Rachel Johnson (sister of Boris) has been in the soup for noting that West Country based chanteuse Kate Bush, hadn't 'skimped on the pasties' since she last warbled. The word 'fat' is a minefield in the UK; mention it (or even allude to it) at your peril.
Anyway, I now hear that England's wonderful National Health Service is planning to offer expensive (£13,000?) Gastric bypass operations to all obese people (and boy, there plenty of those). The idea being that they would save money later on Diabetes treatment.
I would like to offer a much cheaper alternative; pukka FAT PRISONS.
Prisoners would be made to wear traditional 'cupcake patterned' suits, be kept in chains, and have to work on 'nationally beneficial projects' such as building extra FAT PRISONS (to earn points that could then be exchanged for healthy meal vouchers). No points; no food. No cakes, pies, or buns; just porridge, fruit, and veg.
Only when prisoners had lost enough weight would they be released (on parole). If they subsequently put on one more ounce, they'd be back in prison pronto.
Above 20 stone (127 kg, 280 lbs) and you go to FAT PRISON.
Weigh-bridges could be installed on every High Street, and outside every Scottish Restaurant. Sounds OK to me; waddaya think?
I've just heard someone on the radio saying that if you look at old pre-1970's photos, you don't see fat people. What on earth happened to the world!
This is slightly off topic....but you can have gastric bypass done in the U.K. for only £13,000?! You couldn't get a broken arm fixed for that over here!
ReplyDeleteMaybe, but in the UK everything is free. This is the cost to the NHS; not the patient.
Delete20 stone ! Good grief that limit far too high much better if it were 14 stone max.
ReplyDeleteThat would mean that I had to go, and that wouldn't do at all.
DeleteAffluence, the rise of fast food - and probably an increase in social security benefits, happened in the UK Cro.
ReplyDeleteOh, and all those interminable cookery programmes on TV might also play a part too.
Heron, at 14 stone max, there would be very few people left on the streets - or perhaps that's your idea !
He's just trying to hoist me with my own petard.
DeleteNo people are far too heavily built and 14 stone on someone of say six foot is an ideal weight,on the other hand on someone who is 5ft it is an overweight looking for a coronary. The choice is yours ?
DeleteYes, too many fast food places. Too busy to prepare from scratch due to pressure of work and long hours. Too many ready meals full of sugar, salt and fats. Too little exercise, cars and TV / computers have taken over from walking / healthy hobbies. And Yes, a benefits system that discourages a section of society that from active work. Then there's the mechanisation of lots of tasks that used to be done manually, industries operate on computers and robots?
ReplyDeleteAre you sure you haven't missed something? Gluttony, maybe?
DeleteNail on head comes to mind Cro.
DeleteThat sounds a bit expensive for a gastric bypass. I'm sure that a friend of mine had one just 3-4 years ago for 6K.
ReplyDeleteYou know the NHS as well as anyone. Why only use 2 surgeons, if 6 will do!
DeleteI think the rates here are even higher.
ReplyDeleteOf course obesity is calculated on BMI so, obviously your height would allow for your weight even if it went nearer to Herons figure.
I weigh around 15 stone, and am 6 ft 1 inch tall. I could be a warder.
DeleteWell I might be wrong but that makes your BMI 27.7 Cro and I think that's in that puts you in the overweight category. I would have thought you got plenty of exercise and ate good wholesome food though so why?
DeleteMy doc' thinks I'm OK.
DeleteHimself is 6ft 1 inches and 15 stone. His Doc thinks he's OK too.
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DeleteThat makes us both 'sturdy'.
DeleteI shall remember that: sturdy. Good word.
DeleteWe lived on dirt my mum raked from the yard and walked 10 miles a day behind a horse turning the land. That was one of the easy days.
ReplyDeleteYou were lucky.
DeleteHorse? We had to pull the plough ourselves!
DeleteBefore school.
DeleteInstead of sleeping!
DeleteYou are onto something there Cro. A good idea. There were no fatties in a POW camp either! Now, where is that cream egg?
ReplyDeleteObesity is definitely a modern phenomenon.
DeleteSome years ago I remember seeing a TV programme about people with weight problem. One of whom was a woman who had spent most of her adult years indoors, and latterly, in bed. She wanted to go outside, so the council were strengthening the walkway bridge, with heavy steel plates, between her flat and the pavement. In the course of an interview with her, it transpired that she'd always been a "little on the plump side" and when asked, she coyly admitted to being "a little over" 20 stones. In reality it turned out that she weighed in at over 43 stones ! She ate in a day the amount of food that an average family of four would probably eat in a week. I still can't imagine how anyone could do that. Don't know what happened to her, but I also remember they couldn't find a wheelchair that would take her weight. How sad that anyone could get so enormous, and no one had done anything to prevent it.
DeleteAnd those who supplied all the food should take much of the blame.
DeleteI thought that rich people paid to go to 'fat prisons'.
ReplyDeleteThe rich ones would be allowed to pay for themselves.
DeleteCro, at my age I don't think I am vain. But when I look at these women with wobbly bottoms and men with enormous stomachs (when to the age of forty they come, men go to belly and women to bum) I really do think that I couldn't live with myself if I looked like that.
ReplyDeleteThat is rather our attitude; surely these people have mirrors somewhere.
DeleteAs a svelt 14-stoner I can only say that I tend not to eat much when I am feeling down, but some people do. I drink more than I should to make up for it though. There's a lot of calories in alcohol, I am told. Also smoking keeps one quite trim too - it decreases your apetite. Staying alive for longer puts such a strain on the Health Service - it's a minefield of conflicting life-style choices.
ReplyDeleteIt is not only unhealthy being very overweight, it is also very unattractive. All for the sake of a few extra buns (every day).
DeleteTell that to all the men who go to fat-women pornography sites - not to me!
DeleteI don't know any, or I don't think I do.
DeleteThey are called chubby chasers.
DeleteAn increasing number of people seem to be forgetting that the hole in their face is bigger than the hole down below.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pretty simple equation when added to the apparent lack of nutritional common sense and self control.
We could have posters made, and hung in those Scottish restaurants.
DeleteI'm hoping to add more walking around the city to my daily routines, now that I've retired. Previously, I counted on lots of physical demands of my job to keep my weight stable. Let me tell you, retail is very physically demanding. Almost eight hours on one's feet, up and down ladders, lots of bending, reaching, lifting and carrying heavy stuff. No gym needed.
ReplyDeleteMy other long held habit is to only eat at three meals per day...no snacking in between.
Now, I'll have to figure out my own current weight in stones.
Fun to see the prior comments. Best wishes.
I've seen a full length picture of you Frances; you look pretty good to me.
DeleteThank you.
DeleteThere's a picture of my Uncle around age 5 at a 'fatten up camp' in San Francisco. This would have been the early 40s. He and his skinny cohorts are pictured standing behind a flimsy, wooden fence looking grim. He'd told me that he didn't want to be there, but my grandparents insisted. I think his not having access to the 'enriched' and calorie-packed foods of today must have had something to do with his thin frame. That and kids back then weren't glued to a computer (or any other) screen for hours on end.
ReplyDeleteI worked for an orthopaedic surgeon for several years. He saw lots of "bad backs". The criteria for a gastric band was BMI >34. He actively encouraged his larger patients to bulk up to this figure, get a band fitted and solve the back problem.
ReplyDeleteSo disappointed. I should just not comment, but thought of it overnight. It is your blog. Syndrome X, polycystic ovarian syndrome, hereditary, brain chemistry, anxiety disorders, depression and/or other mental disorders and not to mention the culpability of the food corporations not unlike the cigarette makers... The list is long and not just the easy answer. I was also taken aback by some of the commenters that I had thought so much of. I think this it borders on bullying and a lack of compassion/ empathy.
ReplyDeleteDonna, we have to admit that most obesity is caused by excessive gluttony. OK, certain people may have physical problems that cause them to gain weight, but sugar and monosodium glutamate have a lot to answer for.
Delete