Obesity "as bad as climate risk"!

[Ezzie.]

This is something quite close to my heart as I used to be fairly overweight but turned it round after realising what I was eating! But the sad thing is many people are not "seeing the light" and are continuing to consume vast amounts of really fatty foods =/

So give your opinions on the article below!


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7043639.stm

The public health threat posed by obesity in the UK is a "potential crisis on the scale of climate change", the health secretary has warned. Alan Johnson said the magnitude of the problem was becoming clear for the first time and "it is in everybody's interest to turn things round".
Details have emerged of a government study which says half the population could be obese within 25 years.
Ministers are drawing up a long-term action plan to tackle obesity.
Greater efforts
The government-commissioned Foresight report is expected to report on Wednesday.
It suggests the cost of the epidemic, in terms of health care provision and lost work hours, could reach £45bn a year by 2050, according to the Observer.
Professor Klim McPherson, of Oxford University, and Tim Marsh, of the National Heart Foundation, predict that within 15 years 86% of men will be overweight - but not necessarily obese - and within 20 years, 70% of women.
The study showed there had to be "further and faster" efforts beyond existing anti-obesity measures to encourage exercise and healthy eating, Mr Johnson said.
We will only succeed if the problem is recognised, owned and addressed at every level and every part of society


Alan Johnson, health secretary


Prime Minister Gordon Brown has backed a long-term action plan to fight obesity, funded by money earmarked in Tuesday's Comprehensive Spending Review.
The government is also due to ask the Food Standards Agency to probe the use of unhealthy "trans-fats", which have been linked to coronary heart disease, in fast food.
But Mr Johnson said individuals also had to take responsibility for their own health as part of a "cultural and societal shift".
He said: "There is no single solution to tackle obesity and it cannot be tackled by government action alone.
"We will only succeed if the problem is recognised, owned and addressed at every level and every part of society."
Ongoing challenges
Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo told the BBC that a longer term view needed to be taken of the obesity issue.
She said: "The government has been doing a lot already in terms of healthy foods in schools, sports activity in schools, labelling of food, working with young people.
"This report was part of the development of our strategies.
"But the magnitude of the challenge if we don't act, what will happen in health terms for individuals and for our communities in 10, 20 years' time is really something we that we need to face up to, and that means looking at everything.
"The challenge is not just for health, it's about transport, education, about how we design our local communities, about whether we encourage people to walk to school for instance, or to work.
"We need a dramatic, long-term shift and that's what this report is making clear."

[FlyingJesus]

A worse problem than obesity is stress in my opinion. There are proven links between stress and not only mental health problems but physical - stressed people are prone to heart disease etc., and this can clearly be seen in some mediterranean countries. Italians and southern Frenchies drink eat and smoke all day long, but because they live relatively stress free lives (in general, of course not all of them are like that) they seem to live to like 200.

Therefore, I'd suggest that if you are overweight then by all means diet, but don't allow yourself to panic about it and don't make "getting thin" your entire lifestyle. Chillax.

[-:Undertaker:-]

I guess if it's as bad as climate change, then it's not bad at all as it doesn't exist


Anyway people will realise soon about the weight problems, it's just a thing which will pass I reckon.

[Ezzie.]

Hmm, yeah i agree on stress, it can cut your life by about 5-10 years i think i read once, which is pretty nuts, but obesity seems to be alot worse due to the fact that it'll basically cripple the country, whilst stress is an awful thing, there're workarounds in some occasions, but trying to convince someone who only eats fatty foods to stop is quite hard - just look at the u.s (i still love you retroguitar )

And about a passing fad.. hmm i dunno, i highly doubt it, tons of advertising on tv literally brainwashing kids to eat unhealthy foods, parents aren't seeming to care about their child's diet as much, it all seems like it's going to keep going and going until we get a huge back by the government to put up adverts on tv similar to the quit smoking adverts

[FlyingJesus]

There was some program on recently (I didn't watch it so could be wrong about some things) and some kid had only ever eaten junk food in her life. They like blindfolded her and made her eat a strawberry and she only knew what it was because it tasted "like strawberry flavoured food". It's pretty sad but also quite hilarious in my opinion, but then again I'm not really much for sympathy.

[Ezzie.]

There was some program on recently (I didn't watch it so could be wrong about some things) and some kid had only ever eaten junk food in her life. They like blindfolded her and made her eat a strawberry and she only knew what it was because it tasted "like strawberry flavoured food". It's pretty sad but also quite hilarious in my opinion, but then again I'm not really much for sympathy.

Heh yeah it is pretty sad how everything's just processed and nothing seems "real" anymore, and lmao, no you're not really one for sympathy

[Virgin Mary]

I have no sympathy. If people want to eat themselves to death then let them. They died doing what they wanted and what they presumably liked doing. It just counteracts over-populating anyway.

[Ezzie.]

That's abit of an out of touch view to be honest dude.. Have you seen the amount of advertisements on television brainwashing young children into buying their products? Heck just look at Mcdonalds, they're constantly releasing new things to try and capture the minds of young children, just look at that "a pizza hut a pizza hut kentuky fried chicken and a pizza hut" song, it's all brainwasing- you see it in adults too, in such a world where we don't need to go out and do hard labour to bring bread on the table we're seeming to just become ever-more lazy.=/

[Virgin Mary]

Then their parents should be killed for neglect by giving them the means to eat such food.

[Ezzie.]

But they're being brainwashed by advertisements and the media too?

Bah don't you see ¬_¬