Two million in UK at risk of type 2 diabetes as obesity crisis grows

[Northerner]

A record number of people are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, increasing their chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke, the NHS has said.

A “growing obesity crisis” has led to nearly 2 million people in England being exposed to the condition that causes the level of sugar in the blood to become too high.

As part of efforts to tackle the problem, a radical new liquid diet will be available on the NHS to put type 2 diabetes into remission. Five thousand patients will be restricted to 800 calories per day for three months in a pilot to be rolled out from April. This will be followed by a further nine months of support to help them maintain weight loss.

According to new NHS figures, there are 1,969,610 patients registered with a GP who have non-diabetic hyperglycaemia, a condition that puts people at risk of type 2 diabetes.

Two million in UK at risk of type 2 diabetes as obesity crisis grows

Record number are increasing likelihood of heart attack or stroke, NHS says

www.theguardian.com

 

[mikeyB]

I don’t think it’s possible to get 5000 folk on 800 calorie diets for three months. It can be done, but it takes enormous amounts of support, and willpower.

it’s much simpler, as has been done with fag packets, just to put pictures of coffins on packs of high calorie foods and snacks. Or tax the producers of such foods to force change, as they did with soft drinks. That worked. Not completely, mind. Barrs in Scotland were forced by public pressure to produce a limited run of original recipe of IrnBru. Though expensive, it sold out, and is now being hoarded. Probably by T1s, I would have thought.🙂

 

[Drummer]

From my own experience, all my adult life I have found that I put on weight very easily eating the things I was advised to eat and I still see every day people being pushed to consume.
In my time I have been called deceitful, deluded and worse when I report the speed at which I gain weight eating supposedly healthy calories controlled diets. I might have had a high Hbaic, as far as I know it was never checked.
If HCPs stopped disbelieving what is reported by their patients and perhaps some sort of checking was done then the advised diet would be changed and those who genuinely can put on a pound a day eating porridge wholemeal bread and lost of fruit and vegetables might have the pressure taken off them.

 

[Eddy Edson]

I don’t think it’s possible to get 5000 folk on 800 calorie diets for three months. It can be done, but it takes enormous amounts of support, and willpower.

it’s much simpler, as has been done with fag packets, just to put pictures of coffins on packs of high calorie foods and snacks. Or tax the producers of such foods to force change, as they did with soft drinks. That worked. Not completely, mind. Barrs in Scotland were forced by public pressure to produce a limited run of original recipe of IrnBru. Though expensive, it sold out, and is now being hoarded. Probably by T1s, I would have thought.🙂

I imagine it's a big call, but then getting people to maintain weight loss forever is maybe a bigger one.

On the first point: during the first 12 months of the DiRECT trial, about half (from memory) of participants needed at least one "emergency intervention" session to stop them from backsliding. No surprise, I guess.

On the second point, some significant proportion (can't remember exactly) of those who had lost enough weight to go into remission in the first 12 months stacked it back on during the second 12 months, and lost the remission.

Simply as a weight loss approach, at 2 years the outcomes weren't much better than eg the well-known Look AHEAD trial (which was mainly looking at a structured weight-loss program, not remission).

It's maybe a sign that for many people, the prospect of long-term remission isn't a powerful enough force to overcome the bod's and the brain's aversion to losing weight.

 

[PaulG]

The most revolting sight to stick in my mind was on the pavement outside a chippy in Newcastle.
A young woman, 20 odd, was eating sausage & chips from the paper while her toddler child in a pushchair ate a bag of batter scraps.

Paul G