How best to tackle obesity problem time bomb

Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Article Date: 21 Mar 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Governments around the world are facing a major public health problem as obesity rates grow. UK politicians have initiated a public consultation exercise to find out how best to deal with the problem.

Doctors and medical experts say individuals need to take responsibility for their own health. They doubt any initiates will have much of an impact until individuals accept it is up to them.

Experts say there is no quick fix. The problem will only get better when individuals take action themselves.

People need to alter their lifestyles, they say, as the number of obese adults and children continues to rise.

The government can tell people lots of things, encourage people to adopt a healthy lifestyle, but people need to want to listen and do something about it.

50% of women and 66% of men in the UK are either obese or overweight. They are increasing their risk of developing type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and osteoarthritis.

Calculating the health and economic costs obesity is having on the UK is hard to estimate. Some agencies are saying that 18 million sick days are lost, 30,000 people have died and the health bill is about £2 billion - per year.

As these alarming figures rise, the UK government has decided to target obesity as a matter of priority.

Later on this year a new white paper on public health will be published. The white paper will be addressing this problem.

All experts and most people with common sense do recognise the following: In order to stay slim or get slim all you need to do is to eat sensibly and do some regular exercise.

Ian Macdonald, Professor of Metabolic Physiology, University of Nottingham Medical School, UK, said 'People should be exercising every day. This could mean walking up stairs instead of taking the lift or not driving to work or parking as far away from the workplace as possible. Small beginnings will make a big difference.....The NHS hasn't got the funding to go in for large scale health promotion. It can advise people but doesn't have the staff. It's not the health service's fault.'

When referring to obesity drugs, he said 'There is a long term benefit, but short term it will increase costs and there isn't the money in the system to pay for it. You will need a commitment from the tax payer because health costs will go up before they go down.' Most experts say that obesity drugs should only be used in the most severe obesity cases. The management of weight is a question of lifestyle, most of them say.

Dr Andrew Hill, Lecturer in Behavioural Sciences, Leeds University, said 'People need to put a bit of activity back in their lives. I would also like to see people spending a bit more time preparing food from their natural ingredients instead of buying packaged meals. We need to show some common sense and get food and eating back into our daily routine and give food some respect. There is no quick fix solution. I don't think information is the problem - it's the capacity to put that into action that we struggle with.'