Lincolnshire's obesity problem like an 'oil tanker'

The county’s obesity problem will take a long time to turn around like an ‘oil tanker’, a public health chief has warned.

County councillors have been told that obesity is a “growing issue” in Lincolnshire, as more than two-thirds of the county’s population are classed as overweight or obese according to public health data.

The authority has launched a new Child and Family Weight Management Service (CFWM) this month.

Prof Derek Ward, Director of Public Health, told councillors on Wednesday last week: “It’s taken 30-40 years to get where we are, it’s an oil tanker that’s going to take a long time to turn around.”

Reports before the council’s Adults and Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee say 68% of Lincolnshire’s population are overweight or obese, higher than the national average of 63%.

In South Holland, 72.9% of adults are over weight or obese.

Data from 2019/20 found that in Lincolnshire just over a quarter (25.6%) of reception age children and over a third (36.4%) of Year 6 children were overweight. Again both above the England averages of 23% and 35.2% respectively.

In South Holland, 26.4% of reception children (aged four or five) are overweight or obese.

Andy Fox, a county council consultant in Public Health, said obesity was an “area of real complexity” and there was “no single easy solution” to the problem due to issues surrounding deprivation, mental health, advertising, wider environmental concerns and more.

However, Prof Ward and Mr Fox agreed that the problem was linked to some of the main reasons for health problems in the county, including diabetes and cancer.

Obesity is expected to cost the NHS around £10billion a year nationally.

Mr Fox said the problem was only getting worse for the most deprived areas and hoped government solutions would prevent that.

Councillors also discussed lobbying government to do more about the ease of access to, and advertising of “poor foods” and increasing opportunities for physical activity.