It's that man again

 

Cooey!

The Sunday Telegraph ran an article titled ‘I’m a doctor – here’s how I would solve Britain’s obesity crisis’ yesterday. Unsurprisingly, it didn't involve people eating less and exercising more, nor did it mention the miracle weight loss jab. Instead, it featured three slightly different awful people giving their Big Government prescriptions. 

After the usual recitation of bogus facts ("obesity now affects two thirds of UK adults [actually 26%] at a cost of £6 billion to the NHS each year [actually a lot less]") we were treated to the views of three self-proclaimed experts, one of whom isn't even a doctor.

First up was David Halpern of Nudge Unit fame who is no longer even pretending to be following the rules of Nudge.

 

I head up the Behavioural Insights Team, also known as the Nudge unit, which was set up by the government in 2010 with the idea that nudging people towards better choices without regulation or force is the best way to spark change long term. (We are now fully owned by Nesta, a charity.) We suggested nudges, such as the sugar tax in 2014 (implemented in 2018), and placing high-calorie foods away from checkouts in supermarkets. We also backed junk food advertising bans and an end to buy-one-get-one-free deals on such products...

 

One of the golden rules of libertarian paternalism AKA nudging is that you can't change the costs and benefits. A tax is not a nudge. A ban is not a nudge.

 

To state the obvious: a BAN is not a NUDGE. The opposite in fact. So don't blame Bloomberg's ban on large soda cups on us.

— Richard H Thaler (@R_Thaler) May 31, 2012

 

What is the point of David Halpern if he doesn't have any actual nudges to promote? Friends, there is no point to him. He is just another paternalistic blowhard.

 

It is evident that information, exercise and willpower will not reduce levels of obesity.

 

They are, in fact, the only things that have ever worked. 

 

Next up is Kamila Hawthorne, the Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners. 

 

Two thirds of adults are overweight or obese in Britain, and as doctors, we’re worried about what this means for the future of chronic diseases. We need to raise healthy food and healthy eating on the nation’s list of priorities, and to do this together.

 

And how do we do that?

That starts with GP services, who need more resources to be able to support their patients in losing weight to improve their health.

 

Of course.  More money for doctors. I should have guessed.

What I would really love is if they left my surgery and saw a public health campaign advertised on a bus, reiterating the benefits of weight loss, building on what we’re doing in consultations.

I often say to people that if they can make these changes for themselves, they can do more for their health than any doctor can.

 

So information and willpower do work? Someone tell the man from the nudge unit.

 

Finally, and with horrible inevitability, it's Dr Chris van Tulleken who is correctly described as an 'anti-upf [ultra-processed food] evangelist'.

 

We know that what drives weight gain and other diet-related diseases in this country is eating foods that are ultra-processed, high in fat, salt and sugar...

Do we?

 

...yet at the moment, children see marketing for all of the above everywhere they turn.

Children don't do the weekly shop, Chris.

CvT's suggestion, which he hilariously seems to think is original, is to "treat food companies like tobacco companies". Expanding on this idea on Twitter, he said that scientists who have worked with the food industry "shouldn’t have a voice when it comes to health". Alas, he didn't explain how these people will be silenced, nor what industry he thinks food scientists should be working in. 

 

Countries like Mexico, Colombia and Brazil are beginning to better label food – they don’t use our confusing traffic-light system, rather big black hexagons on unhealthy products, so you can spot them immediately. They also ban cartoon characters on packaging, to make them less appealing to children.

 

Let's check back in with these countries in a few years and see if their obesity rates have fallen, shall we? Or would that be a bit too evidence-based for a UPF evangelist?

 

As for traffic light labelling being too confusing, let's hope he doesn't drive. 

We need to avoid eating rubbish food from cradle to grave. At the moment, people don’t have a choice.

 

So says the man who had to force himself to eat ultra-processed food for an article to promote his over-priced book. It seems he had never eaten Coco Pops or many other widely marketed food products before, despite being in his 40s. Since conducting this pseudo-experiment on himself, he has gone back to avoiding ultra-processed food like the plague.

 

It would seem, therefore, that people do have a choice.