Recent › Forums › Chit chat › UK most obese in Europe › Reply To: UK most obese in Europe
@frogface I don’t see it in that way. The way I see it, is that the food manufacturers are producing foods that are surplus to requirements and are making you and a quarter of the population (NICE Epidimiology Report 2012) unhealthy. That in turn is causing you and that population to have health problems that need medical care which costs the NHS £27.8M (NICE.org.uk CG189). It costs the economy £27B (www.evidence.nice.org.uk) in non-medical intervention, social care, lost days at work and the ones indirectly related e.g. landfill waste disposal for plastic waste from wrappers and non-recyclable packaging that most of this kind of processed food is presented.
The leading cause of obesity is unhealthy diets and a lack of exercise. Whilst I appreciate it’s personal choice to eat pies and biscuits all day everyday, and be obese, I’m not sure why tax-payers should pick up the tab for the consequences when they happen. If, for example, there were restrictions on deadly foods, the cost of healthcare would reduce and there would be more healthy people around to do work and contribute to the economy.
The fine would be imposed like any other deadly substances tax. Cigarettes and alcohol are heavily taxed and death related to ciggies has been overtaken by death related to crap food. I can’t actually see the difference between cigarettes and crap food when it comes to healthcare burden on the economy.
Just another inconvenient truth I’m afraid that no-one wants to admit to. However, the stats cannot go ignored forever.