Obesity - Who's to blame?

Interesting article in yesterday’s Observer – Who’s to blame for Britain’s obesity epidemic?

Following the discovery that the world’s heaviest man (70st) is in Britain, the article discusses whether obesity is a self-inflicted condition or if the blame lies elsewhere. Is obesity a lifestyle choice (like smoking or drinking) rather than an illness? Is it fair that the NHS picks up the bill for helping overweight people? The article discusses the inevitable discrimination directed against overweight people from those who believe it’s their own fault for eating too much and exercising too little. But the article also cites a government report published two years ago which focuses on exterior causes, many points of which will be familiar to those who’ve been on a Wildfitness course:

“The report blamed changes in work patterns, transport, food production and food-selling for the epidemic. In his introduction King said: “The technological revolution of the 20th century has left in its wake an ‘obesogenic environment’ that serves to expose the biological vulnerability of human beings. ” In other words, everything, from computer games to the way our houses and streets are designed is working against people staying fit, well and slim...

The report’s introduction says: “The project’s findings challenge the simple portrayal of obesity as an issue of personal will power – eating too much and doing too little… Although, at the heart of the problem, there is an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure, the physical and psychological drivers inherent in human biology mean that the vast majority of us are predisposed to gaining weight…

“We evolved in a world of relative food scarcity and hard physical work – obesity is one of the penalties of the modern world, where energy-dense food is abundant and labour-saving technologies abound.”

Read the many comments at the bottom of the article to join the debate… lack of education, artificial sweeteners, cars… who/what is the worst culprit?

Some (fairly terrifying) facts from the article (UK figures):

1,010,000 – the number of morbidly obese people in England.
10% of six-year-olds are clinically obese. The number of obese children has tripled over the past 20 years.
4,619 obesity operations – gastric bands, balloons and stomach stapling – were carried out last year.
£4.2bn – primary care trusts’ obesity costs in 2007, set to double by 2050.
1 billion – number of overweight adults in the world. Some 300 million are obese.
One in four adults are obese and 9 in 10 will be overweight or obese by 2050.
9lbs – average extra weight that a child carries now, compared with a child 20 years ago.
5,056 – the number of people admitted to hospital as a direct result of obesity in 2007-08.
£600m – size of NHS drug bill for diabetes, the largest in primary care. Rising obesity has caused a sharp rise in type 2 diabetes.