As the obesity epidemic worsens, Spike Oldale-Worth looks at what is causing this, and what can be done to fix the rise in the obesity rates.
By Spike Oldale-Worth.
The obesity epidemic is getting worse year on year, the latest Health Survey forEngland estimated that in 2022, 28% of adults were obese with an additional 64.3% being obese or overweight.
This is a big problem, and according to ING Bank healthcare analyst Diederik Stadig, the annual cost of the obesity epidemic in the UK is £100 bn. The Food Farming and Countryside Commission estimates unhealthy food consumption is costing the UK £268 bn, which is more than the NHS budget altogether.
I spoke to Dr Claire Turner, a public health consultant at Brighton General Hospital for the Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust and picked her brains on the obesity epidemic. We talked about the USA, Ultra-Processed Foods and Ozempic. Not your average conversation.
She also rambled on about the obesity epidemic in her Australian accent, and it was insightful to hear from an expert in their own field. She told me that an obesity fix will not happen tomorrow unfortunately as she said: “If I had the answer to that, I would be a much richer lady.
“It’s not a short-term fix. We’re not going to see change in the next sort of five to ten years really. We’re looking at a generational shift.
“But there are, I think there are things that we can do, and we do know that some things work.”
When questioned on this further, she went on to say: “So, starting young, starting with children, and helping them discover good eating habits early in life.
“Also teaching children about food, teaching children to enjoy food, you know, what’s enjoyable about food, all those kinds of things.”
However, what are the causes for the obesity epidemic? What are the reasons for this shift in health and eating habits over the last 40 years? I do not have the answer to this, but Dr Young did as she said:
“So, there’s no simple answer to that question. There are several different reasons why obesity levels have risen over the past 40 years, and it’s not unique to the UK.
“Some of it’s about availability, some of it’s about the calorie density of our food, some of it is about poverty and inequalities.”
This is sadly plain to see in the real world.
If you go to an affluent area, you are likely to find organic whole-food markets with highly nutritious foods. If you go to a deprived area, you are likely to find processed takeaway shops with food that has little to no nutritional value.
This is why classic medical discourse on obesity centering around the idea of willpower is absurd. That the fault of obesity is on the obese, that they lack the willpower and discipline to stop eating as much is ridiculous within the context on food equality in the UK.
It is a culture problem. We need to fix our culture; the epidemic is not caused by the lack of willpower and willpower only. It is caused by tens of smaller issues that are compounding together with food inequality being one of them.
Within our culture, we differ vastly from our continental counterparts. Europe is a big place, and the UK, not being in the EU anymore has isolated us even further from the mainland and we have found more cultural similarities with the USA, a country which is notorious for being obese and the statistics back this up.
The country with the orange man had an adult obesity rate of 40.3% between 2021 and 2023, according to the National Centre for Health Statistics in the USA and if we align even closer culturally to them, the same fate will befall the UK.
The reason for this is the environment of food in the USA. Food, just like every facet of life under their extreme late-stage capitalistic society has become a commodity, something to be traded and sold for the largest monetary gains possible.
This has led to multinational food processers to make food as tasty as possible and as widely distributed as possible, leading people to eat excess calories which leads to fat gain. This has also incidentally led to the unavailability of healthy nutritious whole foods that once were everywhere to be seen.
Individual and independent greengrocers and butchers have been replaced by big business supermarkets, who disregard quality for the most part in the race to make as much money as possible.
However, Sarah Hornsey, a nutritionist based in Brighton & Hove recommended a few simply lifestyle choices to help curb obesity off, a few of these are: “Going for whole foods as much as possible, rather than packaged, convenient fast foods.
“Minimising snacking between meals, and try protein rich or healthy fat snacks alongside moving the body.
“What else is important is keeping hydrated, moving the body and shifting your mindset away from numbers and more towards being healthy.”
I feel as if we all know the answers individually to being healthier, acting upon this on the other hand is harder and what is even harder is doing so in an environment in the UK currently which makes the simple act of existing expensive.
This is not to say that we are all doomed, but to stop the rise of the obesity epidemic it will be an up-hill battle, and no quick fix is around the corner.
Dr Claire Turner – Public Health Consultant in Brighton General Hospital on 23rd April 2025. In person.
Klara Gailies – School Teacher in Sussex on 15th April 2025. In person
Sarah Hornsey – Nutritionist located in Brighton on 13th April 2025 on Zoom
Contact details are:
Email: claire.turner14@nhs.net – klaragailies@yahoo.co.uk – sarah@mindfulnutritionandhealth.co.uk
Phone Number: Klara’s is 07540 142897, I do not know Claire’s or Sarah’s.
Video was taken by me, at 2pm on magazine day.