A new approach is being taken to tackle obesity on the Isle of Wight, where nearly two-thirds of adults are overweight.
Isel of Wight director of public health, Simon Bryant, says steps will be taken to ‘change the blame game’ and create healthy environments for all, instead of considering individual behaviour, by addressing factors which lead to a person becoming overweight or obese.
Speaking at a meeting of the Isle of Wight cabinet, Mr Bryant said:
“We know that many people know what they should be doing to achieve a healthy weight but it is a real struggle.
“Thinking about the environment and the factors that can have a greater impact on excess weight is what we need to take forward.”
On the Island, 62.3% of adults are either overweight or obese — 68% of men and 58% of women. In addition, 32.8% of children aged 10 to 11 are deemed to have excess weight.
The report says younger generations are becoming obese at earlier ages and sets out actions the Isle of Wight Council and its health partners will encourage people to take, such as walking and cycling instead of driving and supporting education settings to lay the foundations of a healthy and active lifestyle.
In a whole-system approach to create the healthier environment, Mr Bryant is asking other parts of the council’s help in influencing food environments, transport, infrastructure decisions and the places we live and learn through planning and shaping developments.
Councillor Clare Mosdell, cabinet member for adult social care, public health and housing needs, said there was an ‘even greater urgency’ to tackle the issue following Covid-19 as the national restrictions will have further impacted people’s weight and research has shown being overweight or obese puts individuals at a greater risk of serious harm from the virus.
What is even more disgusting is whilst two thirds are overweight, ‘apparently’ some are so hungry on the Island, that if it were not for donations of food and free school meals during holidays, children would starve.
Unbelievable…………..isn’t it?
Perhaps those with excess could take a third of their groceries to those in dire need.
A win win for all then.
To quote your post, “Unbelievable…………..isn’t it?”
Yes, it is as it is total rubbish. Starve, really?
have they forgotten we were told to stay home save lives protect the NHS we are not getting out as much as we were before covid 19 of causes we are going to put weight on they cant have it both ways
or alternatively you could just stop trying to nanny the entire country and let people be fat if they want to.
there is no urgency for the council to create more health committees for mosdell and co, to rinse more cash out of.
the figures are not exactly accurate, when they haven’t weighed everyone – i bet they have been obtained from a sample group
Perhaps they are not including the near starving in their data yet which would alter the figures if averaged out I suppose.
near starving – not really buying that – this isn’t bob geldofs ethiopia of the 1980’s – india isn’t having a benefit concert in aid of the starving brits. I haven’t seen UNICEF here handing out food aid from the back of trucks.
near starving or spent the money on booze, baccy, mobile payments, sky tv, internet and car payments.
you do realise benefits Britain isn’t an actual portrayal of reality, nor is the daily mail. Is saying that they have things they don’t have a way justifying the lack of support of poor and vulnerable people?
yes Joe – the vast majority claiming benefits have sky tv, mobiles, internet, cars, consume alcohol, smoke and gamble – why the hell should the rest of us who work hard to enable ourselves to do exactly the same, be expected to subsidise these freeloading parasites.
poor and vulnerable – yeah right – the genuine poor and vulnerable are already getting mountains of support from god knows how many charities and the benefit system itself.
all i see is an endless stream of begging being justified as “on behalf of the poor and vulnerable” and the reality is, the so called poor and vulnerable are largely anything but poor and vulnerable
Joe the ‘reality’ is worse. This is tamed DOWN for TV and very vetted choices shown
Sadly the starving since mobiles, learnt NOT to await the UNICEF or Oxfam aid, but come straight to the source and then breed each land into the overcrowding, poverty, hunger and crime that coincidently appeared at exactly the same time as their en masse arrival.
Technology is behind a lot of these trends, and it looks like it will only go one way.
Bikes and scooters where you don’t need to exert much energy, who would of thought it.
Can shop from the sofa no need to expend energy chasing from shop to shop, and carrying shopping bags.
Next stop is virtual reality where you can be any body shape you want. Wait a minute already here – check out my avatar.
But I have faith that the Isle of Wight council have the answers.
No one will listen and why should they when most of the Drs and nurses and health care workers are obese.
Society demands we should all be healthy now.
Well I’m sorry but society has made people lazy. Fast food, technology, health and safety, non competitive sports at schools, easy benefits just pick a condition and get paid for it.
Single women have a baby, here’s a house for life and benefits to go with it, plus a voucher for dominos pizza.
We’ve turned into a nation of softies too scared to say NO because someone will turn around and tell you that you can’t say that as its negative.
The problem generally is what people eat and when. Generally people who don’t have a lot of money to spend have the unhealthiest diet. Cheap packaged and refined grains have the most trans fats and sugar in them. If it’s cheap then people from poorer socioeconomic groups tend to buy this type of food. Subsequently people from poorer backgrounds tend to be more overweight.
matt –
a banana at tesco is 13p
an orange at tesco is 30p
tesco own baked beans 420g – 4 for £1
tesco H W Nevill brown bread – 36p a loaf
butter – 500g – £1
naked glory 8 vegan sausage rolls – £2 clubcard price
tesco long grain rice 250g – 35p
you get the point – that excuse of those with a poor diet, that it costs too much for good food are not trying hard enough
Tin of baked beans, brown bread, Long grain rice are highly processed foods with a lot of sugar in them. Sugar turns to fat. Banana is a topical fruit and has a lot of sugar in it.
This food is not good food.
matt – fruit is good food – it has natural sugars in it and is needed by your body – stop talking BS
sugar only turns to fat if you sit around on the sofa playing x box instead of doing something with yourself.
This is not BS. This is all true. true banana has natural sugar but too much will cause sugar spikes in your body. Orange’s are good as they have fibre. We are talking Obesity here. When you are Obese your metabolism changes. Exercise by itself will not help with weight gain. Diet will. When people are obese insulin becomes their enemy, too much sugar and the insulin will store the sugar into the fat cells.
this detracts from the point
eating a banana a day and the other foods mentioned costs less than 2 litres of coke, biscuits, mars bars and pizza – which is what those gluttons tend to scoff all day whilst dossing on the sofa.
Obesity is a metabolic problem. When a person is obese, they have very high insulin levels usually caused by too much sugar in the diet. Low fat Calorie controlled diets will not work. A lot of the foods you mention are highly processed and have a lot of sugar in them. Many obese people are not gluttons. They have a body that is not responding to normal hormonal changes. Look up Leptin and Insulin.
you do not see obese people in countries that have food shortages – please do not make excuses – if people ate less, they would be thinner and that as you know, is a fact.
No excuses I just follow the science. Eating less will make you thinner in the short term, that is true. Reduce the calories say from 2000 a day to 1500 that will make you lose weight. But in the longer term, the body adjusts and the metabolism matches the reduction in calories. So, the body will adjust to using 1400 calories a day. That means you will gain weight eventually.
People who are starving and have food shortages have a low insulin level, therefore they are using their stored fat to survive. That is what it is there for. We eat a modern western diet which is full of sugar. It is not just our country that has an increase in obesity, the world is catching up, including China and Japan because they have adopted a western diet.
Japan and China used to eat a lot of carbohydrates ie rice and some meat. But the western diet has brought sugar to their table increasing their obesity problem. Since the1980s Britain has been eating more sugar, processed foods. Foods like rice, pasta. This was in response to the government advocating low-fat diets. Low-fat diets have failed. This is because when the food companies took out fat they replaced it with sugar.
In order to lose weight, you need to reduce your insulin levels and have a longer time before each meal. In the past, this was achieved through natural fasting. When they completed a meal at say 7 pm they did not eat again until breakfast. There is no one diet that is better than the other, rather each has its own merits. The important thing is to find what works for you.
Irish peasantry in the 1800’s survived on 10 to 12 pounds each of potatoes and a little salt. Not inspiring but sufficient. Of course then came the famine —
Not everyone is over weight due to over eating,
Some is due to Medical reasons and Medication , and has tried everything to keep weight off or down, it’s hard
Do you think they will blame fatness on Covid? I wouldn’t be surprised.