Posted on 10/16/2007 9:08:48 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Obesity is more dangerous than smoking and will dramatically shorten the lives of millions, a landmark study has found.
While smoking reduces life by an average of ten years, the research says being seriously overweight can cut life expectancy by as much as 13 years.
The Foresight report, written by 250 leading scientists, says Britain's obesity crisis is so severe that it would take at least 30 years to reverse.
If current trends continue, by 2050 about 60 per cent of men, 50 per cent of women and 25 per cent of children in the UK will be clinically obese - so fat that their health is in danger. At present around a quarter of adults are obese.
The effects of this on the nation's health will be devastating. The report expects type 2 diabetes to rise by 70 per cent, strokes to go up by 30 per cent and a 20 per cent rise in coronary disease.
The rates of certain cancers will also go up.
The associated chronic health problems will cost an extra £45.5billion a year, more than half the amount of money that goes into the entire NHS at the moment.
The Foresight study warns that the majority of adults are already overweight and that being overweight is now seen as "normal".
But modern life - with the easy availability of cheap unhealthy food and families relying on their cars - means it is almost impossible for many to avoid putting on weight.
Indeed, it is becoming inevitable for most because our biological instincts combined with our modern environment mean we are "destined" to pile on the pounds.
Lead author Professor David King, the Government's chief scientific adviser, said: "We must fight the notion that the current obesity epidemic arises from individual over-indulgence or laziness alone.
"We live in a consumer society which encourages us to eat. We have a sedentary lifestyle. It's an environment which means that if we just behave normally we will become obese.
"We may only put on a bit of weight a day but there are 365 days in the year."
He added: "This will need a major culture change and a long-term commitment from government.
"The obesity issue is getting worse every year and we have not got much time to act."
The report comes after the Government quietly dropped its target to halve the rise in childhood obesity by 2010.
Accepting the target was unachievable, ministers sneaked out an announcement last week that it would be replaced by a target to reduce by 30 per cent the proportion of children who are obese or overweight by 2020.
The Foresight report found that being obese, with a body mass index of more than 30, knocks nine years off a person's life, while men with a BMI of more than 45 face 13 years less life.
At present around 50,000 men have a BMI of more than 45 but in the coming years this figure is expected to soar.
The report says the human body is biologically predisposed to put on weight because this was an advantage in our evolutionary past.
Pointing out that the design of many towns and cities is based around the needs of the car, it suggests more should be done to ensure that it is easier to walk and cycle to encourage residents to take more exercise.
Sugary and fatty foods are much cheaper than they used to be, but the cost of fresh fruit and vegetables has actually risen over the past 15 years.
The report says the availability of unhealthy food and drink should be controlled, perhaps by restricting advertising or certain ingredients in foods such as trans fats.
The scientists call on the Government to make the problem a priority, perhaps forming an independent committee similar to the one being developed on climate change to bring together government departments and industry.
Dr Susan Jebb, of the Human Nutrition Research Unit, said action against obesity needed to be as tough as the action taken against infectious diseases in the 19th century.
She said Britons were in general eating more unhealthily and taking less exercise because that was becoming normal behaviour and "generally we act as a herd".
The real problem was that "we have prioritised cheap food above healthy food, and we have prioritised taking the car over walking".
Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo 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."
But Peter Hollins, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, said successive governments had ignored warnings of an obesity crisis since the mid-1970s. "It is hardly a wake-up call," he said.
"Repeated reports like this, which should have had alarm bells ringing in Whitehall long ago, have been met only by repeated pushes of the Government's snooze button.
"We have seen several policies touted in recent days as suggested solutions, but what we lack is a multi-faceted cross-Government strategy, backed with resources and the full attention of the Prime Minister, with clear short-term targets and a commitment to bold, concerted action."
Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley said: "Three years after it published a public health White Paper, the Government's approach remains uncoordinated and limited.
"Public health budgets have been raided to offset deficits in the NHS and the number of public health professionals has declined.
"It's time for the Government to prioritise public health. If it doesn't, the human and financial cost on society and the NHS will escalate out of control."
In the past 30 years, physical activity has declined significantly in the UK.
Between 1975 and 2003, the average distance per year each person in England walked fell from 255 miles to 192 miles.
Over the same period, distances cycled fell from an average of 51 miles per person per year to 34 miles.
Car use, meanwhile, increased by more than 10 per cent. A fifth of all journeys of less than a mile are now made by car.
Next will come food control.
Well, here’s the deal....
Yes, there are lots of overweight people. Yes, some are the size of a small moving van or perhaps even a mid-sized continental land mass.
However..
Every time I see an “obesity epidemic” story, I always see that the people who are quoted are going for government funding.
And, they fail to define “obesity” in terms other than that set up people who stand to gain financially by having the greatest number of people be “obese”.
Just saying... follow the money... past the all-you-can-eat buffet... and you’ll see my point.
Fantastic! You quit smoking for health reason just to get fat when you quit smoking and die sooner than you would have if you just kept on smoking. LOL
A lady with whom I work said to me that she wants the government to do something about obesity.
I believe people are just as addicted to food as anything else addictive.
Any lawyers in the house? I’m a victim of second-hand fat.
Fat people don’t live forever?
Absolutely. I would die without it.
I think you know what I meant. LOL. I’m not the type of person who gets their money’s worth from a buffet. :-)
They will make you change your tag line to “skinless roasted chicken and a diet coke”
Ask her if she wants the Gummint to restrict the amount and type of food that she can buy and consume. Maybe have a gummint doctor constantly monitor BMI and glucose levels (for “free”).
ROTFL! Thief! You stole my punchline!
Only when they pry the chicken leg from my cold dead hands. :-)
Something about this article makes me want to buy a democrat a doughnut.
I am 98 years old. I do not need 13 more years. Please pass the french fries and light my cigar for me.
You can sue Big Food. They did not place a warning label on the package stating that the contents may be tasty and therefore make you unable to restrain yourself. Lay’s potato chips get a pass, they do warn that “You can’t eat only one.”
Outlaw eating in restaurants. Twenty foot setback from all doors on public streets. No second hand chewing.
Yeah, like the lady I mentioned above who wants the government to do something about obesity. LOL. It truly is amazing. How did we survive prior to this? “I want my government to do this, and I want my government to do that.” Gees.
“I’m a victim of second-hand fat.”
A fat person roll over on you?
Oh, and don’t forget a “snitch” line to the State Department of Health for reporting obese peoples. Hey, I like that idea because I’m skinny!
They forced me to quit smoking so I could become a first class citizen again and not be treated like I had leprosy, but my addictive personality took over and I nibbled till now I’m carrying around unburned calories! Crap!! I was gonna die anyway and now I wanna cigarette!!! (just kidding, really!)
Ever read Ayn Rand's "Ominious Parallels?" Don't tell the lady you work with. She might be a plant!!! Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean the bastards aren't out to git you!!!
**Obesity is more dangerous than smoking and will dramatically shorten the lives of millions, a landmark study has found. **
It was warnings like this that got people to stop smoking.
So will this warning put people on the road to losing weight?
Oh, I’m not paranoid. Every so often I call our State Department of Health here just to tell them what I think. :-)
If you are fat and smoke you will die in the 3rd grade.
LOLOLOLOLOLOL.
They will require them to have a homosexual or at least bi.
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We the People Sheeple of the United States Nanny State, in Order to form a more perfect Union Socialist Utopia, establish Justice Socially engineer a country of non smoking, physically fit, tea totallers, insure domestic Tranquility Smoking bans in bars, limits on unhealthy food and social drinking, provide for the common defense Universal Healthcare, promote the general Welfare health of the population whether they like it or not, in order to save above mentioned Universal Healthcare entitlement program from bankruptcy, and secure the Blessings of Liberty Dependency to ourselves progressive liberals and our Posterity Hitler Youth who we brainwash through public school education, do ordain decree and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Nanny State of Liberals.
Then damn, it just has to be true. I'll try to not ever be a lard ass.
HA....my husband’s company last year gave us a rebate of $100 each (I think) on our health insurance if we each would take their little online quiz......so....we did...they said I drank too much (I drink red wine - about a glass a night) and they said I was overweight, even though they did not ask about the BMI - just weight and height....I’m kinda muscular, and have always weighed more than normal....cause I’ve exercised my whole life! I hate BIG BROTHER!
How? Did some fat guy sit on you? ;-)
This whole story is nonsense. It is just one more scary scenario designed to give the National Nannies more control. Just yesterday we heard that cancer deaths have declined, as have deaths from heart disease over the past 30 or 40 years, so exactly how has the epidemic of fat reduced the lifespan? They make this crap up and it makes headlines. When their numbers are shown to be bogus later, somehow the truth never makes the news.
Go to www.consumerfreedom.com for a reality check.
He was blunt, and apparently told her that she was too fat and was going to die sooner, rather than later, if she didn't drop some tonnage.
All the other patients that he said the same thing to supported the doc for being blunt, even if a couple of them were failing to heed the advice.
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Add the occasional drink and you croak as a zygote.
The next frontier after we “whip” the obesity problem?
Reduce carbon dioxide emissions by reducing how much air we exhale, (except you could pay a “voluntary” excess breathing tax).
If that doesn’t work, reduce the number of “units” doing the exhaling and increase the breath tax for those remaining.
When they came for the drinkers during Prohibition, I did not speak out, as I was not a drinker.
When they came for the employees of the oldest profession in the world, I did not speak out, as I had no interest in purchasing sex.
When they came for the purveyors of what was deemed to be "obscene" or "offensive", I did not speak out, as I was not a fan of entertainers like Lenny Bruce or Howard Stern.
When they came to ban the female mammary gland from TV, I did not speak out, because Brian Boitano told me not to.
When they came for the marijuana smokers, I did not speak out, as I was not a marijuana smoker.
When they came for the steroid users, I did not speak out, as I was not a steroid user.
When they came for the _______ (insert nominally objectionable behavior here), I did not speak out as I was not a _________ (fill in the blank).
When they came for the pornographers, I did not speak out, as I was not a pornographer.
When they came for the people who don't wear seatbelts, I did not speak out, as I always wore my seatbelt.
When they came for the gun owners, I did not speak out, as I was not a gun owner.
When they came for the gamblers, I did not speak out, as I was not a gambler.
When they came for the cigarette smokers, I did not speak out, as I was not a smoker.
When they came for the overweight and the obese, I did not speak out, as I was not overweight or obese.
When they came for the drinkers (again), I did not speak out, as I was not a drinker.
Then they came for me...and there was nobody left to speak out.
Yes, I have called them “N***’s.” Seriously.
Zygote croaking isn’t allowed unless someone gets a fee.
That’s some funny stuff.
I am getting sick of the grant whores limiting liberty. Maybe they should get productive jobs...maybe in the food service industry.
Zing! Pow!
Sharp, as usual.
I trust that you have not had any “electrical events” recently and that all is well.
Oh, then the nice lady who answered the State Department of Health’s snitch line (I feel sorry for her) said to me, “Let’s not get racial now.” Seriously. LOL.
Governmnet tracking your food purchases through a microchip implanted in your arm?
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