Zac Goldsmith tackles obesity at Richmond clinic

8:30am Sunday 17th June 2012 in News By Christine Fleming

Special visit: OMA chairman Graham Rowan was delighted to meet Mr Goldsmith Special visit: OMA chairman Graham Rowan was delighted to meet Mr Goldsmith

Obesity and its prevalence in the community were top of the agenda when Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith paid a visit to the Obesity Management Association’s (OMA) weight medics Richmond clinic.

Mr Goldsmith visited the clinic last month as part of a programme of political engagements organised by the OMA.

They aim to raise awareness of obesity problems in communities and to show the vital role of medical and behavioural solutions to tackle it.

During the visit Mr Goldsmith was given a tour of the clinic, met a patient who said getting medical advice about changing her eating habits had changed her life, and learned that 10.7 per cent of the Richmond constituency were obese.

Mr Goldsmith said: “I was pleased to be able to meet obesity patients and learn more about how the condition and its associated health complications have affected their lives.

“I absolutely support the programmes run by organisations such as Weight Medics, and the Obesity Management Association which are helping individuals to lose weight and improve their lives.”

Comments(5)

Twickenham Bob says...
11:31am Sun 17 Jun 12

Poverty is the main cause of Obesity.

Most people in poverty work - but the minimum wage is too low to cover living costs so people can only afford cheap processed junk food.

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Scott Naylor says...
2:42pm Sun 17 Jun 12

This is about education and use of fresh ingredients, not about money per se, as good home-cooked food ingredients can be bought economically and turned into a nourishing feast! Fast food dangers is about making awareness of your health in the medium term be learned at school, and practiced at school. There are hundreds of books on how to make scrummy food from cheap cuts through things like Shin of beef, which has more depth of taste than many of the more expensive cuts. Laverstoke Park Farm Butchers Shop in Twickenham Town do regular chef cook-ins to share the simplest ways of enjoying this economic ways of cooking, untwisting the collogens and revealing the most tender meat, which once made into a stew or hotpot can be frozen and reheated very easily indeed.Education in food prepaation underpins so much about obesity. So learning how to stay away from the temptation of cheap and poor processed fatty food is the target against wholesome freshly prepared food. Money is not the issue, education is.

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Twickenham Bob says...
4:08pm Sun 17 Jun 12

Sorry Scott but one of the biggest observational studies 'The UK Women's Cohort Study' has found a direct link between incomes and health. They looked at the diets of 15 191 women aged 35–69

To achieve a healthy diet you need to spend more money. Women in the healthiest diet group spent an additional £617 than the least-healthy diet group, with vegetables and fruit accounting for the largest amount of the cost.

Other issues also come into play. If you are on a low income you cant afford waste so people turn to frozen foods, and items they perceive as more 'value'. Lower income groups also eat a less salads and fruits as they can spoil very easily.

Plus who on a tight income is going to want to have the oven on for a couple of hours burning fuel they cant afford in the first place to cook meat from one of the most expensive butchers in the country. You are seriously out of touch to an extent that even Marie Antoinette would blush.

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Gareth_Roberts says...
6:04pm Sun 17 Jun 12

I'm afraid that money is very much to the fore of this story. Were Mr Goldsmith to be 'tackling' obesity in a way which was meaningful to the vast majority of his consituents by visiting an NHS clinic then this story may have a point, however the Weight Medics clinic he visited is private and the lowest, basic package without any extras costs £850 a year (rather patronisingly described as less than the cost of a Starbucks Coffee each day on their website).

So given this is a private clinic and the OMA appears to be a body which other private clinics pay a fee to join it is hard to know how Mr Goldsmith's visit can even loosely be described as 'tackling' obesity.

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metis says...
8:19pm Sun 17 Jun 12

Historically, the poor were always portrayed as thin and scrawny and the rich were often fat and suffering from gout. Nowadays, children are treated as adults and adults like children. Science is treated as a religion and religion examined with scientific scrutiny. I dont know - my whole world seems to back to front and upside down.

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