WHO calls 'Health in all policy'

EVERY policy needs to consider the impact on people's health.

EVERY policy needs to prioritise the things that help people to be more active and consume minimally processed whole foods

So transport needs to promote active methods - cycling, walking
Education needs to promote activity
Farming needs to be supported and subsidised
Local councils need to resist yet another takeaway being opened
Central government needs to resist the money given by the UPF food loby
Uber eats/Deliveroo needs to be outlawed
Town planning needs to promote publicly available green spaces
Employers need to be encouraged to promote activity and reduce stress for their employees

Sadly, there is too much money being made in making us fat - and then in promoting surgical and pharmaceutical solutions to making us thinner

I think the 15minute towns are a great idea. If it is easier to walk to work, shops, school etc rather than take the car that has got to help

Nowhere within 15 minutes of me is paying the salary that I get if I commute to central London - so are employers around me (as well as funding all the things one poster suggests) going to have to match central London salaries, and how likely do you reckon that is?

Plus retail in my part of SW London is absolute shit. It's why I shop elsewhere for anything that isn't food.

I am fat and know a lot of fat people
Fat people tend to know more about nutrition that those of healthy weight
They tend to have studied it their whole life

And no snacks 'tuck' in school. Completely unnecessary, stop treating being normal hungry as some sort of medical emergency, for the vast, vast majority, its not.

The food industry is mercenary and insidious. There's shelves brimming with different cakes, biscuits, sweets, chocolates, bottles & cans of sugary drinks, white wheat based crap. Even so called healthy stuff is sugar & bad oils laden. It's cheap. Food delivery apps = mostly more junk and very expensive. We've ditched it all and no great change to our grocery bills. The higher spends on quality foods is offset by no junk.
It's going to have to be a slow gradual change with affordability factored in. I hope the genie is not out of the bottle. I see some very obese kids where I live & feel sad for them, I think about what the back story is with their families & that they are probably ticking time bombs. I was border line obese once as an older adult & loved junk, it's very addictive & food industry knows this.

I think one hurdle is viewing as government to the exclusion of individuals

It is hard, harder for some than others, but getting people to change behaviour around obesity is really difficult when from
an outside influence

It is my opinion that the food industry scientifically tweak the ratios of salt, sugar and fat to make the consumer feel like a breast fed baby. The foods become addictive. Stop the tweaking of the food and obese folk may have a chance. The situation is similar to the tobacco industry.

You need to address the country’s car addiction as well as its food addiction. Easier said than done, in most of the country public transport is crap and walking and cycling provision is crap. And even in the few places where it’s good people don’t use it nearly as much as they could as they’re utterly addicted to their cars. I think the opportunity to break the cycle is long gone.

They should focus on kids. The best way to tackle obesity is to stop people becoming overweight in the first place. It’s exceptionally hard to lose weight. The approach would have to be multifaceted- more food workshops for weaning, more nutritional education of public health nurses. Then at schools exercise should be prioritised and healthy food provided. Providing non competitive sport opportunities to teens is also so important.

I personally don’t think children should be labelled obese or overweight - they are growing, bmi is meaningless for them. But children who are at risk of becoming obese adults, either because of their measurements or their parents obesity status should be offered one on one non judgemental family support (in no way related to social services) which aims to break down the barriers to leading a more healthy life style - whether that’s helping with simple meals, meal planning, food vouchers, activity planning or assisting with nutritional knowledge.

lots of people are seeing their kids getting overweight and feel powerless to help them.

I think the daily mile initiative was good. However, it would need to continue into secondary schools to maintain an impact and there would not be enough curriculum time to fit it in with everything else I wouldn’t have thought. Also there would be resistance from some adolescents as they get older.

The sheer volume and availability of food must be a factor. I’m not sure that will change. Shops open 24 hours, multi packs, 2 for 1 offers, takeaways, food orders to your door day and night, a share bag if you want a packet of sweets. It’s ridiculous really.

Loads of jobs nowadays can be done from home. For those people who can't work from home - they should be able to move close to where they work. I guess sorting out the housing crisis would help with that.

Carbs are not unhealthy, absolute twaddle. And neither is sushi. We need blood sugar, try and do anything with low blood sugar!

And the traffic lights system is a ridiculous way of looking at food. No food by itself is unhealthy.

As a nation, we're too reliant on wheat and grains. Do you know they feed grass fed cows grains to fatten them up before slaughter?
That's what it does to us humans too. Fatten is up.
If we reduced the amount of bread and grains we eat, we'd have to rely on protein, veg, fruit, lentils and legumes which would make us slimmer and healthier.

What if everyone were weighed annually at their GPs and advised by the nurse as to whether they need to lose weight? This already happens for the wealthy at their private healthcare medicals.

No food by itself is unhealthy.

Really? Milk chocolate, for example, is unhealthy. Isn't it?

What good would that do? Do you think people don't know they are fat?

I do think a lot of people are in denial, yes.

Yeah you see it all the time on here. People are delusional about what a healthy weight and activity level actually are. But I'm not sure being told will help if people don't want to listen.

I disagree. People should be able to choose where they live

Also what if 2 people in a relationship work 50 miles apart. who's work do you stay next to?
Lovely if you have 1 partner working and the other being a SAHP or just having a nice wee part time job in the local shop.

One thing I am up against as a parent is the body positive and inclusivity agenda which my young adult dc feel strongly about to the extent where I am not allowed to mention the word ‘health’ as they find it an offensive dig at them. They don’t want to be under any pressure to cut down on sugar or fat for example because they expect to be accepted whatever their size and shape. It’s the ‘norm’ to be a curvy girl in their circles. What does the government do about that? Shaming people or educating them about healthy food won’t make a difference.

No it isn't.

There are foods you are supposed to eat less often than others, that's it. It's the balance and amount which is healthy or unhealthy.

I work from home three days a week. Not spending the best part of two hours a day commuting has freed up my day to include exercise. I now jump on my rowing machine before logging on in the morning or nip out for a run after work. Personally I find post commute I am mentally exhausted by the time I get home and the idea of doing exercise does not fill me with joy.

I agree

You only need to look at how lower sizes are looked at with distain
When I was thin I was a size 6 and BMI of 23 and remember a thread saying how size 4 and 6 should be banned from shops as it encourages anorexia.

Size 0 is considered awful but this is only a UK 4 so someone can easily be this and still a healthy weight.

Yet a company puts out size 14 models and suddenly loads of praise for that being a 'normal' size