Too Obese To Work? IDS Considered Recommending Celebrity Diets
Welfare for the seriously overweight has ballooned by 70 per cent from £29million in 2012 to £40million last year, figures reveal.
Now the Work and Pensions Secretary has asked his department to “investigate the possibility” of introducing the liquids-only Cambridge Diet for almost 8,000 benefit claimants who are obese.
He has also written to the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt voicing his concern at the growing cost of British obesity.
The move comes after Mr Duncan Smith met his constituent Ruth Barber, a Cambridge Diet consultant, and Professor Anthony Leeds, Cambridge Weight Plan medical director.
At the meeting this month, they said the £45-a-week rapid weight loss plan has helped obese people return to work. Mr Duncan Smith subsequently wrote to Ms Barber confirming he was considering the Cambridge Diet.
In the letter, seen by the Sunday Express, the Work and Pensions Secretary wrote: “I have written to the Health Secretary to make him aware of the Cambridge Weight Plan.
It is good that the DWP is looking at ways to help the overweight and clinically obese
“I have also asked my department to investigate the possibility of introducing this as an option for those who are too obese too work.”
Earlier this year, the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence advised that slimming clubs, such as WeightWatchers, should be made available free on the NHS.
Swedish research shows meal replacement therapies with as little as 500 calories a day can achieve weight loss of two-and-a-half stone, getting five out of six dieters back into work in under three months.
More than a quarter of British adults are obese and the number of diabetics has risen by a million in seven years.
Last night Labour MP Rob Flello, chairman of an all-party group studying obesity, said: “It is good that the DWP is looking at ways to help the overweight and clinically obese.”
Celebrity backers of the diet include Towie star Lauren Goodger, 27, and actress Jennifer Ellison, 31, who earlier this year lost two stone in two months by restricting her intake to only 800 calories a day.
Last night the DWP distanced itself from the claims in Mr Duncan Smith’s letter.
A source in his department said: “DWP is not looking into this.
“Iain raised it with Department of Health as a constituency MP.”
Same Difference 
I think this is good, however I suspect it will lead to U.S style foodstamps which may not be a bad thing for some people and would be a far better alternative to sanctions.
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Reblogged this on sdbast.
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way hay hold on is dunky up to telling people how to live eat ops better tell his boss two bellies cams or pickles perhaps its to clost to home jeff3
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Another example of IDS taking a simplistic view of a problem and not understanding complex facts. Why should the Cambridge diet need free marketing? After 30 plus years it should sell itself if it works the wonders IDS has been lead to believe. Like most weight loss programs it needs commitment by the person who needs to lose weight. Yes it may kick start weight loss if the person doesn’t eat their normal food as well, but to achieve long term success in those who are obese it will need the person to change their eating habits for life.
May be IDS should make sure NHS England and CCG back the NICE recommendations so those needing help get it.
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remember that aussie man selling his weight loss products who had that model has a girlfriend another shaliton selling you a product that doesnt work but realy works for the tories has it lines their pockets with the kickbacks ops
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Which one of Drunken Smiths mates will get this balls up contract?
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This is insidious. Studies have shown that rapid weight-loss fads do not produce long-lasting results. Worse, they are the major contributing factor in yo-yo dieting; wherein a person loses weight but gains it back, plus some more.
What needs to be addressed are the reasons a person eats poorly in the first place: the mental, emotional, economical issues that surround the poor diets that so often result in obesity and overall ill-health.
But, like a true fat-shamer, they’re bypassing those completely and instead blaming the people who are, in actuality, victims of the lifestyle that has been imposed upon them.
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Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating and commented:
What next from this fucking prick?
Too short, too tall, too black, too asian, too poor,too disabled,too ugly, too….where will it end.
At next years General Election hopefully!
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I’m sure its illegal to force someone to eat something they don’t want to. What next ?? force feeding anorexics??
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He needs to look at his own fat ass first, it isn’t going to be so easy for everyone to lose weight at the drop of a hat.
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The story makes no sense. How will people be placed on the diet? Will they be locked up in compounds or jobcentres for months on end to ensure they don’t cheat?
Or will they have their jaws forcibly wired?
Will they have to queue up at chemists’ or jobcentres every morning to be handed their ration in a glass to drink under the pharmacist’s supervision and in view of other customers, like methodone users?
Will the ‘food component’ of their benefits be cut off and they be issued with the diet products instead? What is to stop people shoplifiting for real food – as sanctions are already driving people to do?
What if a person is misdiagnosed and their weight gain is due to a disorder such as PCOS or thyroid disease? What if it turns out they were bloated due to undiagnosed heart or kidney failure? What if their weight gain is due to steroids, antidepressants or other prescription drugs? Has IDS even heard of these reasons for weight gain? I doubt it.
What of the corporate manslaughter charges that will their heads when a subject of this pogrom, er programme, develops anorexia or suffers heart failure and dies (other not uncommon outcomes of crash dieting)?
Since when has the law changed so that medical treatments can be forced on British citizens without their consent (duress precludes consent)?
As the experiences of wealthy celebrities show, fad diets, especially liquid based diets lead to rebound weight gain – they just don’t work:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/pauline-quirke-piles-pounds-again-4255017
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MIGHT this also have something to legislation under consideration in the EU that will classify obesity as a disability and extend to overweight individuals rights such as being entitled to legally challenge discrimination, specially adapted workplace furniture, etc.???
Methinks I see the whites of Iain Dumpling Smith’s eyes!
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Oh and strengthen their entitlement to benefits!
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