The Obesity Thread

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Poser
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PostThe Obesity Thread
by Poser » Mon Feb 18, 2013 8:45 am

Obesity is back in the news today as doctors have said we need to tax fizzy drinks more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21478314

Article in full:

Tax fizzy drinks and ban junk food ads, say doctors

Fizzy drinks should be heavily taxed and junk food adverts banished until after the watershed, doctors have said, in a call for action over obesity.

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, which represents nearly every doctor in the UK, said ballooning waistlines already constituted a "huge crisis".

Its report said current measures were failing and called for unhealthy foods to be treated more like cigarettes.

Industry leaders said the report added little to the debate on obesity.

The UK is one of the most obese nations in the world with about a quarter of adults classed as obese. That figure is predicted to double by 2050 - a third of primary school leavers are already overweight.

Doctors fear that a rising tide of obesity will pose dire health consequences for the nation.

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges is a "united front" of the medical profession from surgeons to GPs and psychiatrists to paediatricians. It says its doctors are seeing the consequences of unhealthy diets every day and that it has never come together on such an issue before.

Its recommendations include:

A ban on advertising foods high in saturated fat, sugar and salt before 9pm
Further taxes on sugary drinks to increase prices by at least 20%
A reduction in fast food outlets near schools and leisure centres
A £100m budget for interventions such as weight-loss surgery
No junk food or vending machines in hospitals, where all food must meet the same nutritional standards as in schools
Food labels to include calorie information for children
Prof Terence Stephenson, the chair of the Academy, evoked parallels with the campaign against smoking.

He told the BBC: "That required things like a ban on advertising and a reduction in marketing and the association of smoking with sporting activities - that helped people move away from smoking."


A fat belly:

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Personally, this grinds my gears. I enjoy fizzy drinks and have done all my life. I also enjoy sweets, chocolate, and takeaways. I fry a lot of food.

Yet I've had the common sense to balance that with a lot of exercise and, at the age of 34, I'm still the same weight as I was when I was a 23-year-old sprinter.

Why should everyone else have to pay because some people can't take care of themselves? On the flip side, is it deep-seated psychological trauma and dependancy that leads people to be this shape? Is it just nature?

Discuss.

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Fatal Exception
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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Fatal Exception » Mon Feb 18, 2013 8:47 am

Typical lazy government response. "How can we make it look like we actually care whilst doing as little as possible and also make extra money?"

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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Lotus » Mon Feb 18, 2013 8:58 am

Rather than tax fizzy drinks, why not take steps to make fresh fruit and veg cheaper? Or create/fund affordable local gyms and leisure centres? Oh, doesn't bring in more money does it.

Seems like a bizarre approach, to increase the cost for everyone of one small range of products. And some doctors might care about your health, but the government doesn't, and whacking a tax on everything isn't the answer. I'd rather money that was spent on "tackling obesity" be spent on alzheimers, dementia, cancer, etc. Those are far more important than helping overweight people lose a bit of flab.

I can't really see the government heeding this advice really, but the way I see it is, if people want to abuse their bodies, let them, don't penalise others because they happen to enjoy the same foods as the obese.

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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Bacon » Mon Feb 18, 2013 8:59 am

:fp: 'YEAH LET'S TAX IT, make it more expensive - that'll learn em'

strawberry float right off, snivelling banana splits.

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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Joer » Mon Feb 18, 2013 8:59 am

Finally, a thread about me.

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Fatal Exception
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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Fatal Exception » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:04 am

Bring back bullying and ridicule for fatties.

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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by gamerforever » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:04 am

Having been 20 stone and obese a few years back I am certain this won't work and is just another way of making more money.

It needs to start with proper education at primary and then secondary school. Exercise in schools should be a minimum of 3 hours per week imo, possibly an hour everyday.

Healthy eating habits are learnt from a young age - a fat child usually results in a fat adult!

To assume fizzy drinks is the cause is both ridiculous and hilarious! People get fat because they eat and drink too much and don't exercise.

I would prefer we ban fast food chains from opening up if there are enough available and maybe even force them to only offer small portions.

Problem with this country is we lack a defined culture, so anything and everything goes...

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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Cuttooth » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:06 am

Poser wrote:Why should everyone else have to pay because some people can't take care of themselves?

But everyone has to pay for it anyway when the NHS has to deal with the health problems. Preventative measures are better than reactionary ones I feel, although any money such a junk food tax would raise should be funneled back into healthy eating education and making healthier food more affordable.

Fatal Exception wrote:Typical lazy government response. "How can we make it look like we actually care whilst doing as little as possible and also make extra money?"

The government don't want to implement this.

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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Fatal Exception » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:07 am

How odd.

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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Octoroc » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:10 am

Fatal Exception wrote:Typical lazy government response. "How can we make it look like we actually care whilst doing as little as possible and also make extra money?"


The idea for "fizzy drink tax" comes from doctors. The government want to "work closer with the industry" - or as I like to call it "take backhanders".

I say: "yes! let us tax the strawberry float out of pop!". Because it doesn't matter and because I drink maybe four litres of cokey cola a year. It's nice with rum I suppose.

On the other hand it's sort of nice to be slim in a world of panting, red faced, self-chaffing lard-arses isn't it? It makes one feel so invigorated, so übermenschlich.

All of which reminds me of one of my favouritest theme tunes:



Sadly it was the pop that was his undoing. :(

To summarise: I don't really know.

So far this year, I have eaten NO mince pies.
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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Lotus » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:16 am

We also have a terrible attitude to food in this country. You only have to go to continental Europe or somewhere outside North America and you'll see a much healthier approach and attitude to food.

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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Something Fishy » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:18 am

it's a fair point. I have a bit of a weakness for sugar but I also exercise 6 days a week and am the same weight I was when I was 18. I know that If I want to have the crap there is a price and I need to burn it off.. not so difficult really. I also impress this on the lad. We do eat a sensible balanced diet , not just crap, so these things are treats though rather than the base of our diet like some of the fatties.

Octo has a point. I'd hate to lose that good feeling when you go marching down the road past a bunch of struggling fatties who can barely put one foot in front of the other without collapsing. I find it puts an extra spring in my step.

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Octoroc
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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Octoroc » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:24 am

Lotus wrote:We also have a terrible attitude to food in this country. You only have to go to continental Europe or somewhere outside North America and you'll see a much healthier approach and attitude to food.


There's a saying here in Thuringia : "lieber schmalz und erbsen als erbsen und schmalz"

So far this year, I have eaten NO mince pies.
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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Meep » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:28 am

Yes, because the rising price of alcohol has stopped everyone drinking that, surely it must work for soft drinks.... Or you could just actually regulate sugar content. If you're going to interfere with the market at least do it in a way that is guaranteed to work.

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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Poser » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:35 am

Cuttooth wrote:
Poser wrote:Why should everyone else have to pay because some people can't take care of themselves?

But everyone has to pay for it anyway when the NHS has to deal with the health problems. Preventative measures are better than reactionary ones I feel, although any money such a junk food tax would raise should be funneled back into healthy eating education and making healthier food more affordable.



I would like to propose a personal lifetime budget/allowance for healthcare for conditions that are self imposed: ie smoking related, drugs related, skin cancer from sunbathing (as opposed to working outdoors), obesity, suicide attempts, etc.

Once you reach your limit, you either pay for more yourself, or you go without. Where children under 16 are required to have treatment, it comes out the parents' budget.

People with legit illnesses continue to receive full NHS care.

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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Joer » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:42 am

Obesity is a legit illness. I have to eat. I can't be bothered to exercise. Illness.

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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Lotus » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:42 am

Poser wrote:
Cuttooth wrote:
Poser wrote:Why should everyone else have to pay because some people can't take care of themselves?

But everyone has to pay for it anyway when the NHS has to deal with the health problems. Preventative measures are better than reactionary ones I feel, although any money such a junk food tax would raise should be funneled back into healthy eating education and making healthier food more affordable.



I would like to propose a personal lifetime budget/allowance for healthcare for conditions that are self imposed: ie smoking related, drugs related, skin cancer from sunbathing (as opposed to working outdoors), obesity, suicide attempts, etc.

Once you reach your limit, you either pay for more yourself, or you go without. Where children under 16 are required to have treatment, it comes out the parents' budget.

People with legit illnesses continue to receive full NHS care.

Not sure on some of those, but I'd definitely be in favour of charging people for alcohol-related A&E visits on Friday and Saturday nights, and those who require ambulance treatment in the streets on those nights as well because they're so drunk. Selfish and moronic idiots, wasting resources and time.

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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Poser » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:52 am

Yeah, I agree. I wasn't being entirely serious in my post, but it's arguably the flip-side of the NHS - an amazing, egalitarian system - that makes people take it for granted. The rank stupidity of binge/alcohol poisononing, and fighting for fun, ought not to be supported by the NHS.

Of course, America doesn't have free healthcare and has an even bigger obesity problem, so charging people clearly isn't the answer, either.

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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Lotus » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:55 am

Guy on the radio saying that being obsese is just in our instincts, as we want to store up fat. :dread:

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Skarjo
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PostRe: The Obesity Thread
by Skarjo » Mon Feb 18, 2013 10:04 am

Fizzy drinks are a major cause of obesity which is, in turn, a major drain on the NHS.

If a consumer good is causing health problems you should tax it to the point where there is no net cost to the country.

Tax away.

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