‘Millenniums’ set to become heaviest generation ever

I get really angry with fat shaming!
I have had a large stomach for some time which has got much bigger in the last few months increased weight gain as a result, I visited my GP a few times about the weight gain and each time was given a fat shaming lecture about diet and exercise including most recently By the nurse doing a routine smear. however it has now emerged (after a DVT diagnosed by a lovely locum GP) that I have a rare stomach tumour which now needs to be removed, and as well as the tumour will go my kidney and spleen!
All of this could have been avoided if my doctors had not been so hung up on just assuming that I was over eating despite me telling them of my healthy dietary habits! And if I had pushed my doctors to investigate properly. I did not push my doctor about it because I felt ashamed about the weight and hated the lectures? these led to me avoiding going to my GP and nearly killed me! I wish GP’s were more mindful of possible other causes of weight gain before issuing lectures! My consultant tells me that the tumour will have been getting larger for a while and that sadly he sees people like me who are too ashamed to seek help because they assume that weight gain is their fault?

This is sad jenpax and nothing on this thread is should make you feel ashamed. You have an illness which sadly ought to have been diagnosed at a earlier stage.

What we have MissA is a problem with obesity. How do you think we should deal with this or do you think it’s OK for people to put their own health at risk?

I think its a hiding to nowhere trying to make people do what's best for them.
The information is there, moreso than ever before, the supermarkets packed with all kinds of healthy options, the tv is always showing cookery programmes. There are gyms, spinning classes, apps for phones.
I don't see what else there is to do?

So you are saying that it’s acceptable that levels of obesity just be allowed to rise?

My own millennial is the skinniest of us all.

Yesterday we were telling DGD that it is fine to eat a bit of chocolate, a biscuit, as long as the rest of her diet is healthy. The extremely skinny girls at her school are quite nasty to anyone who is of normal weight for their age and height and there is only one child who appears to be obese, a boy.
Eating problems are so prevalent these days.

Trying to find a balance between teenagers becoming obese and others becoming anorexic must be very difficult for today's parents.

I'm not saying it acceptable, I'm saying I don't see what else can be done. I'm not the health minister, just a gran.
We have a binge drinking culture, we have recreational drugs being used, what can we do about that? Its not because people aren't aware. Its not because they're ignorant of the facts. I don't know what the answer is.
People eat themselves into morbid obesity, but how to stop them, I wouldn't know.

I actually know someone who gets disability benefit because of her weight. She is barely able to walk to her mobility scooter.
Is it right to pay her benefits so she can shop for food every day? Chocolate, crisps, and so on? Would it be right to tell her that her benefit entitlement would depend on her doing a bit more towards controlling her weight?

I agree it’s an impossible situation. As far as I’m concerned if people choose to dig themselves into an early grave with their knife and fork then that’s their own business.

BUT what sticks in my gullet is the way they expect the NHS to pick up the cost and take up more than a ‘fair share’ of the limited NHS funding available. It means that others have to suffer and do without, have operations delayed, etc because some are draining resources through their chosen lifestyle.

It simply doesn’t seem fair
?

OldMeg, I am afraid that I agree with your posts. We have normalised being overweight.
When I was younger I was a standard size 12, 34 inch bust and 36 inch hips. I am still a size 12 but my bust is 38 inches and my hips are39 inches. Vanity sizing to kid us on that as the inches pile on we are still the same size.
Food portions are too big, food is cheap, people no longer pop in to each other's houses for a cuppa, they meet for a coffee and a muffin at Costa or Starbucks.

But old meg you are assuming that a person can do something to control their weight.
There are complicated emotional and sometimes physical factors behind someone eating more than they need, not to mention the fact that obesity is more prevalent in deprived areas.
You could argue that obesity is an eating disorder as much as anorexia is.
Are you going to say to an anorexic patient they should just eat more and deny them care and treatment?
Are you going to deny a family state benefits if the mother doesn’t control her weight?
What about other ‘lifestyle’ conditions the NHS spends money on? Treatment for alcohol and drug addiction?
What about a cigarette smoker with lung cancer?
Where are you going to draw the line?

I do think that when someone is housebound or even bedridden because of obesity that their wants should not be facilitated by well-meaning relatives or even by carers.

jenpax, that is so sad and downright awful. Hopefully now you are in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing and has your health and best interests at heart.

Please don’t think that I don’t know this Jane it is extremely complicated. And of course the same applies to drug addicts, smokers and alcoholics.

But that’s no reason to throw our hands up in the air and shout ‘it’s unevitable’ or ‘there’s no solution’.

Using your own agreements....there are processes in place to try to help smokers stop (and many do), to get people off drugs and to try to help alcoholics. Now I know that the last two present real problems bit people do get ‘clean’ or manage to stop drinking.

Yet when it comes to obesity there is very little help available. You don’t see rehab centres or patches or other aids to stop people overeating?

So why not? If it is to be classed alongside other addictions or whatever, surely there needs to be targeted intervention?

.

Your own arguements.

But, I’m only really asking ‘what is the solution’?

old meg The NHS does provide quite a lot of help and support, including this:
“Getting psychological support from a trained healthcare professional may also help you change the way you think about food and eating. Techniques such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be useful.”
From www.nhs.uk/conditions/obesity/treatment/#other-useful-strategies
Of course, the obese patient has to be sufficiently motivated to seek help, just as people with an alcohol or drug problem do.

I agree with Janeainsworth’s posts on this.
Moreover, a lot of people in what are called deprived areas
May well eat sweets and carbs for a bit of a treat in their lives.
Rich people are likely to be much thinner ( opposite of Victorian days!)
Also MissA is correct, so much info out there, everybody knows they should eat less and move about more, there isn’t much more that can be done.

Most people woth drug or alcohol issues know about the help available. I’m betting most overweight people have never heard of this service and their go-to help are placed like Slimming World or Weight Watchers.

These simply don’t work long term,

Do you mean to sound so patronising Jane? I’m sure you don’t really.

I agree lemongrass

I watched a programme a good while back about morbidly obese people, and saw a bedbound woman, who had 2 carers in every day, and they all sat knitting, in what looked like an oversized nursery.
Her husband was awarded respite care a few times a week, and spent the rest of his time on the phone to various charities asking for help to get the most up to date hoist, wheelchair, and so on.
Special arrangements had to be made for this woman, and others like her, for hospital appts and so on, in one case reinforcing the floor around the operating table because someone needed an op.
It made for uncomfortable watching.

Do you mean to sound so patronising Jane? I’m sure you don’t really

No, I just can’t help it *old meg*

Of course, the obese patient has to be sufficiently motivated to seek help, just as people with an alcohol or drug problem do.
That is true, doctors can hardly call in patients they suspect of being obese and make them have therapy.

People have choices.

Fair enough Jane ?

Jalima it’s an interesting point you raise about GPS. I was watching that programme GPs behind closed doors (yes, sad I know!) and it occurred to me that not one even suggested to seriously overweight patients that they ought to lose some weight. They did suggest smokers seek help to stop, talked quite openly to those who obviously had a drink problem about their alcohol intake, but nothing to the obese.

Is it perhaps one of those taboo subjects such as being overly PC where people fail to broach the subject just in case they offend?

I have a couple of overweight friends. I’d never say anything to them about their weight, but I’ve told one of them not to smoke in my house. Is that illogical? I know that part of it is I don’t want to have my house smell of tobacco smoke nor do I want to inhale second hand smoke, but it’s so much easier to mention smoking as an example that her other issue.

Do you see where I’m coming from?

I think one of the problems today is a lot of people seek instant gratification in everything, be it food, drink. new phones and other material things, even holidays that would not have been possible on their incomes say maybe 10 - 20 years ago. They HAVE to have these things, and now! A lot of people have this sense of entitlement to all pleasures in life and they'll be damned if they'll wait. The Loreal effect "because I'm worth it" applies to most things.

This is a complex area. i think that the advent of the microwave has contributed to obesity and fractured family life. It became easy and quick to have different meals at different times to each other. Ready meals are everywhere, and affordable. Iceland have a range that costs about a pound I think. What must be in them! Convenience comes at a cost to society.