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Do you 'hug a fatty' or make them walk?

 

Last night I attended a meeting of the Fabian Society, where guest turn was health secretary Alan Johnson tackling a question that seems to have so many suggestions but no real solution: how do we tackle the obesity epidemic?

We all know the stats: two-thirds of adults and a third of children in the UK are overweight or obese.

Johnson's call to not blame the obese, but to help them has resulted in headlines of ‘hug a fatty' among other things.

But perhaps the more important angle of Johnson's argument to stop vilifying people for their weight is that the majority of people in the UK, fat or thin, are pretty unhealthy.

He called for a change in culture: have children walk to school instead of driven a mile from home by time-poor parents, make fast food chains and even upmarket restaurants display the fat and calories in each dish, get employers to lay on a fruit bowl to usurp the office's staple supply of chocolate bourbons.

The move could even be drawn into the whole climate challenge, suggested Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians.

Mr Johnson seemed to welcome this strategy of effectively killing two birds with one stone, reiterating the need for everyone to club together and show the world how it's done.

It's hard to disagree with any attempt to reduce the number of people who are overweight or obese and, in turn, the comorbodities that blight their lives and the NHS.

So I was somewhat disappointed when I came out of Central Hall in Westminister to see Alan Johnson skip down the steps and into a waiting ministerial car.

I just hope this isn't a case of do as I say, rather than do as I do.

rachel.liddle@haymarket.com

 

 

Comments

 

Kitur Patel said:

why don't the government use some funds diverted to killing people (ie. military efforts abroad) to subsidizing healthy foods so that they are more affordable than junk and pre-processed food

July 24, 2008 1:57 PM
 

Caroline Downes said:

My very sensible doctor before he retired pointed out that it is not being fat per say but being inactive that causes the major health problems.

Is it not about time that we look sensibly in to obesity and get the nation moving about more...

July 24, 2008 3:25 PM

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