I am not judgmental about these jabs, if I was struggling with my weight I would definitely take them if offered, maybe pay for them myself.
But what’s depressing about the rise of GLP-1 agonists is actually a longstanding misdirection that obesity is a medical problem. Sure there are medical complications of obesity and there is
a medical solution, but the cause of the obesity epidemic is not biological, it is social in the widest sense. In the 1950s obesity in the UK was rare, now it is common - what has changed? Human biology certainly hasn’t. The underlying cause of obesity (rare medical causes aside) is the ‘obesogenic environment’ but it is simply too difficult, impossible even, to address it. So we furiously mop the floor while the tap is still running and the sink continues to overflow.
In a similar way the hosts highlighted in the podcast, other social problems like homelessness or domestic violence end up ultimately in healthcare, as it is the final common pathway, the last safety net to catch you when the rest of society fails you.
Tackling obesity should be seen no more the remit of healthcare, than the police should be responsible for fixing the underlying causes of crime. By conceptualising it principally as a medical problem, then of course the solution is inevitably to treat individuals with a course of therapy/pill/jab/operation - to a hammer everything is a nail.
Feels a bit ironic given the first-half / title of the episode that the final interview comes up with the idea that because homes are too expensive for people on ordinary wages to afford that the solution is to make smaller homes.
I am not judgmental about these jabs, if I was struggling with my weight I would definitely take them if offered, maybe pay for them myself.
But what’s depressing about the rise of GLP-1 agonists is actually a longstanding misdirection that obesity is a medical problem. Sure there are medical complications of obesity and there is
a medical solution, but the cause of the obesity epidemic is not biological, it is social in the widest sense. In the 1950s obesity in the UK was rare, now it is common - what has changed? Human biology certainly hasn’t. The underlying cause of obesity (rare medical causes aside) is the ‘obesogenic environment’ but it is simply too difficult, impossible even, to address it. So we furiously mop the floor while the tap is still running and the sink continues to overflow.
In a similar way the hosts highlighted in the podcast, other social problems like homelessness or domestic violence end up ultimately in healthcare, as it is the final common pathway, the last safety net to catch you when the rest of society fails you.
Tackling obesity should be seen no more the remit of healthcare, than the police should be responsible for fixing the underlying causes of crime. By conceptualising it principally as a medical problem, then of course the solution is inevitably to treat individuals with a course of therapy/pill/jab/operation - to a hammer everything is a nail.
What was the name of the rostering startup mentioned at 14 minutes in?
Feels a bit ironic given the first-half / title of the episode that the final interview comes up with the idea that because homes are too expensive for people on ordinary wages to afford that the solution is to make smaller homes.