Obesity in Britain

[GothicCharm]

The NHS spends £1million a week on slimming pills. £4.2billion in 2007 expected to rise to 6.7 by 2015

 

It spends 2.7billion on drinkers

 

And 5billion on smokers.

 

A&E is already making cut backs on treating binge drinkers the figure above is only the a&e spend I couldn't find any others.

 

Looking at those figures and the information I've found I'm not so sure smoking is the massive deal here, I think we need to look at the scales if we're arguing over what costs more which inevitably comes up in each thread posted.

[ksheff2]

Of course the NHS spending money on smokers is a massive deal!

As is the money spent on drinkers and "slimmers".

Then theres the drug addicts.

We could also mention money spent on people with eating disorders, or those who self-harm.......... the list goes on.

 

There will always be someone who is going to disagree where funding goes.

We just have to live with it.

There isn't any point arguing about it.

[mj.scuba]

The NHS spends £1million a week on slimming pills. £4.2billion in 2007 expected to rise to 6.7 by 2015

 

It spends 2.7billion on drinkers

 

And 5billion on smokers.

 

A&E is already making cut backs on treating binge drinkers the figure above is only the a&e spend I couldn't find any others.

 

Looking at those figures and the information I've found I'm not so sure smoking is the massive deal here, I think we need to look at the scales if we're arguing over what costs more which inevitably comes up in each thread posted.

 

I take it that's on obesity treatments as a whole, not just the pills? Little confused with £1m per week being £52m over a year. Ta.

[Shef_Fitness]

It would be cheaper for everyone if they did the following.

 

1) stopped paying all these experts stupidly high salarys, the experts who don't appear to have a clue on how to solve the obesity problem.

 

2) Encourage local communitys to set up sports, for example football training. If you gave the coach £15 to run an hours football training for his local area, you would get kids involved, playing together, getting fitter.....

 

3) scrap coaching costs - make these free, and give the coach a free crb check (if the coach has to meet these costs, he simply puts it back onto the cost of his sessions - making it potentially to expensive)

 

4) Kids then get into the habit of doing a sport such as football (it becomes a routine), hey presto.........obesity is greatly reduced, kids are not bored so petty crime is reduced and all the costs this entails

 

everyone is a winner, kids are fitter, society does not have to pick up the tab for obesity, or for petty crime

[testydonkey]

Maybe we need to decriminalise illegal drugs and use the profits from the tax on drugs to generate revenue. Also the amount we spend trying to fight the 'war' on drugs is crazy

 

'Since Labour came into power it has spent £10 Billion'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/5341903/Labours-phoney-war-on-drugs-has-failed.html

 

probably more now as this was from 2009

[Snook]

The NHS spends £1million a week on slimming pills. £4.2billion in 2007 expected to rise to 6.7 by 2015

 

It spends 2.7billion on drinkers

 

And 5billion on smokers.

 

A&E is already making cut backs on treating binge drinkers the figure above is only the a&e spend I couldn't find any others.

 

Looking at those figures and the information I've found I'm not so sure smoking is the massive deal here, I think we need to look at the scales if we're arguing over what costs more which inevitably comes up in each thread posted.

 

I think the difference is that by giving fat people slimming pills then you are treating the illness and hopefully spending less in the long run. I think this is why we are seeing less spent on smokers now, too. They have invested loads of money to spot people smoking or getting them to quit. I know and work with hundreds of people, and very few of them smoke.

[GothicCharm]

I take it that's on obesity treatments as a whole, not just the pills? Little confused with £1m per week being £52m over a year. Ta.

 

yeah sorry that's on a whole.

[GothicCharm]

I think the difference is that by giving fat people slimming pills then you are treating the illness and hopefully spending less in the long run. I think this is why we are seeing less spent on smokers now, too. They have invested loads of money to spot people smoking or getting them to quit. I know and work with hundreds of people, and very few of them smoke.

 

see, the majority of the people I know do smoke and I feel like a social leppar because i end up sat alone at tables waiting for them all to come back!

 

But are you treating the illness? do the slimming pills mean that someone isn't going to continue to eat too much of the wrong thing? There are people who know they are eating themselves to death and still do it, much like those who are starving or smoking themselves to death

[Babooshka]

There are people who know they are eating themselves to death and still do it, much like those who are starving or smoking themselves to death

 

I think, if it comes down to KNOWING you are eating yourself to death, yet continue to do so, it comes down to a psychological LOW self-esteem, which is, then, what needs to be tackled, rather than dishing out the slimming pills for the weight loss. Same goes for those who are starving etc.

 

That, and the fact that there are too many parents out there who don't know the basics of cooking, and rear their kids to be culinary-education deficient, so they just continue with what they know, and they how they have been brought up.

 

Also, I agree with everything getting_fit has stated. A bit more exercise in the community wouldn't go amiss. People seem so reluctant to start up things like this though. I think, in a lot of places, it is, initially, met with a lot of disdain. However, perseverance is the key.

 

The point is, though, slimming pills will never solve the problems. The root causes lie much deeper, and at a much earlier point in life.

[GothicCharm]

I agree also with what getting_fit has said.

 

The trouble is that the NHS does seem a little too willing to dish out drugs.

 

I have been on a few different tablets for reasons I won't go into and they were pretty easy to get to be honest. I'm not sure that it's the best way to go with esteem etc cause they either work or don't and in my experience they really don't!