At least 2.9million of UK pensioners are seriously overweight, NHS stats reveal

[Northerner]

One in four people over-65 in Britain are clinically obese, shocking NHS figures reveal.

Now experts are calling for the sugar tax levied on fizzy drinks to be extended to help stem the epidemic.

Tam Fry, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said lack of exercise as well as sugary foods were creating an army of bloated oldies – nearly three million of them 65 and over.

He also blasted lack of official action.

Mr Fry said: “All the British governments this century have failed to take on the food industry and have failed to ensure all food at your local supermarket is as free a possible from excess sugar, fat and salt. Those ingredients are increasingly in a whole variety of foods.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/least-29-million-uk-pensioners-21309685

 

[mikeyB]

What proportion of the Under-65s are clinically obese? I’ll tell you. 28.7% are clinically obese, and a further 35% overweight.

So this is hardly news. Obese under 65s become obese over 65s.

 

[Eddy Edson]

ensure all food at your local supermarket is as free a possible from excess sugar, fat and salt.

This sounds good but I don't think there's any actual evidence that this would do the trick and Kevin Hall's great study from last year suggests that looking to these usual suspects might be misguided: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesal...finds-ultra-processed-foods-drive-weight-gain And whatever changes you attempt to drive through legislation, how to avoid making them regressive? No easy fixes, unfortunately.

 

[Drummer]

It isn't the fault of the general public - I had over 4 decades of insistence on excess carbs minimal fats being essential for life and ended up almost spherical - it has got to stop, one way or another.

 

[trophywench]

The food industry is more than partly to blame though. A friend is a butcher - from a long line of pork butchers in Bloxwich (near-ish to Wolverhampton) His dad and brother were in partnership after their father died and amongst other such delicacies, they made their own sausage. His Auntie Joan's tomato sausage was fab - made with Cans of Libby's tomato juice in the mix and if anyone remembers that juice it was basically only squished tomato flesh complete with the pips. Utterly delish! The sausage won awards, generally so they went into commercial production - BUT instead of proper tomato they now had to use commercially produced tomato flavouring - same as the garlic sausage - and a lot more rusk in every link to meet UK Food Standards.

Very occasionally they still did a 'run' of proper stuff when each of us had to order about 10lbs of it and on delivery - freeze it.

Sad, isn't it?