We will continue to get gimmicky policies designed to persuade the British people to lose weight. The strategy recommends issuing vouchers to the overweight to spend on healthy food in supermarkets’. One Indian newspaper, with scarcely disguised astonishment, reported that ‘the British Government has suggested that those who manage to lose weight could be given cash prizes’. If I seem over-dismissive about the influence of financial incentives to get us to lose weight, or eat less fattening foods, it is based on personal experience. But the other condition was that the payments would be triggered only once I had reached the so-called ‘healthy weight range’ on the BMI index.

Source: Daily Mail July 11, 2021 22:41 UTC