The soaring cost of treating obesity-related conditions is the single biggest threat to Western health services. It costs the UK alone £47bn a year, equivalent to almost half of the NHS budget. Part of the problem, as we all know, is that people don’t get enough exercise any more. A comparison of survey data from 1967 and 2010 shows that people back then were both slimmer and more ready to tackle the problem. All but 7% of those who considered themselves overweight in the 1967 survey had tried to do something about it; only about half of those interviewed in 2010 had. One reason obesity is such a problem today, in other words, is people “just aren’t bothering to lose weight”: they don’t care. That has to change. If the NHS is to survive, obesity, like smoking, needs to become “socially unacceptable”. (Max Pemberton, The Daily Telegraph)
I suppose an Epicurean way of looking at this issue is that if being over-weight makes people happy, and if they enjoy eating unhealthy food and sitting in front of the television for untold hours, then who is to judge them? They are happy. That is what matters. Eventually (actually, quite soon) they will be in the majority and no one will make them feel uncomfortable or guilty about their weight.
Why do I feel uncomfortable about this? Is it just the early deaths and the public cost?
The likes of the Daily Telegraph are always telling us that the NHS is ‘unaffordable’ and it needs fundamental reform- a message the Blairites too, have been keen to shove down our throats. Its absolute nonsense, UK health expenditure is amongst the lowest in the developed world. What the NHS needs is money, a lot more of it, and I would be more than happy to pay the taxes necessary for its long-term survival.
As for obesity issue, I think its a matter of personal freedom. People have right to eat what they want. As a taxpayer, I will more than happily fund the consequences; be it fatty food, sugary drinks, alcohol, smoking or even drugs- people have right to do as they please. I can’t stand these puritanical campaigns to make things socially unacceptable, the problem with society is that individuals feel pressured to conform to societal norms, and are made to feel ashamed if they choose otherwise.
There is a massive correlation between how wealthy an individual is, and the likelihood of them being obese. If we want to reduce obesity, we must reduce poverty. The Conservatives, supported by the Daily Telegraph, have done the exact opposite, as clearly seen in the dramatic increase in house prices in London and the resulting exploding rate of homelessness. As an upper middle class young man living in suburban West Sussex, I am in one of the most healthy socio-economic demographics, but I don’t believe in blaming others who are not as fortunate as I am.