Getting Tough on Food & Drink Industry

It may not be the only way to tackle Obesity, but it will raise much needed funds to pay for this epidemic hitting our NHS system.  More and more people are getting expensive operations such as gastric bypass off the NHS and other services being used by Obese people from the NHS that it needs extra funding, so one way could be to hit the Fast Food industry and put in the FAT TAX that the government has been talking about for so long and still done nothing about.

Adding a 20% Fat tax to all fast food outlets such as Fish & Chip shops, McDonalds, KFC and all the others that give us a long list of fast food joints to choose from would bring in several millions of £ every year which could be directed at the NHS to cope with the extra demand from Obese patients and to impliment education programmes in schools and to adults.

The ARMC came up with a list of their top 10 ways to tackle the Obesity epidemic, many are great, some recycled and others going a step too far.

Here is my thoughts on this:

• Taxes of 20% on sugary drinks for at least a year

Add a fat tax to all fast food and fizzy drinks, it may not price people out of buying these products but it will help the NHS financially cope, so a great idea.

• Banning the advertising of foods high in saturated fat, sugar and salt before 9pm

Get rid of Coca Cola adverts, McDonalds adverts and any advert promoting sweets, chocolates and other fast food junck food before 9pm, this is another great idea, if we can start promoting healthier products in these prime times to kids then this could help as part of a bigger plan.

• Councils having the power to limit the number of fast food outlets near schools and leisure centres

Id go further, let the council have the authority to ban all fast food outlets within 1mile of all schools, and to limit the amount of fast food outlets in the town centre, give consessions to food outlets that serve healthy food.

• NHS staff to talk to overweight patients at every appointment about their eating and exercise habits

This one pointless, as in my experience most NHS staff dont have any qualifications in diet and nutrition, and should maybe work closer with fitness professionals in the private sector.

• Advice for new parents on how to feed their children properly

Good idea, new parenting clubs could be set up, but again should be done by professionals in this field and not offered by GPs that seem to offer very poor diet advice sheets that have no effect and they dont have a clue what they are talking about.

• All schools to serve healthy food in their kitchens

A wish that I feel will never really happen, Ive worked in two comprehensive schools, both had awards for healthy meals but really served a lot of unhealthy food, chips offered most days, fried foods, cake, crisps, chocolate and other crap.

• A ban on junk food an vending machines in hospital premises

Ban junk food from any NHS premesis and from all schools.

• £300m to be spent over the next three years on weight management programmes

A weight management programme needs to be thought about correctly and put together by professionals first but a great idea.

• More surgery for the severely obese, to help those at risk of dying

Surgery really should be the last result, a member of the ARMC was on the news this week freely talking about gastric bypass surgery as if to give it out like sweets and even offer it to teenagers still at school.  This is a step way too far!

Teenagers should be put through exercise an education, even if need be, forced into an exercise programme, such as FAT Camps during school holidays.

• Food labels to include calorie information for children

This would be a good idea, but food labling fullstop still needs some sort of conform, so that all labels are designed the same, so the customer can understand what the label is saying.

Tags: Adult Obesity, ARMC, childhood obesity, Fat, Fat Town, Fitness, food labeling, Health, obese, Obesity, Tamworth

Category: BLOG, Health News