It is staggering to know that 1 in 4 adults in the UK are obese, if this carries on by 2050 9 out of 10 adults will be obese, at the moment this costs the NHS 4.2 billion per year. This not only means early deaths but ongoing healthcare for health issues associated with weight problems, health issues such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, strokes and an increased risk of some cancers.
People are overweight because they eat too much and fail to then burn it off, 500 extra calories per day = 1 pound weight gain per week, thats almost 4 stone in one year.
But even more worrying is what is happening to our children, babies are not born obese, but it very quickly happens, they are being fed this food by parents, parents who have no time, parents who think convenience food is cheaper or easier, but is it really, we are killing our own children because we are too selfish and or lazy to do anything about it.
Years ago when times were different, we had at least one good meal a day, money in most homes was tight so treats were few and far between, if you didnt eat your meal you went hungry, this didnt happen often because meals were tasty and nutricious, convenience food was rare. Going for a chippy was a treat, but the biggest difference apart from the kind of food we eat is our lifestyles.
In the past we all got more exercise, adults and children, a lot more people worked manual jobs, even around the home, washing and cleaning was far more physical without all the mod cons we now have, children felt safe to walk to school and back, they also played out for hours on end, using up so much energy, now they are overweight console playing cabbages. They hate healthy food because they are a shock to their tastebuds.
Parents pamper them in this because it gives them an easy life.
We are feeding our children to death.
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These parents know no better, or could not care less, this is a form of abuse. Look what happened when Jamie Oliver tried to bring healthy food into the schools, parents pushing junk food through the school railings. They should wake up and get a grip before it is too late.
Perhaps if we took more drastic action and introduced penalties for being overweight and incentives for being a healthy weight people would make more of an effort.
People should be weighed just like their luggage before boarding a plane. If they're overweight for their height then they should be made to pay extra.
The same goes for prescription charges. Fat people are generally less healthy so they should pay a higher rate for their prescriptions. Slimmer people should pay less for prescriptions and so on.
Smokers should be made to pay for treatment for health issues related to their smoking (lung cancer etc)
Healthy foods should be discounted. Fatty food and alcohol should be taxed harder. All this would make a difference but the do-gooders and left wingers will say otherwise.
It is time more parents took responsibility and got their kids eating a range of healthy foods instead of shoving burgers and chips down their throats. As a nation we are lazy and if we do less we need to consume less.
Hard to say which foods should be taxed as that would be a minefield. There are links to certain cancers (such as bowel)from meat, asthma and dairy products, obviously sugar and diabetes - but the artificial sweetners are no better for our health and can put excess strain on the liver (sorry, I'm a nutritional advisor!). So where would the line be drawn? Higher taxing annoys me - as it just punishes those on lower incomes and lets the rich carry on doing what they like. Same with higher taxes on alcohol - I love a glass of wine (or two) and it seems unfair that the wealthy could carry on drinking but those on lower incomes couldn't. I feel it's more about teaching moderation and good self esteem; if you feel good about yourself you don't need to drink till you're sick, whether alcohol is cheap or not.
Ideally 'healthy foods' (the obvious ones!) such as fruit and veg should be cheaper - but at what cost does that come? Cheap pesticides over organic, slave labour, small businesses struggling to keep with the supermarkets... What we need to be doing is encouraging people to grow their own fruit and veg; an allotment space can be as cheap as £20 a year. Get the kids involved and watch the fat drop off em with all that digging....
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