The British govt has decided¹ to wipe out the obesity² epidemic³ through a novel strategy - by offering fat people cash incentives⁴.

According to the latest measure, employers will be urged to set up competitions with money, vouchers⁵ and other rewards for people who renounce⁶ 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 obese⁷ 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 diabetes⁸ 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 milestone⁹ 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 physically¹⁰ active," officials said.

The UK Government is investing 372 million pounds over three years to implement¹¹ the strategy and annual progress reports will be published.

 英国政府日前提出一项消除肥胖泛滥的新战略——决定向减肥人士提供现金奖励。

该计划要求公司老板在员工中开展减肥竞赛，向拒绝垃圾食品、注重健康饮食和生活的减肥员工提供现金、购物券和其它形式的奖励。

据《电讯报》报道，减肥成效最大的人将获得最多奖励。

“最大享‘瘦’者”竞赛就是其中一项比赛内容，在八周内减掉最多体重的参赛员工可获得价值130英磅的购物券。

该计划公布前，有关专家预测，如果政府不及时采取有效措施，到2050年英国大多数人口将存在肥胖问题，全国医疗保健服务系统每年将支出500亿英镑来处理相关的各种健康问题。

据有关官员介绍，向减肥者提供物质奖励能够减少用于治疗由肥胖引起的癌症、心脏病和糖尿病的开支。

英国政府希望英国能成为成功抑制肥胖泛滥的第一大国。

而具有里程碑意义的“健康体重，健康生活”战略便是实现此目标的重要举措。

该战略将通过英国心脏基金会的Well@work 计划实施一系列鼓励减肥项目。该基金会将为减肥员工提供奖励。

该战略的另一个重点就是控制不断增长的儿童肥胖率。

政府决心到2020年前，将体重超标和肥胖儿童的比率降至2000年的水平。

此外，政府还制定了一项“走进健康”计划。该计划旨在使英国三分之一的人口到2012年前每天多走1000步（约1公里）。

有关官员称：“我们将考虑采用发放奖金、购物券及其它奖励方式来鼓励人们减肥并保持减肥成果、养成健康的饮食习惯以及多锻炼身体。”

英国政府将在三年内耗资3.72亿英镑来实施这项战略，并将公布每年的实施进展情况。