The NHS and Fat People

Yes, you read that right. I just used the f-word in the title of this post. Now, to business. For the past goodness knows how long, I've been reading a lot from people complaining about the fact that fat people receive help to diet courtesy of the NHS. Apparently this offends them, apparently the NHS should use their resources for better things.

As a fat person, I felt that I had to weigh in on the issue (ha! See what I did there?). Now, as a said fat person, I want to lay it right out, that I have never sought help from the NHS for anything weight-related. Personally, my weight is my problem and I should deal with it for myself and it is no one else's business. When I moved house and registered with a new doctors surgery six months ago, the Nurse did actually offer me ten-weeks membership to Weight Watchers, but I turned it down, because I was already a member.

I've also heard that alongside Weight Watchers, some Doctors will also refer fat patients to their local Gym, offering them free memberships. I've never been offered that, so I don't know any facts.

Now, these offers are what people moan about the most, but let me put it another way:

According to an article on the BBC's website yesterday, for a fat patient to have a Gastric Band costs the NHS £15,000 and that's not including the extra £20,000 that is needed to cover patient after-care. All together, that adds up to £35,000. Now, if we're discussing Gastric Bands, we're going to be talking about really obese people, people who are also likely to not fit into standard-sized beds and equipment, meaning that larger sized things need to be purchased, costing even more money.

Therefore, surely the solution is to tackle "fatness" before it reaches those astronomically expensive costs, right?

Let's break this down.

I pay roughly £21 a month for my membership to Weight Watchers, so for the equivalent of £35,000 for one person's Gastric Band, that is roughly 556 people that could be helped to kick start their weight loss for the initial three month period. Over the period of a year, that could help roughly 2,222 people.

So, which would you prefer?

Option One: Allow people to just get bigger and bigger until they are really enormous, costing more money on a per-person basis or;

Option Two: Tackle it early, and help more people fairly cheaply?

Whether we like it or not, we are a nation that has a big problem with food. It controls our lives, whether we binge eat it or avoid it completely. I'd love to say that it's time to change our attitudes towards food, but we all know that changing attitudes is often easier said than done. Food is like a drug; many of us are controlled by it whilst others use it to take control over an aspect of our lives.

The NHS is designed to help people. They help smokers, alcoholics and drug addicts, so why not help people with eating disorders? 

Let's chat, trade tips, gossip and share 

(Go on! You don't know what you're missing!)

TeaPigs Rooibos Creme Caramel Review

So, a few years ago, when I was took this beauty blogging lark a tad more seriously - or should I say, when I had more free time to dedicate to it - there was a crazy beauty blogger obsession with the Beauty Box. At the time, I tried both Glossybox and Boudoir Prive, and absolutely loved getting an exciting box of treats every month. But for a variety of reasons, I cancelled them.

Skip forward three years or so and I found myself missing those days of opening up a box of goodies that I wouldn't ordinarily try, so I had a look around at some of the boxes that have cropped up in my absence and decided to try out the Love Me Beauty one (note: I wasn't sent this box, I paid for it with my own cash and I wasn't asked to review it, or any of its contents!)

In the past, I've read a few bloggers complaining about none-beauty products in these boxes, but I have to say that the product that I loved most in my box was definitely the TeaPigs Rooibos Creme Caramel tea:

Who are TeaPigs?

Launched in November 2006 by tea lovers Nick and Louise, TeaPigs isn't about airs or graces, it's just about the tea - which is just what I like to hear ;)

What the Website Says...

• We will only ever sell teas of the highest quality. We will never compromise on quality. It also means we sell only whole leaf tea from selected estates, which we supply either as loose leaf or in tea temples. 

• We love tea; we just don't like the snobbery that can come with it. Instead we concentrate on bringing you the very best tea we can find and not taking ourselves too seriously.

• We don't want to intimidate you with a huge list of teas or bewilder you with a mass of information (although, of course, you can always ask us). We've handpicked a select range that offers you the chance to discover the wonderfully diverse world of tea. 

Choosing Creme Caramel 

I actually chose my Love Me Beauty based on the flavour of the tea, because I have been known to be quite picky about my tea choices. 

I have to admit that I was a bit worried that the Creme Caramel would be a bit sickeningly sweet, but having never tried a flavour like it, I thought that I would give it a try.

Ingredients

rooibos, caramel pieces (condensed skimmed milk, sugar, glucose syrup, butter, humectant: sorbitol, emulsifier: mono-and diglycerides of fatty acids) (5%), naural flavouring

Not overly impressed with the inclusion of sorbitol, which is one of my number one enemies!

How Did it Do?

The smell of this tea is definitely the first thing that hit me, even before I had opened the packet. It is - as expected - incredibly sweet smelling, but it smells so divine.

The tea comes in little "temples", as TeaPigs like to call them, but they are similar to the Pyramids that PG Tips do (or they used to, I don't buy PG Tips, so I don't know if you can still get them or not LOL!). I love the fact that in with the tea leaves, there's also a little caramel cube that melts in the hot water. I've never had a tea with anything like that before, so that's a nice touch, rather than having flavouring or a syrup.

Weirdly, the one I took a photo of, didn't seem to have a cube of Caramel in it! Or maybe it was shy, and so was hiding from me!!

As you can see, it looks more like wood chippings than tea leaves, but trust me, it honestly is tea.

Brewing

TeaPigs recommend brewing for three minutes, sweetening to taste and adding a drop of milk. Since it smelt so sweet, I decided that I wouldn't add any sugar or Sweeteners. I was also a little apprehensive of adding milk, because I'm not used to adding it to my tea, but I did and I'm so glad that I chose to, because it really helped with the overall flavour.

Tasting

Fortunately, the tea didn't taste anywhere near as sweet as the aroma led me to believe, which I was very happy about. 

At first, I wasn't sure about the flavour, but as I kept drinking it, the more I loved it. The flavour is very subtle, but just sweet enough to quash a sweet tooth, which is always going to be a good thing in my books.

Calorific

Due to the inclusion of a caramel cube, I was a little concerned about how bad this tea would be for my diet. I wanted to find out how many Weight Watchers points were in a tea bag, but since I only received three tea bags, none of which included the nutritional value, I wouldn't work it out.

However, I hopped on over to the TeaPigs website, which informed me that one bag of Rooibos Creme Caramel tea was just 2 calories, so that sounds good enough to me.

Overall

I don't think that I would have this on a regular basis, but would definitely buy it as an occasional treat because it was so delicious. It was sweet on the nose, but don't let that fool you, because it tastes much lighter than it smells.

Where to Buy

If you're not sure, but want to give this tea a try, you can pick up a sample of two tea bags for £1.30. Or for £3.99, you can buy a pack of 15 bags.

That is a little expensive, but as a once-in-a-while tea, I think that it is definitely worth every penny.

Grab your bags from the TeaPigs website.

Let's chat, trade tips, gossip and share 

(Go on! You don't know what you're missing!)