If you read back over the obesity news articles on The Online Clinic website an interesting through line emerges, that of who is to blame for the obesity epidemic in this country. Obese people have had blame laid upon them and some have, themselves, blamed others for their weight problems. The British press and many obese people vilified Fern Britton for not admitting to the fact that she had undergone gastric bypass surgery. It was felt in many quarters that she had somehow ‘let down’ obese and overweight people who saw her as role models for themselves.
McDonalds was held to account over the nutritional value of its food following Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 documentary Super Size Me in which he spent a month eating just McDonald’s food three times a day and became sick as a consequence. Then conversely about a month ago an article was posted on this blog in which a scientist claimed that obese people held more responsibility for climate change than those of a normal weight. He maintained that overweight and obese people had a larger carbon footprint than someone of a normal weight due to the fact that they ate more and were also more likely to drive rather than walk.
Now the culture of blame that surrounds this contentious subject has been recognised by leading politicians on both the Labour and Conservative frontbenches, namely Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary and by David Cameron, the leader of the Tories. Mr Johnson has said in a speech made this week that "vilifying the extremely fat doesn’t make people change their behaviour.” He is probably correct. Any amateur psychologist realises that accusing someone in order to make them do something is probably not the best means of achieving one’s goal. In the speech Mr Johnson also said that obesity was “the biggest challenge we face” as a nation. He pointed out that children born today have a shorter life expectancy than their parents and are more likely to spend more years of their lives in poor health.
His comments followed in the light of a speech made by David Cameron in which he said that politicians should not be afraid to tell people to takes responsibility for their lives, their health and their weight. At last it seems that we have some politicians who are not afraid to throw the ball back into our court, and not before time!