10 thoughts on how to help with the Obesity Timebomb

The television and media yesterday were talking about that up to half the population in the UK could be obese in 20 years which will result in costing the Health Service billions due to the related illness’s surrounding this.

Individuals that were interviewed were commenting about the fact that the government should take control, others about there being a fat tax and so on and so on.

One guy interviewed on this morning said that people should take control of their own lives and stop putting a burden on the tax payer due to their overeating.

People say that the state of the economy is to blame due to lack of money in the household and therefore buying junk food.

I agree there are people who overeat and therefore put on weight but there are so many more who eat as a result of something in their lives. There are also people who are ill and therefore gain weight.

So therefore what can we do about this situation?

These are my thoughts:-

1)Why do we turn to food or drink?  Many times the food is a comfort for other issues in our lives. I have personal experience that due to illness and death in the family, which resulted in changes in lifestyle, a good a stone in weight has been secreted around my body due to comfort eating. I get quite angry when the media lump everyone who is large together and put the excess weight down to overeating, yes in a certain amount of cases this is true , but there is normally a reason behind this weight gain. Let us try and get to the source of the issue.

2) Look at the reason we are taking in more calories than we use – do we snack, overeat at meal times, don’t exercise, drink more alchohol than in healthy?

3) There is now so much choice in the supermarkets and fast food outlets. Their drive for excessive profit has seen the rise of very high sugar and fat content food being put on the shelves for us to devour. I know we have a choice but it is often harder, as many Mums have a full or part time jobs, after a hard day,  to come home and prepare a nutritional dish than grab something of the shelves that may say ‘low fat’ but the fact that is high in sugars or carbohydrates is another matter.

4) There are cookery programmes in excess on the television but how many young mothers learn the pure basics of home economics. I know of may people who actually don’t know how to boil an egg! Why don’t we introduce some classes even if it is outside school time?
I know many don’t have vegetables and fruit in their families diets  because they don’t know how to prepare them and from someone who is an avid cook they are so easy and so good for you – sorry off soap box now! Often you hear people say junk foods are cheaper but if you go to any of the major supermarkets now, who are always competing on one item or another, you can often make a healthy nutritional meal for less.
If you are a Mum or Dad (sorry not really missing you out) when you go to the supermarket – maybe take a list of items you really need. This will not only save you pounds both in your pocket and around you middle!!!!

5) Put back exercise and the playing fields in school – profit again saw these sold off for development during the housing boom and now our youth are paying the price. However I do think that there is a slight improvement in some schools. Maybe children should walk or bike to school if possible instead of Mums jumping in the car and dropping them off – I will get on my violin now but years ago people would often have to walk miles to school and maybe we shouldn’t go to that extreme but possibly, if it is safe to do so, drop them off earlier to give them a chance to get some exercise.

6) The children of today are the adults of tomorrow so make sure they are not spending too much time in front of the television or on their X box. I personally know from experience being a working Mum that it is easier to let them do this while we get on with our chores.  Also it can be easier to feed someone who wants more and more food because you love them and want to be kind, but to be honest it maybe better to say NO , because this will help them and in fact you will find you are being even kinder in the long run.

7) Stop blaming the government for everything that we do in our lives. Yes they do make decisions which often result in us having issues outside our control but a lot of things we can sort ourselves.

Our children are being bombarded by media images of what we should look like, plastic surgery, boob jobs, diets etc. Why can’t they be allowed to grow up and be children – adulthood is hard enough as it is without be given a diet book at the age of six. Often this unhealthy relationship with food can cause the person being obese in later life.

9) Let’s take control of our own destiny – if you are overweight try and find the reason why you are eating to much. The only person who will suffer in the long run is you. Diabetes, Heart Attacks, Strokes etc etc, aren’t much fun so let’s start today and prove the media pundits wrong.

10) So my final word is it is not about crash diets, or going to the gym 7 days a week – it’s all about moderation in everything we do.

So what are your thoughts and ideas??

These are snippets from the main stream press :-

The Guardian said that “governments around the world need to make immediate and dramatic policy changes to reverse a pandemic of obesity”.

The Independent reported that by 2030 there will be 26 million people in the UK who are obese – a rise of 73% from the current 15 million.

The Daily Mail reported that women will be close behind, “with four in ten similarly overweight” by that year.

This report came about due to a series of papers in The Lancet examining issues surrounding the current worldwide obesity ‘pandemic’. The predictions come from one of these studies, which looked at obesity data from the US and UK, which have had the highest obesity levels in the world over the past 20 years. The researchers predict that if the current trend continues, up to 48% of men and 43% of women in the UK could be obese by 2030, adding an additional £1.9-2 billion per year in medical costs for obesity-related diseases.