I admit it, I’ve never been the fittest person in the world. But I try to keep myself in shape – I play football twice a week and I even went on a lunchtime run last week.
And earlier this year it seemed to be having an effect. I’d been walking half an hour to work from Harlescott every day and a pleasant surprise was in store when I hopped on the scales – I’d lost a stone and a half since Christmas.
And it made me feel good. I was always slightly overweight at school, maybe now I’d found the secret to keeping myself in trim.
So when it was announced last week that 27 per cent of adults in the county were clinically obese, there was only a small part of me that possibly thought I would be one of those statistics.
How wrong I was.
On Monday I was back up to 13 stone one – I’d put a stone back on. Even worse, my body fat percentage was 30 – anything over 25 per cent in men is considered obese. And it didn’t help that my colleagues in the office were all a picture of health.
Economic drain
So there I was – officially an economic drain on Shropshire’s health resources. If forecasts are to be believed, treating obesity will cost the county health coffers £80 million a year by 2015.
Those forecasts are based on the rate of obesity in our schools – the number of overweight reception age children is higher than the national average and 17.5 per cent of year six children – 11-year-olds – are classed as obese.
Thankfully, help is at hand. Shropshire Council is introducing a range of initiatives for children as young as five with weight problems up to full grown adults. They include driving the message about eating healthily to families and implementing a Help2Slim adult weight management service, while funding is being sought to provide more support for primary school children.
And as part of National School Meals week staff at Heart of England Fine Foods have highlighted two schemes they are running to encourage youngsters to eat healthy, regionally produced food and drink.
The V machine is a healthy vending machine stocked with food and drink that meets Government guidelines for healthy eating in schools, including nuts and pulses, yoghurts, sandwiches, baguettes and wraps, fruit juice, milk and fruit. The S bar is a smoothie bar which uses locally produced fruit and vegetables and milk to make healkthy drinks on the spot.
Among the schools where the V machine and S bar are in use are Church Stretton School, the Thomas Adams School in Wem and Sir John Talbot’s Technology College in Whitchurch.
Sophie Gethin, HEFF schools project manager, said: “We work very closely with schools across the region to deliver these projects and work under strict Government school food guidelines fitting in with its three-year plan to transform school meals and to ban all foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar.”
Whether such initiatives will have an impact in the face of multi-million pound advertising campaigns from fizzy drink and fast food companies remains to be seen, but it’s vital that these schemes are underway to tackle obesity.
As for me, the exercise will be stepped up and my diet is going to change. No more pizzas, curries or soft drinks. It’s going to be a lean Christmas.
A healthy weight?
- You can test your own body fat and blood pressure and test your body mass index (BMI) without a trip to the gym or the doctors.
- Peter tested his weight and body fat percentage using Tanita body fat scales, which measure your weight and the percentage of fat in your body. Blood pressure arm monitors are available on the High Street.
- According to www.weightlossresources.co.uk people with a body fat above 25 per cent in men aged 20-39 and above 39 per cent in women of the same age are technically obese. A figure between eight per cent and 20 per cent in men and 21 per cent and 33 per cent in women is considered healthy
- To work out your BMI divide your weight in kilogrammes by your height, in metres squared. But this is a rough calculation – sportsmen such as rugby players and boxers would be considered obese using this measurement alone.
By news editor Peter Kitchen
