# How much does this cost the NHS.



## chrisd (Jun 30, 2015)

I had to pay a visit to the local hospital this morning and i guess the day was like any other there, I just couldn't believe how many clearly overweight, or obese, people that were there. I would estimate that something like 70% of the people I saw were, at best, well overweight and many of the staff were the worst offenders. 

It begs the question as to how much obesity costs the country as I'm sure it's at the root cause of many of the ailments we have to fund


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## richart (Jun 30, 2015)

Don't obese people die earlier, so save the country in pension payments ?


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## chrisd (Jun 30, 2015)

richart said:



			Don't obese people die earlier, so save the country in pension payments ?
		
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Could be !


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## SocketRocket (Jun 30, 2015)

We are constantly warned that the ageing population are creating problems for the NHS and welfare spending.  It seems like many will not live to see old age so the problem will go away.

I still believe that poor and incorrect information on what constitutes a healthy diet has helped to create this situation.


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## Tashyboy (Jun 30, 2015)

Had to go to the local hospital yesterday with Missis Tash for summat that's quite serious. Anyway she had to have several tests whilst in there. The amount of people that were overweight and I mean massively overweight was staggering. And some of the staff weren't helping.
i made the same comment to Missis T whilst people watching. 
A few years ago "fat Al" who once had his waist measured and was wider than taller, had a medical at me pit. Anyway me boss was bending his ear for twenty mins about his weight. He said quite straight faced" let's be right sister your no Kylie Minouge are you" she said I am wasting my time aren't I. He and his whole family are massively overweight and claiming a fortune in benefits and treatment.
quite sad.


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## palindromicbob (Jun 30, 2015)

Yup it is a major contributor to ill health. next question what can be done about it?


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## SocketRocket (Jun 30, 2015)

palindromicbob said:



			Yup it is a major contributor to ill health. next question what can be done about it?
		
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As a qualifier for any invalidity/unemployment benefits or hospital treatments that are associated to obesity people should agree to attend diet improvement and weight reduction classes.  Or! we can believe this is an infringement to their human rights and put up with the consequences.

Further to this I have also noticed that a large number of NHS staff are obese and many also gather outside the Hospital building fagging it.   What kind of image does this send out?  Maybe NHS staff should also agree as part of their T&Cs that they should also attend such courses if they cannot control their weight or smoking.  Harsh, Yes!  Unreasonable, I dont' think so.


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## chrisd (Jun 30, 2015)

SocketRocket said:



			As a qualifier for any invalidity/unemployment benefits or hospital treatments that are associated to obesity people should agree to attend diet improvement and weight reduction classes.  Or! we can believe this is an infringement to their human rights and put up with the consequences.

Further to this I have also noticed that a large number of NHS staff are obese and many also gather outside the Hospital building fagging it.   What kind of image does this send out?  Maybe NHS staff should also agree as part of their T&Cs that they should also attend such courses if they cannot control their weight or smoking.  Harsh, Yes!  Unreasonable, I dont' think so.
		
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It's hard to argue against the logic of this ^


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## AmandaJR (Jul 1, 2015)

I have a vision that there'll come a time when we cannot afford for folks to be obese and the medical issues that go hand in hand. So we'll all have a sort of weighbridge under the front door mat that we have to stand on every day. If you gain a couple of pounds it sends an alarm to warn you and inform the neighbours you're turning in a costly porky. Three strikes and you're out - basically extermintated as soon as the scale tips over to obesity...

Could make a great film script!


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## Doon frae Troon (Jul 1, 2015)

It is very sad, I see many young overweight people who will probably not live long enough to see 50 far less collect their pension.
In some cases I see overweight children who would probably benefit from being taken into care.
We do need a radical re-think.


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## Rooter (Jul 1, 2015)

I'm your man! 

Have you seen the film the Hunger Games? basically society is split into districts, the rich good looking types (like me! NOT!) live in the capital, the less skilled and more of a problem shall we call it, go to to the further out districts. ending at 11 where in the film, they are miners i think and live in very poor conditions with little (read no) help from the capital.

I think this idea has legs, people either earning over X or an IQ above Y move to london, as the scoring decreases, the further away and less help you get. Ending with Scotland and wales being populated by the obese and the lazy. thoughts?


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## ArnoldArmChewer (Jul 1, 2015)

Rooter said:



			I'm your man! 

Have you seen the film the Hunger Games? basically society is split into districts, the rich good looking types (like me! NOT!) live in the capital, the less skilled and more of a problem shall we call it, go to to the further out districts. ending at 11 where in the film, they are miners i think and live in very poor conditions with little (read no) help from the capital.

I think this idea has legs, people either earning over X or an IQ above Y move to london, as the scoring decreases, the further away and less help you get. Ending with Scotland and wales being populated by the obese and the lazy. thoughts?
		
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Hasn't this already happened ? :thup:


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## Lord Tyrion (Jul 1, 2015)

I'm in Northumberland. Blimey, how far does this put in the food chain in this new Utopia? I must be in District 12.


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## Tashyboy (Jul 1, 2015)

Lord Tyrion said:



			I'm in Northumberland. Blimey, how far does this put in the food chain in this new Utopia? I must be in District 12.
		
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Not quite, 11 &#128513;


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## spongebob59 (Jul 1, 2015)

chrisd said:



			I had to pay a visit to the local hospital this morning and i guess the day was like any other there, I just couldn't believe how many clearly overweight, or obese, people that were there. I would estimate that something like 70% of the people I saw were, at best, well overweight and many of the staff were the worst offenders. 

It begs the question as to how much obesity costs the country as I'm sure it's at the root cause of many of the ailments we have to fund
		
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That's why all the vending machines at hospitals are full of healthy snacks


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## MegaSteve (Jul 1, 2015)

Political correctness has left fat man as more or less the one remaining target ...


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## SocketRocket (Jul 1, 2015)

I watched a program on the TV last week (probably on the BBC) that was showing how the savage cuts to welfare were driving people to cut down on food.

They had two sample families that were suffering badly but in both cases the husbands were fairly slim but the Women were overtly obese.  Didn't look like they were really starving!


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## Lord Tyrion (Jul 1, 2015)

Eating healthily does not need to be expensive. Buying rubbish from freezer shops is not cheap. It doesn't have to be that low income equals bad / fatty foods. It is laziness in being willing to actually prepare raw foods, follow recipes, put some time in etc.


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## Break90 (Jul 1, 2015)

Lord Tyrion said:



			Eating healthily does not need to be expensive. Buying rubbish from freezer shops is not cheap. It doesn't have to be that low income equals bad / fatty foods. It is laziness in being willing to actually prepare raw foods, follow recipes, put some time in etc.
		
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How do you expect these type of people to find the time to cook healthy meals when there's Jeremy Kyle, Loose Women, Home and Away and Neighbours to watch? Then there's barely enough time to stick a tray of nuggets and chips in the oven before Corrie and Eastenders come on. Be reasonable for god's sake.........


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## Lord Tyrion (Jul 1, 2015)

Good point. I wasn't being fair was I?


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## Deleted member 16999 (Jul 1, 2015)

I had the misfortune to spend 5-6 hours in the RVI Hospital in Newcastle this morning and after reading last nights posts I took more notice of the other people who were there. Undoubtedly we have a weight issue in this Country, but in the time I observed, there was way more skinny or average weight people who looked far worse than the overweight people, and I don't mean the sick I mean the people who were accompanying the sick (wrong to stigmatise fat or thin people when we have no idea what they are suffering from) Dirty, smelly, clothes were filthy, bad language, give me clean fat person than a filthy lean person any day. If i hadn't of been in a hospital it could've easily been a selection process for Jeremy Kyle show!


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## AmandaJR (Jul 1, 2015)

Whilst we're on the JK show topic. I think anyone that applies should be invited to a mock studio that's really some sort of gas chamber...

I'm guessing that's not very pc??


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## Break90 (Jul 1, 2015)

Eugenics is a very under-rated concept IMO


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## Alex1975 (Jul 4, 2015)

Often I think comfort eating is like drink or drugs or smoking. Humans seem to need a vice and often a destructive one.


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## freddielong (Jul 5, 2015)

I know someone who is registered disabled due to their size, they are given a new car every few years as well as the rest of the benefits they get.


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## M1ke (Jul 5, 2015)

Tashyboy said:



			Had to go to the local hospital yesterday with Missis Tash for summat that's quite serious. Anyway she had to have several tests whilst in there. The amount of people that were overweight and I mean massively overweight was staggering. And some of the staff weren't helping.
i made the same comment to Missis T whilst people watching. 
A few years ago "fat Al" who once had his waist measured and was wider than taller, had a medical at me pit. Anyway me boss was bending his ear for twenty mins about his weight. He said quite straight faced" let's be right sister your no Kylie Minouge are you" she said I am wasting my time aren't I. He and his whole family are massively overweight and claiming a fortune in benefits and treatment.
quite sad.
		
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I didn't understand a word of that?


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## Foxholer (Jul 5, 2015)

Break90 said:



			Eugenics is a very under-rated concept IMO
		
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There was quite a 'study' done of it in the 1930s and early 40s!


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## Liverbirdie (Jul 5, 2015)

So skinny people  = good people/not spongers then, if I can take to be a rule of thumb going from the comments on here.

Its hard to tell who is being sarcastic and who is being serious.:smirk:


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## SocketRocket (Jul 6, 2015)

Liverbirdie said:



			So skinny people  = good people/not spongers then, if I can take to be a rule of thumb going from the comments on here.

Its hard to tell who is being sarcastic and who is being serious.:smirk:
		
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Thats an inverted view of whats been said.  No one has suggested that thin people are all good  but rather there is a growing obesity problem.


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## Liverbirdie (Jul 6, 2015)

SocketRocket said:



			Thats an inverted view of whats been said.  No one has suggested that thin people are all good  but rather there is a growing obesity problem.
		
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There is a growing obesity problem, of that there is no doubt, but some comments seem to associate obesity with sponging and laziness.

I'm sure that people suffering from anorexia are also a drain on the NHS, but that is probably harder to spot, or should these people also be put in the village stocks, also?


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## freddielong (Jul 6, 2015)

The problem is not so much fat or thin, but the part of the population that know better they know they are not looking after themselves and expect the nhs to fix them, whether that be too much alcohol, smoking or food.


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## bluewolf (Jul 6, 2015)

Liverbirdie said:



			I'm sure that people suffering from anorexia are also a drain on the NHS, but that is probably harder to spot, or should these people also be put in the village stocks, also?
		
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You could try, but they'd probably just wriggle free..


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## SocketRocket (Jul 6, 2015)

Liverbirdie said:



			There is a growing obesity problem, of that there is no doubt, but some comments seem to associate obesity with sponging and laziness.

I'm sure that people suffering from anorexia are also a drain on the NHS, but that is probably harder to spot, or should these people also be put in the village stocks, also?
		
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Anorexia is IMO a mental health issue.  Maybe Obesity has a trait of mental health but it generally seems more related to greed and lifestyle.  There is also the scale of the problem, around 30% of the population is obese.

Might have to build some bigger stocks !


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## Snelly (Jul 6, 2015)

I think at some point, however draconian it may sound, the way you look after yourself will in some way be linked to the treatment that you can access.  For example, if someone is relatively inactive, a Fitbit / Apple Watch or whatever replaces them (implanted tech) will track their steps/heart rate etc and if you do nothing but sit in front of the telly, then your options are restricted when it comes to the treatment of conditions relative to obesity. 

As healthcare becomes more commoditised in the UK, I can see something like this being implemented in future.  

It is roughly the same principle as tagging offenders to monitor curfews and the like.


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## freddielong (Jul 6, 2015)

Snelly said:



			I think at some point, however draconian it may sound, the way you look after yourself will in some way be linked to the treatment that you can access.  For example, if someone is relatively inactive, a Fitbit / Apple Watch or whatever replaces them (implanted tech) will track their steps/heart rate etc and if you do nothing but sit in front of the telly, then your options are restricted when it comes to the treatment of conditions relative to obesity. 

As healthcare becomes more commoditised in the UK, I can see something like this being implemented in future.  

It is roughly the same principle as tagging offenders to monitor curfews and the like.
		
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This is the way forward


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## Rooter (Jul 6, 2015)

freddielong said:



			This is the way forward
		
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Yeh Snelly for Government! Health and Welfare minister.


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## Ethan (Jul 6, 2015)

SocketRocket said:



			Anorexia is IMO a mental health issue.  Maybe Obesity has a trait of mental health but it generally seems more related to greed and lifestyle.  There is also the scale of the problem, around 30% of the population is obese.

Might have to build some bigger stocks !
		
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Anorexia is certainly a mental health issue, characterised by a pathological body image and is very had to treat. 

Obesity is generally behavioural, and associated with the habit of overeating, which can be managed. 

The growing size of the population does not seem to have put much of a brake on ever increasing life expectancy, so I wouldn't panic just yet.


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## G.U.R (Jul 6, 2015)

Go into any supermarket and you will see all the cheap offers are for the cr@p stuff. 4 Mars bars for a Â£1, Cadbury's chocolate biscuits buy one get one free ect ect ect, I have never seen these offers in the fruit and veg section.


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## Rooter (Jul 6, 2015)

G.U.R said:



			Go into any supermarket and you will see all the cheap offers are for the cr@p stuff. 4 Mars bars for a Â£1, Cadbury's chocolate biscuits buy one get one free ect ect ect, I have never seen these offers in the fruit and veg section.
		
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Thats not quite right is it.. lettuce 49p, cucumber 49p, bag of apples for a quid, 3 peppers for a quid, broccoli 49p, grapes 1.50. Fruit and veg is the cheapest its ever been! Its the lazy, feckless fatties that get drawn to the processed, high fat options.

The retailers are not to blame here, everything is ok in moderation.

Maybe its time for the retailers to step in? BMI over 30 = not allowed anything with a red or amber traffic light on the daily suggestion label...


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## Deleted member 16999 (Jul 6, 2015)

Rooter said:



			Maybe its time for the retailers to step in? BMI over 30 = not allowed anything with a red or amber traffic light on the daily suggestion label...
		
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So that's most of the England Rugby Forwards sorted then!


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## Liverbirdie (Jul 6, 2015)

Oo, I'd love to see some of your faces when the fatty police throw your mothers, birds and daughters out of the wards.:smirk:


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## bluewolf (Jul 6, 2015)

Liverbirdie said:



			Oo, I'd love to see some of your faces when the fatty police throw your mothers, birds and daughters out of the wards.:smirk:
		
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Aren't they the same person in some parts of Liverpool?


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## Liverbirdie (Jul 6, 2015)

bluewolf said:



			Aren't they the same person in some parts of Liverpool?
		
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Oo, bitch! :ears:


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## SocketRocket (Jul 6, 2015)

Ethan said:



			Anorexia is certainly a mental health issue, characterised by a pathological body image and is very had to treat. 

Obesity is generally behavioural, and associated with the habit of overeating, which can be managed. 

The growing size of the population does not seem to have put much of a brake on ever increasing life expectancy, so I wouldn't panic just yet.
		
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I take by "growing size of the population" you refer to it's girth and not numbers?

If I am correct in that assumption then I would suggest it's a bit early to see how obesity will affect life expectancy.   Obesities current increase has not yet had time to show how it will affect life expectancy but my guess is that it will reduce it.   Increases in diabetes, blood pressure, heart disease to name but a few of the issues associated to obesity do seem to promote premature death in people, I have noticed a number of overweight people dying prematurely.


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## Sweep (Jul 7, 2015)

If we are going to tackle the obesity problem we have to not only change behavioural patterns but also start to regulate what manufacturers put in our food. The amount of sugar and salt used is just staggering and very often the foods we believe are healthy are anything but. "Healthy" cereals, low fat yoghurts are some of the worst offenders. We really do need to check the labels to see what we are putting into our bodies.
HID's mum is a great cook and she told me she would never dream of putting sugar in a pasta sauce, but you won't believe how much sugar the manufacturers put in this kind of product.
The simple solution is don't buy anything branded and cook from fresh. But who has time for that nowadays?


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## Snelly (Jul 7, 2015)

Sweep said:



			The simple solution is don't buy anything branded and cook from fresh. But who has time for that nowadays?
		
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Almost everyone.

My wife and I both work in demanding jobs and we manage it for our family of four every night. It requires a bit of prior thought and effort but it is not hard to do.   E.g. When we make a Ragu sauce from scratch, we make enough for four meals and we freeze three.  One becomes a lasagne, one spaghetti Bolognese and one might be tweaked into Chilli Con Carne or even a Cottage Pie. 

And there are hundreds of healthy meals that can be made quickly, easily and cheaply without resorting to processed foods. 20 minutes gets you a fantastic meal for 4.  

Cooking is good family time for us all too and we are all invariably in the kitchen every evening together chatting, music on, bit of homework on the go, whilst preparing dinner.  

What we don't do is watch TV. Probably a couple of hours a week typically.  For those that do watch TV, the time it takes you to watch Eastenders is ample to prepare a nice dinner from scratch.


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## bluewolf (Jul 7, 2015)

Snelly said:



			Almost everyone.

My wife and I both work in demanding jobs and we manage it for our family of four every night. It requires a bit of prior thought and effort but it is not hard to do.   E.g. When we make a Ragu sauce from scratch, we make enough for four meals and we freeze three.  One becomes a lasagne, one spaghetti Bolognese and one might be tweaked into Chilli Con Carne or even a Cottage Pie. 

And there are hundreds of healthy meals that can be made quickly, easily and cheaply without resorting to processed foods. 20 minutes gets you a fantastic meal for 4.  

Cooking is good family time for us all too and we are all invariably in the kitchen every evening together chatting, music on, bit of homework on the go, whilst preparing dinner.  

What we don't do is watch TV. Probably a couple of hours a week typically.  For those that do watch TV, the time it takes you to watch Eastenders is ample to prepare a nice dinner from scratch.
		
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I fully agree.. Most of those that claim not to have the time to prepare good food are actually just prioritising something else in its place.


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## Rooter (Jul 7, 2015)

Snelly said:



			Almost everyone.

My wife and I both work in demanding jobs and we manage it for our family of four every night. It requires a bit of prior thought and effort but it is not hard to do.   E.g. When we make a Ragu sauce from scratch, we make enough for four meals and we freeze three.  One becomes a lasagne, one spaghetti Bolognese and one might be tweaked into Chilli Con Carne or even a Cottage Pie. 

And there are hundreds of healthy meals that can be made quickly, easily and cheaply without resorting to processed foods. 20 minutes gets you a fantastic meal for 4.  

Cooking is good family time for us all too and we are all invariably in the kitchen every evening together chatting, music on, bit of homework on the go, whilst preparing dinner.  

What we don't do is watch TV. Probably a couple of hours a week typically.  For those that do watch TV, the time it takes you to watch Eastenders is ample to prepare a nice dinner from scratch.
		
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Exactly the Same here, big pack of mince makes 3 meals. Forward thinking. OK my kids have nuggets and chips (or similar) probably once a week, but for the other 6 nights a week, its fresh. Doesn't cost anymore, probably the same amount of time, just a little bit more effort!


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## SwingsitlikeHogan (Jul 7, 2015)

When I look around the centre of my wealthy town on a Saturday there are certainly a fair few obese folk about.  When I look around the centre of the neighbouring much poorer town on a Saturday there are a lot of obese folk about.  The correlations between wealth (or lack of it), (un)employment and obesity are easily drawn.  Whether one necessarily follows the other I do not k now - but it is hard to escape drawing conclusions from what your eyes tell you.


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