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Welcome to the National Obesity Forum

Welcome to the National Obesity Forum website.  At the moment, it's sparse to say the least because it's undergoing a major overhaul.  It's an overhaul that itself will reflect a comprehensive re-appraisal of the Forum's place in the world and answer the question that's even now formulating in your mind "What is the National Obesity Forum, anyway?"

  

The answer is that we are group of health professionals and specialists who are sickened by the appalling obesity epidemics in the country - particularly the one which affects children - and are determined to do what we can to reverse the situation.  We are not a charity in the normally accepted definition - and therefore we are definitely not after your money - but a Forum in which we donate all our available time in pro bono work to improve to reformulate the obesogenic society in which we are all forced to live. If this means kicking politicians of every hue into ensuring that government takes the battle against obesity seriously, then we will kick.  We would prefer to partner with Whitehall but that's not an option: the government thinks it's doing too good a job to need time for partnerships. You should be under no illusion that we believe that the absence of any strategy to address adult obesity is a disgrace and that the Childhood Obesity Plan published last August is as close to a disgrace as it could be

 

Only 10% of our time is spent on " lobbying ". By far the greatest proportion [some 70%] is aimed at persuading those of our fellow professional to treat obesity as a disease.  It truly is and if it is not identified in its early stages may well go on to trigger other diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes [T2D] which are, arguably, more serious than " simple " obesity and, certainly, costlier to treat.  The yearly drugs bill for T2D is £1bn. 

 

The remaining 20% is spent with the media, particularly with television and radio news programmes which use the Forum as its source of about obesity related issues. This activity is highly valued since, literally, millions of people can get quality reaction to the research findings which is meat and drink to written press, TV and radio journalists.   As of to-day we will post on NEWS AND OPINION the latest obesity-related stories in the written press and what the Forum thinks about them.

 

Care to take a look?

 

 

HEALTH SECRETARY EXCLUSIVE

FRIDAY 18th APRIL 2019 


In an exclusive interview for the Daily Express Health Secretary, Matt Hancock,  urges unhealthy Brits to get off the sofa and start exercising as the shocking scale of inactivity is laid bare. " We are 20 per cent less active than the 1960s and if the crisis continues we will be 35 per cent less active by 2030. Idleness now costs the UK £7.4billion a year. If we do nothing the physical and mental impact on individuals and the financial cost to the NHS will become ever greater. We have a shared responsibility for our health. " .


NOF COMMENT:   The Forum would have more time for Mr Hancock's pronouncements if he ensured that local councils, the main providers of recreational spaces in any given area, had Treasury funds to make them attractive to exercise in.  Activity should be fun and enjoyable but a walk in the park is no fun if the park is rundown and uninviting.  Words alone will not motivate adults who cannot find 20 minutes a day in which to exercise: helping to create pleasant environments in which they could spend that time just might!  Only then should Mr Hancock talk about ' shared responsibility ' ". 

20pc AMERICAN CHILDREN DON'T DRINK WATER

TUESDAY 23rd APRIL 2019 


Research from a Pennsylvania State University Water, Health, and Nutrition Lab at Penn, has reported that on a given day, some 20% American children don't drink any water.  Doubly concerning is the fact that instead they consume sugar-sweetened beverages [SSBs] and thereby gain some 200 calories a day. This, the researchers say, underscores the importance of children having free access to clean water. 


While an extra 200 calories may not seem like a lot, continue the researchers, it can add up quickly when kids are downing SSBs on a regular basis. They added " What you have to remember is that an extra 3,500 calories equals one pound of weight gain, so if you're not compensating for those extra calories, then over a month, you can potentially gain a pound. Over several months, that could add up."
 
NOF COMMENT: " Lamentably millions of  UK parents persist in giving their kids sweetened drink from infancy.  This makes it their default choice and they will scream if they don't get it.  Things have to change if we want to avoid the levels reported in the US.  Parents should be continually reminded that water is undeniably the healthiest freely available beverage - not only for children but for them, too.  Hopefully, within years we will see free water fountains on every high street to remind them.  The Victorians ensured that there was one in every park: now, 150 years later, the government has pledged that there will be the same in every public place"

Would achieving sugar reduction targets cut child obesity and healthcare costs?

THURSDAY 18th APRIL 2019

 
BMJ publishes research stating that achieving sugar reduction targets could cut child obesity and healthcare costs. But these benefits could be lost if goals are not fully met, warn researchers.

Reducing the sugar content of certain foods by 2020, in line with UK government policy targets, could cut child obesity and related illness, and save the NHS in England £286 million over 10 years, suggests a study published by the BMJ today. 

But these benefits could be easily lost if the targets are not fully met, or if the programme leads to unintended changes in consumer or industry behaviour, warn the researchers.

Childhood obesity affects one in 10 children aged 4-5 years and one in 5 children aged 11-12 years, while the proportion of obese adults has risen from 15% in 1993 to 26% in 2016.

In 2016, the UK government set out plans to work with food manufacturers to reduce the sugar content of certain high-sugar products, such as cereals and confectionery, by 20% by 2020.

The strategy consists of three sugar reduction approaches: reformulating products to contain less sugar, reducing portion size, and shifting sales from high-sugar products to low-sugar alternatives.

But the potential health impacts of these measures have not been studied.

So a team of researchers, led by Ben Amies-Cull at Oxford University, set out to estimate the impact of this strategy on child and adult obesity, related diseases, and healthcare costs.

Data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (2012-13 and 2013-14) were used to simulate a scenario where the strategy had been successfully implemented in England. Changes to child and adult weight were then estimated, and their impact on disease burden and healthcare costs were modelled.

Several assumptions were made. For example, baseline diet would remain unchanged (apart from the portion size or sugar content of target food items), and there would be no unintended changes in eating patterns or products (e.g. individuals substituting foods due to differences in taste or manufacturers changing non-target nutrients like salt).

The results show that fully achieving the government’s sugar reduction targets could reduce the number of obese 4-10 year olds by 5.5% of the obese population, 11-18 year olds by 2.2% and adults (19-80 year olds) by 5.5%.

Calorie intakes could be cut by 25 kcal/day for children and 19 kcal/day for adults.

In adults, this could lead to 155,000 fewer cases of type 2 diabetes, 3,500 cases of cardiovascular disease, 5,800 fewer cases of bowel (colorectal) cancer and a total NHS cost saving of £286m over 10 years.

However, they warn that the potential health benefits of the government's strategy could be lost if any of the three sugar reduction approaches fail to have the intended effect.

The limitations of this modelling study include the reliability of the survey data, which may have led to an under-estimate of the effect.

Nevertheless, the researchers say their findings remained largely unchanged after further analyses and conclude that the sugar reduction strategy “could be an effective means of reducing obesity-related illness and costs, although targets must be met.”

In a linked editorial, Dr Annalijn Conklin from the University of British Columbia says the research makes “an important contribution to the current knowledge of the population benefits of public health collaborations."

Future studies could assess whether the government’s programme is also an extension of ‘business as usual’, she writes, and thus whether the potential beneficial effects modelled by Amies-Cull and colleagues would be attributable to the programme or to a pre-programme trajectory.

Finally, although the programme may contribute, “a complete solution to the challenge of improving diets and reducing the burden of nutrition related chronic diseases requires a multi-sectoral package of policies which also includes the UK sugar tax, other fiscal tools, and hard regulation for improving public health,” she concludes. 
 
NOF COMMENT " The researchers are right in their conclusion but it's strange that they didn't factor in the success of the levy imposed on the sugary drinks industry a year ago. The levy's achievement in reducing sugar content in fizzy drinks by 11%  has opened up the idea that similar levies could do the same for food.  However, under the government's current 3 yr voluntary scheme for reduction it probably won't. Only some 2% of the 20% target has been achieved and 2020 is but eight months away!  Annalijn Conklin has the answer. UK will need a raft of fiscal measures and hard regulation if we are to see any significant reduction in childhood obesity "

Obesity Care and Management online courses

 

Obesity Care and Weight Management online courses

PG Cert/ PG Dip/ MSc   -  Short Courses

 

The College of Contemporary Health (CCH) is the world’s leading online institute in Obesity Care and Weight Management. We combine flexible online learning, world-class academic expertise, and a unique interdisciplinary curriculum to provide health professionals with university validated education that can be applied immediately in day-to-day interaction with patients.

We are committed to ensuring that our students always have the most up-to-date and relevant learning material. To do this, we have developed an outstanding Academic Advisory Board comprised of the most influential voices in the obesity care and weight management field; they are all at the cutting edge of both research and clinical practice. Their expertise is reflected in all CCH courses.

CCH offers a variety of university validated 12 week postgraduate modules that make up our PGCert/PGDip/MSc courses. They run three times a year in January, April and September.

They include:

·         Obesity: Behavioural Aspects

·         Obesity: Causes and Consequences

·         Obesity: The Solutions?

·         Obesity and Reproductive Health

·         Paediatric Obesity

For students who want to upskill and improve their professional practice in obesity care and weight management, but don’t have time for a full postgraduate qualification, CCH have a range of online Professional Short Courses for continued professional development (CPD). CCH Professional Short Courses are 2-10 hours and can be started at any time – begin learning whenever you want!

Included within our range of Professional Short Courses are:

“The CCH courses make a significant contribution to the clinical education of practitioners. The modules are evidence-based, relevant and of high quality and should be recommended to all practitioners involved in obesity prevention and management”.

Professor Pinki Sahota

Chair of the Association for the Study of Obesity

 

If you would like any more information about CCH or our obesity care and weight management courses, please feel to visit the CCH website www.contemporaryhealth.co.uk, download prospectus, or speak to one of the team at either (0)20 3773 4895 or via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

 

Study with us and join our growing global network of health professional alumni trained in obesity care and weight management! Become essential to the future of healthcare.