GP warns of bleak future for West Berks increasing waistlines

Dr James Cave’s views are backed this week by an official report that revealed the regionhas the second highest obesity rates in the Thames Valley.
Figures released this week by Public Health England showed that 65.5 per cent of adults in West Berkshire were deemed obese last year. Meanwhile, in Reading, the lowest in the region, the rate was 55.3 per cent
In addition, West Berkshire is in the top half of the country for obesity figures, at 144th out of 326 local authorities.
Dr Cave, of the Downland Practice, Chieveley, said he was not surprised by the figures. “We have never had so many calories available to us on the high street and the supermarket. We live in a very calorie rich environment and we just don’t do enough exercise.”
Describing the future outlook as a depressing scenario, he added: “Obesity is such a major issue that we are going to get into so much trouble in the future.
“I just despair because we are going to have everybody on tablets for heart problems and diabetes.
“We can’t just leave it to the NHS or the local authority to sort out – it’s for every man, woman and child to sort out – it’s about changing the way we live.”
He added that central Government needed to tax fast foods and West Berkshire Council should offer more schemes to discourage private car use.
He stressed that people who were overweight or obese have an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers. Health problems associated with being overweight or obese costs the NHS more £5bn each year.
Thames Valley Public Health England Centre director Diana Grice said: “Today’s information will help local authorities to understand the extent of the problem in their area, support their on-going efforts to tackle overweight and obesity and improve the health of their local population by continuing to develop services such as health walks, and access to services such as weight management and healthy eating programmes that will raise awareness of obesity as a health issue.”
West Berkshire Council's shadow member for health and wellbeing, Gwen Mason (Lib Dem, Northcroft), said that obesity was a priority for both the health and wellbeing board and the Newbury and District Clinical Commissioning Group and that the council currently ran schemes which tried to tackle the issue such as ‘Eating for Health’ and ‘Let’s get Going’ and that children were also being offered free leisure centre sport over half term.
However, she added: “The figures are a concern, which was why it became one of the top priorities.
“We need to get people moving and get the information out about healthy eating.”
Other figures released this week by ukactive have calculated the nation’s inactivity rates in terms of the amount of green spaces and venues available for activity, and the annual cost of inactivity.
Against 150 other authorities nationally, it places West Berkshire as 30th in terms of the number of inactive adults, 110th in terms of inactive adults excluding walking and gardening, 20th in terms of the number of green venues and 58th in terms of the number of sporting venues available.