Almost 40% of Wigan's population is obese. Photo: Roger Moody/Guzelian
“If you want to write about Wigan, write about that guy over there – he's a local drug addict and he's just killed a pigeon,” says a teenager in the city center near the Grand Arcade.
< p>A middle-aged man clutching a white bag looks up and grins, flapping his arms like a bird. “He just hit it and put it in his bag. He says he's going to cook it and eat it for dinner.”
Fresh lean protein is not the norm at Wigan. A local specialty is barm pie – a meat-filled pastry served in a buttered bun.
When Gareth Hill, 41, worked as a joiner, he had a version of the “Wigan kebab”. “, as it's called, is most often eaten for breakfast.
“When you pick up boards of wood and saw them, you can probably afford it,” he says.
In Hill eventually traded his manual labor job for a more sedentary life as an apprenticeship coach, but his diet remained the same.
“I continued to eat the same thing even though I was working from home.”
Hill is now training to run the Greater Manchester Half Marathon. Photo: Roger Moody/Guzelian
The pounds have piled on. Just a few months ago, Hill weighed just over 16 (102 kg) and had a body mass index (BMI) of 32.
When a bout of Covid left Gareth short of breath, he knew something was wrong. He was driving home from work when he had a panic attack and was struggling to breathe.
“I managed to park before getting on the freeway and had to call an ambulance.”
“I managed to park before getting on the freeway and had to call an ambulance.”
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According to NHS guidelines, Hill was obese – a condition defined as having a BMI above 30.
This is not uncommon in Wigan: in fact, it is the obesity capital of Britain.
< p>Almost 40 per cent of the population falls into this category, more than anywhere else in the UK and well above the national average of 26 per cent. More than 70% of Wigan residents are overweight, meaning they have a BMI greater than 25.
Wigan is emblematic of the national problem.
“There is currently an obesity epidemic in the UK,” says Jane Pilkington, director of public health at NHS Greater Manchester. “It has been in the making for at least 30 years. It is now a chronic problem.”
Across the UK, the average man has gained 1 stone in weight since 1993 and now weighs 13.4 stone.
Meanwhile, the average woman over the same period increased the dress size by about one size from 14 to 16.
The UK has a higher rate of adult obesity than Germany, France, Italy and Japan among the G7 countries, and has seen a faster rise in obesity prevalence since the turn of the century than all advanced economies except Japan.
>Junk food advertising, the prevalence of takeaways and the volume of processed food available in supermarkets are blamed for fueling the crisis.
This collective weight gain is putting a strain on the nation's health – and on public finances.
According to a recent study by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the annual cost to the economy is estimated at £100 billion and rising.
Obesity is increasing demand for health services, eating into NHS budgets. Sir Chris Whitty, the UK's chief medical officer, highlighted in 2021 that the majority of knee replacements in advanced economies were weight-related.
Every five unit increase in BMI increases the risk of knee osteoarthritis by a third, because That's because of the extra stress on joints, he said.
Obesity isn't just a burden on the British economy through health costs – it also takes a serious toll on the workforce.
It's an underlying problem UK unemployment crisis: 2.8 million people are economically inactive due to poor health.
Sophie Metcalfe, from the Institute of Government, says: “Economic inactivity due to long-term illness has become a major issue among policymakers.
“Not all of this will be associated with obesity, but it is certainly true: if you have population with higher rates of obesity, you are more likely to have people who are sick for long periods of time and unable to work as a result. And this leads to an increase in the amount of benefits.”
Obesity affects people's mobility and productivity and makes it difficult for them to work.
With public finances already stretched to the limit, the financial fallout from this crisis has pushed it to the top of the political agenda.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to improve children's health by introducing a ban on junk food advertising on TV at 9pm.
In February, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said a Labor government would “push” food companies to promote healthier food.
Last week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to roll out Ozempic and Wegovy weight-loss jabs to the NHS. .
Whether any of these policies will affect the situation is an open question.
Obesity has been recognized as a serious problem by all governments since the Mayor administration in 1992. All targets to reduce it were not met, with more than a dozen anti-obesity policies and key agencies created which were later abolished.
Hill, who has lived all his life in Leigh, Wigan, believes overweight has become the norm. .
“If I asked my daughter to draw a typical 40-year-old man, he would have a round belly. It’s kind of acceptable,” he says.
“I never thought of myself as fat, and then when you see the scale and you see your BMI, [it] says you’re obese.”
Gareth Hill lost almost three stone after making major lifestyle changes. Photo: Roger Moody/Guzelian
Pilkington says: “Over the last three decades, our lives have become much more sedentary and we have had much greater availability of cheap, now junk food.”
Inequality also compounds the problem, she adds. “We know that obesity rates are twice as high in deprived and non-deprived areas.”
Wigan is struggling with its post-industrial scars from the collapse of the cotton industry in the 1980s.
Wigan residents have long been nicknamed “pie eaters”. This is apparently due to the fact that during the 1926 General Strike the Wigan miners were the first to return to work and so had to 'eat humble pie'.
But the town is also famous for its pie making and eating. It has hosted the World Pie Eating Championships since 1992.
The health implications of the region's obesity crisis are clear. Official life expectancy for men in Wigan is 77 years, almost two years earlier than the national average. Heart failure is one of the leading causes of death in the city.
Early cancer deaths are also well above the national average, according to Public Health England.
Tackling obesity is a public service priority. Wigan Council offers a variety of programs to help people lose weight, including the Let's Get Movin' exercise and nutrition program for families.
Last December, NHS Greater Manchester launched a “knock-off” campaign, handing out leaflets at people's doors that looked like takeaway menus. He also provides healthy weight counseling for children.
Nicola Kiggin works as a consultant for Slimming World and runs classes at Hindley Independent Methodist Church on the outskirts of Wigan.
Most people who “Join the losing weight within the first week,” Kiggin says. One participant lost 16 pounds in seven days.
“There's no magic potion or pill, it's regular food, but it's changing the way we cook and shop,” says Quiggin.
She walks each person through the eating plan, explaining how unhealthy certain foods can be. everyday products. be. Many people don't realize how unhealthy products like store-bought sauces can be.
“We don't do anything special, we just take it back to the basics.”
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In November, Hill stopped eating after dinner and before midday and started lifting weights: “I just didn’t want to be that person anymore.”
He lost three stone in three months. and is now fundraising for the Greater Manchester Half Marathon charity.
“I feel like I've gotten over it and can stay away from that type of food. For me, this is not just a diet, I am not going to gain weight again. I always felt like it was me against myself, and I kind of won.”
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