One of the biggest health risks in the UK, if not the biggest, comes from the wholly unnecessary consumption of excess sugar in the processed foods on which far too much of the UK diet now relies.
Obesity is the result.
So is the massive increase in the number of people afflicted by type 2 diabetes, which is an illness largely curable by eliminating that excess sugar consumption.
Our general lack of physical fitness is at least in part due to excess sugar consumption.
And now we have a new health secretary. She is the gloriously incompetent (in my opinion, based on watching many past performances) Victoria Atkins MP.
I have zero expectation of her. But what really worries me is that her husband is Paul Kenward, managing director of British Sugar.
Sweet dreams must be made of this as far as he is concerned.
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In the ‘low fat’ world, sugar has crept in yet it is know that sugar gets processed in the body and any excess is stored as……………………. fat.
As far as I can tell, food manufacturers are almost 3D printing food now since sugars hold 3D printed items together. Some biscuit brands no longer have shortenings (fat) in them but are held together by sugar. They are brittle and tasteless but cheap to make.
Atkins seems to be another in a long line of Tories with vested interests like Ernest Marple – the road builder – who appointed Dr Beeching to close down the rail lines – and look how that ended up cough, cough.
Do we ever learn?
Wouldn’t it be nice to find one Tory – just one – that is squeaky clean and without baggage or a finger in the pie?
Is it too much to ask?
I fear so.
I knew one, when I was also a governor of a comprehensive school in Nottingham. That was in the 1970s. 🙂
Victoria Atkins qualified as a criminal barrister after private education and Oxford (sound familiar?). She was elected in 2015, and resigned as justice minister in 2022, telling Boris Johnson that “integrity, decency, respect and professionalism” had been “fractured” under his leadership, adding that the party “must be better than this”.
She has been at the Treasury, Justice, and controversially, oversaw the government’s drug policy after her husband, in his role of managing director of British Sugar, gained the licence ton operate britain’s largest legal cannabis farm.
Now we are expected to believe she is qualified to manage the NHS and Social Care.
Looking at the last eleven years of Tory mismanagement of the NHS, she is just par for the course.
The Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP 2022 to 2023
The Rt Hon Thérèse Coffey MP 2022 to 2022
The Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP 2022 to 2022
The Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP 2021 to 2022
The Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP 2018 to 2021
The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP 2012 to 2018
At least she got it right about Johnson, eventually. Took her a very long time to work it out, though.
Let’s not forget ‘no more top down reforms’ from Cameron and the first Secretary of State for Health under his Premiership, Andrew Lansley. Once elected Cameron said ‘fundamental changes’ were needed.
Lansley implemented the Health and Social Care Act of 2012 which was replaced in 2022 due to its failings. It was an attempt to use market forces as far as I can see. I did read NHS SOS with contributions from various people including Alyson Pollock whom I found impressive. The book revealed the promises of the Lib Dems and BMA to mitigate the worst aspects of the bill, came to nothing.
Lansley also tried to involve the fast food companies in his planning but I forget the outcome. He lost the confidence of the nurses and doctors and had to be removed.
There was one positive. The ‘any qualified provider’ part of the 2012 Act enabled my counselling charity and MIND for which I did some work, to bid for some of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies where we provided one to one therapy or group work. Eventually most were taken back ‘in-house’ by the NHS despite some good work from the Third Sector. However, the IAPTs program was started under Labour.
Lansley wrecked it?
Does she need to declare that she is married to the MD of British Sugar as there is a conflict of interest?
I’m sure that like everyone else in the government, she’ll put the interests of the health of the nation above those of her partner.
That is a really dangerous connection; at least it was picked up in one BBC interview yesterday. I can only hope she gets hammered on her dodgy connections in parliament, but who can we rely on to even question it?
Personally I do not consume sugar, but it is really challenging to find products that are not stuffed with it. The worst combination is too much sugar, hidden by too much salt. Richard, if we could tax that combo we could really improve the food products in the UK.
I feel a bit divided on this: on the one hand I agree completely that “hidden” and excessive sugar added to pre-prepared/processed food is one of the biggest public health risks, and the only thing that is going to bring it down is government legislation. But at the same time I am uneasy that someone in a public position should be attacked for their family – particularly when the potential for conflict of interest has been declared (which I understand it has been in this case).
The real question is whether Ms Atkins has the potential to be a good Minister for Health, and reporters seem to speak well of her ability. We will see, she can hardly do much worse than some of her recent predecessors.
Atkins has absolutely no history of anything to do with health. She voted with the government on everything to do with health, so I suppose that makes her suitable for the job, but so did most tory MPs.
The problem is that she was financial secretary to the treasury, so everything is to do with money.
She voted for reducing spending on benefits and against paying higher benefits for those unable to work because of illness.
She wants poor people to become more ill, in other words.
She is definitely not going to improve the health service.
What do you think about Sunak being attacked for his wife’s connections to wealth? It took him a long time to declare it.
What about the fact that his wife’s companies took £2.4 million from the covid fund?
What about the fact that other companies connected to his wife went bust owing a million pounds to the taxman?
At least he didn’t make Lord Lansley or Lord Stevens the health secretary, which he could do, following the example of Cameron. Maybe he did ask and they turned the offer down.
You can be quite sure that if an opposition politician had similar connections, family or otherwise, Tory politicians and their media chorus would be screaming blue murder.
Typical Tory corrupt appointments to benefit their own in my opinion. It’s absolutely correct about sugar and diabetes 2. Was diagnosed with it at start of lockdown with advise it was generally incurable long term debilitating thing. Read Dr Jason Fungs book Diabetes Code, applied sensible low cost normal real food and no sugar concepts along with lengthy times between eating. Lost 30kg returned blood sugar levels to normal long term completely reversing diabetes 2 at no cost to NHS of long term care. Processed food companies pedal sugar knowing it is addictive and immensely deleterious to individual health and making fortunes on metabolic ill health. Oh and of course assisting their compatriots in drug companies making a fortune in medicines to manage but not cure metabolic syndrome bad heath. Nasty combo all that perpetuated by influence inherent in these types of appointments noted. Rant over! Apologies.
Wholly appropriate rant
Glad you succeeded
Almost no one systems is a curable disease
Atkins. Interesting name because if TPTB had listened to Dr Atkins 30 odd years ago Diabetes 11 would now be a distant memory.
Even more interesting is that a well known D11 web has done a complete about turn on its dietary recomendations and is now not only promoting a low carbohydrate diet but have the cheek to charge 20 quid for it.
Sugar, trans fats, seed oils and chemical salt and additives – all toxic and disease inducing. The problem is that foods made with them are cheap. Many people can’t afford to feed their family on a healthier diet. I wish junk food could be very heavily taxed and healthy food subsidised.
https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/victoria-atkins-reinstate-our-nhs-fully-public-service
Cat trying for the impossible again. But if you don’t ask you don’t get.
Or as Jamie Driscoll’s favourite phrase is, “Shy bairns get nowt!”