The Fat Of The Land

As well as the appointment of a surprisingly fit Minister for Fitness, the government is waking up to what is becoming known as the obesity time bomb (like the pensions time bomb, but with more pie-eating).

Ho-hum, just another load of Nu-Labour guff designed to distract the media from Blair's desperate clinging to power. The numbers are terrifying, as is the potential impact on the NHS. But Blair and the Minister for Fitness won't actually do anything about it. Because ultimately there is nothing they can do.

The wonderfully illogical Dr Susan Jebb:

"People don't choose to be obese. Everyone knows what to do, but when they get into a supermarket, they don't put that into action."

Sorry love, but they do. People do choose to be obese. Jebb actually states that - when the people are in the supermarkets they don't put what they know about healthy eating into action. In other words, they choose not to do what, healthwise, they should.

What Jebb is trying to say is that people do not want to be obese. However, they choose not to do anything about it. It may be a passive, rather than active, choice - but it is their choice after all. It may be incredibly difficult to do, and diets may be terrible to stick to, but people still choose to lose weight. Or not.

So let's not piss time and money away on this Minister for Fitness pile of toss. If you want to tackle obesity, then start at an early age. Educate kids at school how to eat healthily, how to exercise, and why they should eat healthily and exercise. Make it a habit from a young age, so when the kids grow up they chose to be healthy and eat properly. It is called education - educating children so they make the correct choices when they grow up.

And as for those who are obese - fuck 'em. They need to make the choice to change their lives. If they make it, fair play to them. If they don't, well, they are not going to be around for long enough to increase the pension time bomb. It is about personal choice, and no Nu Labour Minister for Fitness is going to make a blind bit of fucking difference.