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Obesity is costing you £142m a year

7:51am Tuesday 7th October 2008 in


Ignorant parents were today blamed for adding to £142 million being spent in Bradford on dealing with problems caused by being overweight.

A staggering £142.6 million was forked out last year as a result of people being overweight or obese in the district.

And it is predicted to rise to £158.3 million in 2015 if action is not taken.

Information published for the first time shows a breakdown of the cost of obesity to every primary care trust in England and revealed nationally the cost to the NHS was £4.2 billion last year with predictions of £6.3 billion in 2015.

And, according to research included in a report from the Department of Health, parents “incapable” of cooking and not recognising their children are overweight is fuelling the problem.

Among women in Yorkshire and Humberside, obesity levels are estimated to reach 65 per cent by 2050 compared with the south-west of England where the predicted level is only seven per cent.

For men in the region it is 70 per cent by 2050. However, the region boasts the lowest rates for the number of boys overweight or obese at 26 per cent.

A Bradford and Airedale tPCT spokesman said: “Our obesity prevention team now delivers 14 programmes aiming to prevent obesity and excess weight.

“Examples include Bradford Encouraging Exercising People (BEEP), exercise on referral initiatives, Healthwise, nutritional skills training, walking programmes and community weight management.

“Obesity is a huge issue nationally and it is one of the top priorities across Bradford and Airedale.”

Bradford Council also has many initiatives including offering children b active packs with free vouchers for swimming and free activity sessions, leaflets on weight control healthy eating and the activity centres.

Health chiefs will be given a toolkit called Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: A Toolkit for Developing Local Strategies. It will help them tackle obesity and encourage healthier lives.

It provides advice on how health professionals can support people in the area and sets out reasons why it is such a growing problem.

The document claims research found a lack of knowledge, confidence and skills is the main barrier which stops parents cooking from scratch, and parents underestimate how much unhealthy food and convenience food they buy. Families also use snacks as rewards with some parents of older children worrying about not feeding them enough and risks of eating disorders including anorexia.

Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said: “Obesity is the biggest health challenge we face.”

Comments(24)

crispy says...
8:42am Tue 7 Oct 08

think those jeans are a tad tight

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amiedave says...
9:31am Tue 7 Oct 08

why do women always try to squeeze into clothes 2 sizes too small?

it makes tham look fatter than what they really are

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Scargutt says...
9:40am Tue 7 Oct 08

Does anyone know who it is? Bet she's dead chuffed to have got her first 'modelling assignment'

Security word 'give-cold' which is exactly what someone's done to me.

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Rambo says...
9:46am Tue 7 Oct 08

It's never the food or total lack of exercise. People say it's in genes (no pun intended, though maybe I should) or hereditary.

People are obese (not just fat) through years of neglect. Though the food companies and supermarkets could do a lot more to make it easier to understand, they seem to get round it.

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Bagsy says...
9:49am Tue 7 Oct 08

People who are poorer generally have a worse diet. Bradford has a lot of people who are poorly off so this isn't a surprise. There's a lot of reasons for the poor diet such as people being poorly educated about food, lack of knowledge of how to cook, lack of decent kitchen or equipment or plain laziness. It'll be a challenge to sort it out. Too often people complain they don't have time to cook which is complete tosh in my opinion. It can take as little as 20mins to make something healthy. People need educating and they also need a kick up the backside!

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tyker says...
9:51am Tue 7 Oct 08

how does she afford it:£142 million a year:goodness me how much is she earning!!!

joke

what's the difference between a BRADFORD PIGEON and a LONDON BANKER!!

The pigeon can still put a deposit on a Ferrari!!

security word lose-ball!! whio makes thse up?

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tyker says...
9:54am Tue 7 Oct 08

Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said: “Obesity is the biggest health challenge we face.”

so were AIDS, CANCER AND HEART ATTACKS in previous statements by this toe-rag of a politicain who, at a stroke, mangled tax credits etc!

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Chris B says...
10:04am Tue 7 Oct 08

I want to know how the women in the picture gets into them jeans that be a story on it own

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Cristos says...
10:39am Tue 7 Oct 08

Security word show-race - well if that aint inciting something I dont know what is.
These comments about poor people not being able to buy decent food is rubbish.
Go to the supermarket and see how many tins of veg and other cr** they are buying at stupid prices. Most of this is down to sheer laziness.

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Cristos says...
10:51am Tue 7 Oct 08

Something is not quite right here. In this article thay are saying 142m to sort out obesity. In an article further down they are asking about the 360m over 10 year education budget?

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tyker says...
11:23am Tue 7 Oct 08

my shopping foodbill for the two of us with regular entertaining of friends to savour my wife's excent curries is less than a friend's single daughter,

We worked out the cost of a meal the otherr night: mousaka (could never spell it) with top quality lamb mince worked out at around £1.50 with two freash vegeatable the portion price went up to around £1.90p plus cooking cost.

This one dish lasted for 2 meals:4 portions.

I would hate to think what that cost in teh supermarkets and, more importantly, we knew exactly what ingredients we were eating.

It is a fallcy to say that people neither have time nor the ability to cook using fresh product.

We both work full time and eat well. By planning ahead we can, on a saturday /sunday morning make all the meals for a week ahead and have enough left over to freeze down as necessary. as stated out food bill is small.

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Cakeface says...
1:03pm Tue 7 Oct 08

I like it....

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Cristos says...
1:27pm Tue 7 Oct 08

What exactly is it that you like the picture or the cake

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dazbot says...
1:38pm Tue 7 Oct 08

Its not down to how much money you have its down to how lazy you are..as mentioned above if you plan your meals and make a job lot of curry, chili con carne or similar meal you can reheat; you can make things go far, and you can control what goes in it.

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born n bred says...
2:45pm Tue 7 Oct 08

parents to blame my ****, I was brought up through the 60's n 70's when the junk food was taking off, dripping tripe, scotch eggs, yorkshire pudding, youo name it we ate it. But then we had 3 lessons of sport a week, the playground was the only place to go when on a break, and that inevitably ended up with a big game of run till you drop or something just as energetic. We all went out on a night either playing footy or climbing trees, flying up and down the dry grass slides on cardboard or something else.
The stock sentence after tea, was if 'son I don't want you back until bath time'
Now no sport, no safe streets, a late attempt at trying to sort everybodies diets out after years of trying to let you look after yourselves 'because it's against your 'uman rites' to dictate to youo about what you should and shouldn't eat. It is only now that the burden of the cost is landing squarely on the toes of the government that built it's philosophy around the state health care for all, that the lefties are getting told to shut up.
All's well though, Mandelsons back (he's behind you Mr brown)

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Apollo says...
3:17pm Tue 7 Oct 08

And how much does anyone want to bet that every one of these poor parents smokes? The fact that they cannot see the link between feeding their children junk and the lack of money to buy better food and the cost of cigarretes is the really amazing one.

Fat and thick.

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tyker says...
4:05pm Tue 7 Oct 08

watching jamie oliver in rotherhanm i was drawn to the fact that most were unemployed and on benefits therefore many could not afford bus fares to town to buy food in the supermarkets.

each one was smoking king size cigaretted with large televisions and steroas.

I rest my case

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fatbloke says...
4:13pm Tue 7 Oct 08

Nice love handles!!

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kingpin73 says...
4:40pm Tue 7 Oct 08

nice arse !!

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tyker says...
5:26pm Tue 7 Oct 08

the truth is out:thsi is kate moss before air brushing!!
sadlt the seriousness of obesity is not even considered by those obese:sleeping problems, heart problems. respiratory and diabete just to mention a few.

If alcohol induced then liver failure cannot be doscounted at a young age never mind acute kidney failure.

ALL IN ALL: obese people need more than just education:why is when there is a problem its down to education always!!


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MP says...
7:55pm Tue 7 Oct 08

Many of the contributors have arrived at the same conclusion - its about poverty, rubbish food and a council that does not care about its people, no leadership ; no commitment to change ; and no ideas. Things will not get better until we get an elected mayor - will they, Perry ?

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born n bred says...
7:57pm Tue 7 Oct 08

and one that doesn't look like he could do with a padlock on his/her fridge, most of our councillors are porkers anyway, right role models lol

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mrs walker says...
11:28pm Tue 7 Oct 08

It's hard to break the habits of what is often a lifetime. We get used to simple flavours - sugar, salt, spice.. and easy textures, and familiar tastes. Processed food tends to be low in nutrients, and if you live on a poor diet you end up lacking energy - which means that it's even more difficult to make the changes to your diet and lifestyle that are necessary. Years ago, I was very poor and lived on an estate with one shop, which sold a limited choice of over-priced limp vegetables and fruit, as well as the ubiquitous low-quality ready-meals. It was expensive and impractical to get to the local town centre, and under the circumstances it was hardly surprising that most of the locals lived on a diet of discounted beer and fags. It's horrible being poor, but booze and fags help you forget how long it's been since you last ate a proper meal.. For many people it isn't a matter of choice, but dependency.

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tyker says...
9:04am Wed 8 Oct 08

Many of the contributors have arrived at the same conclusion - its about poverty, rubbish food and a council that does not care about its people, no leadership ; no commitment to change ; and no ideas. Things will not get better until we get an elected mayor - will they, Perry ?

no it's not about poverty at all: !! like many I was brought up in apoor household and my wife was brought up in a household of 9 kids who lived week to week on PROVIDENT CHEQUES!! no benefits but repayable Provident money and at usuary rates and no one in either family could be regarded as obese or fat.

POVERTY DOES NOT COME INTO IT AT ALL: LARGE SCREEN TELEVISIONS, FITTED KITCHEN, HI-FI, MOBILE PHONES, CIGARETTES AND BOOZING DOES NOT INDICATE POVERTY. Sorry for shouting but poverty it is not.

Barring genuine medical conditiosn the vast majority of those obese are people in jobs, people who say they have no time, people who go for the quick fix on food.These people care nothing for themselves at all and , in my opinion, care nothing for their families.

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