The final helping

neil donnelly

Neil is a Fellow of the bDa and retired Dietetic Services Manager. His main areas of interest are weight management and eating disorders

I have a plan. To be fair, ever since I can remember, I have gathered my thoughts at the very end of one year and put them, together with any plans for the next, in my new diary. This year has been no exception, except that social activities and events now seem to be well catered for in the ‘working’ week.

Neil Donnelly’s Diary

2015

For me, this has always been a very useful and beneficial exercise. This year, it includes the regular birthdays, anniversaries, holiday dates, Preston North End FC home games, Wales Rugby Union matches, music festival (last year it was the Secret Garden Party in Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire; this year we are heading off to Festival Number 6 in Portmeirion, North Wales) etc.

Where is this heading I hear you ask? Well, my diary will also include a few tasks, hopes and professional activities that I would wish to consider either undertaking or maintaining. One of these has always been to look after my own health, which includes weight, as much as I can. For someone who has always enjoyed participating in sport and has spent all his professional life working under a weight management umbrella, (my final year University dissertation in 1970 was entitled ‘fitness and fatness’), I understand and appreciate the huge health benefits that this gives which echo through all my activities and also forms the backbone of my diary, if not my life.

So, my agenda for the first couple of months of 2015 is to declutter my ‘stuff’. This is going well. I also set myself the small task of addressing the obesity problem, particularly with reference to its demands on the NHS, through the pages of this publication and the possibility of a United Kingdom Obesity Party (UKOP). This hybrid seedling has failed to germinate. Without going into any details, I guess it’s no surprise. As I write, I hear that four out of five adults who listed losing weight as their New Year’s resolution have already thrown in the towel. Why should we expect anything other than a half-hearted whim to elicit a change in behaviour that needs to last months if not years? What was I thinking?

We are in second place behind Hungary (very apt) of the 26 nations in Europe’s Obesity League. Individuals and institutions are groaning under the weight of ‘feasters, emotional eaters and constant cravers’ who are barricading our hospital beds. It’s a no go political nightmare when you are likely to alienate at least 25 percent of the population. I returned home last Thursday evening and listened to Question Time on the BBC which of course will now have a question about the NHS every week up to the election in May. Obesity is mentioned, but never dare to question that it forms part of an individual’s responsibility to manage their weight and reduce their likelihood for future demands on the service.

I take my hat off to the work of the National Obesity Forum and their representatives, usually Tam Fry and David Haslam, who are saying what the politicians daren’t say. “As a country we need to do more. We should be under no illusions. Obesity has the potential of breaking the NHS.”

I have just checked my diary and see that we have a weekend in London booked in February. Must make sure I go on the recently renamed Coca-Cola London Eye! “Keep dancing”.

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References 1. WHO World Health Organisation. Report of a Joint WHO/FAO/UNU Expert consultation. WHO Tech Rep Ser 2007(935): 1-265. 2. Clarke SE et al. J Hum Nutr Diet 2007; 20: 329-339. 3. Van Waardenburg DA et al. Clin Nutr 2009; 28: 249-255. 4. de Betue CT et al. Arch Dis Child 2011; 96: 817-822. 5. Bueno AL et al. Euro J Clin Nut 2010; 64(11): 1296-1301. 6. Black RE et al. Am J Clin Nut 2002; 76: 675-680. 7. Greer FR, Krebs NF Pediatrics 2006; 117(2): 578-585. 8. Leach JL et al. Am J Clin Nut 1995; 61: 1224-1230. Nutricia Ltd White Horse Business Park, Newmarket Avenue, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, BA14 OXQ, UK Tel 01225 711677 | Fax 01225 711972 |

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