‘Eat fruit and veg? I’d have a kebab or burger every time’
Confession stuns audience after warnings of the dangers of ‘binge drinking’ and poor diet
Published: 18th February, 2011
by TOM FOOT
YOU can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
That age-old advice – on how you can show people the right things to do but they still have to help themselves – summed up the Islington Fairness Commission debate at Jean Stokes Community Centre, Barnsbury, on Tuesday.
The panel aiming to change bad health habits and bridge the gap between rich and poor heard a series of presentations which included questionable statistics from NHS Islington claiming that there were more than 80,000 binge-drinkers in the borough and that one in 10 children aged 11 were clinically obese.
It all got a bit much for “commissioner” Theresa Coyle, who is on the board of Homes for Islington.
She admitted: “This whole thing has got me depressed – because I’m thinking that every one of these problems we have heard about: I tick each box.
“The problem is you could put a fruit and veg stall on every street corner and I’d go for the kebab or burger every time.
“There’s just something about it, I don’t know what.
“It’s the same with cigarettes. What are they – £8 a packet now? I choose to smoke even though I know I’m going to die earlier. It’s not about the money.
“How do you get me to stop until I’m ready? You can spend as much as you like [on propaganda] but that kebab is going to get eaten after I’ve been out binge-drinking on Saturday night.”
She added: “People need to want to choose and that’s where we need to put our energies.”
Labour councillor Paul Convery praised the kebabs in Caledonian Road as the “best in the land” and commission co-chairman, Labour councillor Andy Hull, admitted he never used the park on his estate to take a walk or exercise.
NHS Islington’s public health expert Sarah Price told the meeting that 23 per cent of adults in Islington were “binge drinkers”.
According to a NHS definition, for men “binge drinking” is consuming more than eight units (around four pints of beer) a day, or for women more than six units (two large glasses of wine).
“We need to stop these figures continuing in our borough,” Ms Price added.
“We need to concentrate on affordable housing and open space policies.”
Commission chairman Professor Richard Wilkinson said health factors were linked, with lack of exercise or smoking more common lower down the social scale, where lives were also more stressful.
“If we are to get our diet right, if we are to give up smoking or drink less, or whatever it is, we need to feel on top of life and in control,” he added.
He said unhealthy lives were “deeply embedded in psychological histories”, adding: “Health has endless different causes… we need to look at the causes of the causes.
“Health inequalities go right across society. It’s not simply a difference between the poor and the rest.
“Every level in the social hierarchy is less good than the level above it. So we are all part of health inequalities.”
The Fairness Commission has produced an interim report, which is available online at www.islington.gov.uk/council/councilfairness/