英國政府物質獎勵胖人減肥

British govt plans to pay fat people to lose weight

The British govt has decided to wipe out the obesity epidemic through a novel strategy - by offering fat people cash incentives.

According to the latest measure, employers will be urged to set up competitions with money, vouchers and other rewards for people who renounce junk food in favour of healthy eating and living.

And those who will shed the maximum amount of pounds will earn the biggest prizes, reports the Telegraph.

One competition, called The Biggest Loser, has a 130-pounds gift in store for the participant who loses the most weight in eight weeks.

The announcement comes after experts estimated that most of the population in Britain would be obese by 2050 unless urgent action is taken and the related rise in ill health would cost the NHS 50 billion pounds a year.

According to ministers, giving people incentives to fight the flab will help avoid larger costs associated with treating cancer, heart disease and diabetes caused by obesity.

The govt said that it wants to make Britain the first major nation to quash the rising tide of obesity.

And the milestone strategy - Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives - is their solution to the problem.

The strategy will feature a series of projects run through a Well@work scheme led by British Heart Foundation, which will offer rewards to workers who lose weight.

Another key focus for the strategy is to reverse rising obesity among children.

The government has set itself a target of reducing the proportion of overweight and obese children to 2000 levels by 2020.

There will also be a "Walking into Health" campaign, aiming to get a third of the population in England walking an extra thousand steps -- around a kilometer -- every day by 2012.

"We will look at using financial incentives, such as payments, vouchers and other rewards, to encourage individuals to lose weight and sustain that weight loss, to eat more healthily, or to be consistently more physically active," officials said.

The UK Government is investing 372 million pounds over three years to implement the strategy and annual progress reports will be published.

英國政府日前提出一項消除肥胖氾濫的新戰略——決定向減肥人士提供現金獎勵。

該計劃要求公司老闆在員工中開展減肥競賽，向拒絕垃圾食品、注重健康飲食和生活的減肥員工提供現金、購物券和其它形式的獎勵。

據《電訊報》報道，減肥成效最大的人將獲得最多獎勵。

“最大享‘瘦’者”競賽就是其中一項比賽內容，在八週內減掉最多體重的參賽員工可獲得價值130英磅的購物券。

該計劃公佈前，有關專家預測，如果政府不及時採取有效措施，到2050年英國大多數人口將存在肥胖問題，全國醫療保健服務系統每年將支出5億英鎊來處理相關的各種健康問題。

據有關官員介紹，向減肥者提供物質獎勵能夠減少用於治療由肥胖引起的癌症、心臟病和糖尿病的開支。

英國政府希望英國能成爲成功抑制肥胖氾濫的第一大國。

而具有里程碑意義的“健康體重，健康生活”戰略便是實現此目標的重要舉措。

該戰略將通過英國心臟基金會的Well@work 計劃實施一系列鼓勵減肥項目。該基金會將爲減肥員工提供獎勵。

該戰略的另一個重點就是控制不斷增長的兒童肥胖率。

政府決心到2020年前，將體重超標和肥胖兒童的比率降至2000年的水平。

此外，政府還制定了一項“走進健康”計劃。該計劃旨在使英國三分之一的人口到2012年前每天多走1000步（約1公里）。

有關官員稱：“我們將考慮採用發放獎金、購物券及其它獎勵方式來鼓勵人們減肥並保持減肥成果、養成健康的飲食習慣以及多鍛鍊身體。”

英國政府將在三年內耗資3.72億英鎊來實施這項戰略，並將公佈每年的實施進展情況。