UK Fat Tax

I'm sick in bed with some kind of head and stomach flu or head cold and stomach virus assaulting me at the same time. Sitting doesn't really work out for me as I start feelign nauseas and dizzy. Anyone who knows me, knows 2 nights back to back of 8 to 10 hours sleep is more than I can handle! Complimented with the occasional nap through the day due to the illness over the last 48 hours, and I'm sooo done with this sleep thing!!! However, there is only so much work you can do in bed with a laptop and a fuzzy head. Concentrating on the smallest of problems/projects leaves me tired and frustrated. So I am spending time reading mountain biking magazines, watching some movies and playing the "facebook" game.

My attention has been briefly drawn to a news article about the "UK Fat Tax" that David Cameron says the government may consider. An unofficial "slimming world" facebook group I belong to has started chatting about it, and I suddenly realised I had some relatively extreme, emotional, humorous and potentially offensive thoughts on the matter, which I have shared with the group, and thought would be intersting to share on my blog.

It will probably help if you read the article first: http://uk.health.lifestyle.yahoo.net/uk-government-may-consider-a-fat-tax.htm.

Some replies have suggested decreasing cost of expensive healthy food and that educating the public at large is needed, neither of which I disagree with, however, my thoughts went more along these lines:

1. I sometimes wonder if educating actually helps. I knew a lot about nutrition when I was at my largest and "unhappiest", and sadly, it didn't help until something drastic threatened my health. I just felt worse for it, addicted to being fat, yet still guzzled away at burgers, chips, pizza, bread and crisps knowing full well how bad they were for me. Much the same as everyone knows full well how bad smoking is for them, and still continue to work their way through a pack a day!
 
2. I sometimes think we need to be treated like children. They "the parents" know what's good for us "the children", and should lay down the law. Only "buy"/make available healthy food. Ban fast foods, ban high saturate fats, even ban bread!!
 
3. Massive fines to companies producing high fat products! :D I know it's extreme and anti-capitalist/"unconstitutional", but it would certainly make being on Slimming World sooo much easier! :)

4. Perhaps, obesity needs to be treated and refered to far more severely than it currently is. You always run the risk of the arguement that "it's in my genes", "it's hereditary" or it gets explained as a side effect to another medical condition. And over exagerating it's seriousness may be insensitive or worse, "politically incorrect"!
 
5. There really is too much acceptance of "Fat and Happy". I personally campaigned this in my life and to my wife for years....and only now after slimming down some, and getting active and healthy do I realise how laughably STUPID that saying was. Compared to now...I wasn't even REMOTELY happy! And I wish I had grasped even a fraction of how dangerous my obesity actually was. Maybe if people had been less accomodating of my obesity and been a little more insensitive toward me, particularly my doctor and the NHS in general, I may have been slapped out of my delusion that I was happy or that it was ok to be quite as fat as I was, a lot sooner than January this year!

6. And for goodness sake, reward the people who are doing their bit to save you their part of that predicted £6.4B obesity cost!