Isn’t it amazing – apparently in the UK, the beleaguered NHS (National Health Service) are about to run a pilot whereby if you are grossly overweight, they will PAY you to slim down. Yes, for every pound that you lose over a 3-month period, you will get one £ sterling in the form of supermarket vouchers, which can only used in exchange for “healthy” food. It will be based on their BMI (Body Mass Index, which if over 30 means you are obese. Volunteers set their own target.
Never mind that it’s for their own good, and if they are obese they stand to shorten their life; they are actually being rewarded for losing weight. I say, what about the others who have always looked after themselves and don’t cost the British public money?
(It’s a bit like when they reward non-payers of fines and car parking violations here by giving them a “discount” if they finally, after years and years of mounting amounts, pay up. Again, the ones who pay on time get no real reward.)
If the pilot is successful, the rest of the UK will follow suit. Of course the NHS are doing this because it already costs them a heck of a lot (millions of pounds) to treat obesity and its related problems: weak hearts, high cholesterol, cancers, bad knees, diabetes etc etc etc.
But will it really work? Experts in the UK have already warned that this might mean people will put on weight then lose it rapidly just to get money, which will mean even more problems. Yo-yo dieting can weaken hearts. And once they get the vouchers, will they maintain the weight?
Still, who can blame the NHS? This must be a last-ditch attempt to get people healthy. Despite people like celebrity chef Jamie Oliver trying to “ejukait” the masses from young, nearly ¼ of the population is overweight. On the one hand you get size zero models who starve themselves to death, and on the other stars like Dawn French (The Vicar of Dibley) who is Size 20 and proud of it (“I’m not bothered,” she said), and are held as bad role models. New statistics apparently show that if the current trend carries on, the majority of the British population will be obese before the turn of the century. That’s scary! Still, the way I'M carrying on, all this eating ... it may be I will need an incentive like that to lose weight!!
Never mind that it’s for their own good, and if they are obese they stand to shorten their life; they are actually being rewarded for losing weight. I say, what about the others who have always looked after themselves and don’t cost the British public money?
(It’s a bit like when they reward non-payers of fines and car parking violations here by giving them a “discount” if they finally, after years and years of mounting amounts, pay up. Again, the ones who pay on time get no real reward.)
If the pilot is successful, the rest of the UK will follow suit. Of course the NHS are doing this because it already costs them a heck of a lot (millions of pounds) to treat obesity and its related problems: weak hearts, high cholesterol, cancers, bad knees, diabetes etc etc etc.
But will it really work? Experts in the UK have already warned that this might mean people will put on weight then lose it rapidly just to get money, which will mean even more problems. Yo-yo dieting can weaken hearts. And once they get the vouchers, will they maintain the weight?
Still, who can blame the NHS? This must be a last-ditch attempt to get people healthy. Despite people like celebrity chef Jamie Oliver trying to “ejukait” the masses from young, nearly ¼ of the population is overweight. On the one hand you get size zero models who starve themselves to death, and on the other stars like Dawn French (The Vicar of Dibley) who is Size 20 and proud of it (“I’m not bothered,” she said), and are held as bad role models. New statistics apparently show that if the current trend carries on, the majority of the British population will be obese before the turn of the century. That’s scary! Still, the way I'M carrying on, all this eating ... it may be I will need an incentive like that to lose weight!!
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