Dieting - Evidence of the Wests Muddled Thinking

The sheer scale of confusion over obesity and dieting in the West has been brought home by four major announcements within the space of just a few days.

Whilst this particular battleground is the UK, the overall shape of the war is almost exactly the same in every country from mid-Europe to North America, not forgetting Australasia.

It's been a little slow cranking-up in the UK this New Year - it's probably because 2006 was a period of even more intense hysteria than usual and hence the expected frantic outpouring has been a little muted (You would have expected every D-class celebrity to have been declaring publicly by now "2007 will really be the year when I finally crack my weight issues.")

But it all began to fall back neatly into place towards the end of January, this year at the big issue, macro-level...

... 4 separate news stories, 4 major themes - and a depressing stew they make, too: Government cluelessness; overweight ghettoisation; lifelong dieting imprisonment; a shifting blame game.

It has been revealed that the much-vaunted governmental crusade against childhood obesity has floundered, three whole years after its fanfare announcement, diffused ineffectively across no fewer than 26 bodies or groupings. The civil servants and politicians still vacillate over whether primarily to hound food producers, or to reach out to kids through educating parents, or whether to take the kids themselves directly in hand with new dietary and lifestyle regimes.

We are said to be on the verge of that increasingly popular standby of government-by-theatrics - when it comes to the nasty stage of actually applying sustained critical thought and decisive, sustained action, yeah, why don't we appoint a super hero instead. The latest calls are for "a high profile figure to champion the battle against obesity". Heaven forbid that our underpants-over-tights Calories Crusader should deflect his intergalactic flight for a few quiet moments to reflect on what this "battle" may actually be all about!

The second news piece concerns the results of a joint study by researchers from the European Commission and the University of Padua. It concludes that there is a European-wide earnings differential that favours the non-overweight. Whether poverty begets overweight, or overweight blocks opportunity (or it is a combination), one clear interpretation is that fat bears the stigma of personal failure. (And personal failure erodes self-esteem and low esteem erodes self-image and low image is a passport into personal resignation to junk eating and overweight. Hey presto, it's a vicious circle - perhaps Super-Lo Calorieman (or woman) can straighten it out with his or her bare hands!)

The third piece comprises the findings of a survey by The Laughing Cow cheese firm. While not overlooking obvious possible biases within the survey field and the respondents, the figures make familiar reading: average UK women are said to spend about 31 years of their lives dieting, whilst one in five is permanently "on a diet".

So, dieting is epidemic and semi-permanent for the majority, overweight is divisive on a grand societal level - and our political leaders are faffing about utterly ineffectually.

The fourth subject is the revelation that some local social services departments are beginning to place children who are long-term obese on the "at risk" registers, which are usually reserved to flag up potential risks from such things as domestic violence, sexual abuse, or neglect.

This places the locus of blame for childhood obesity firmly with the parents. There has been precious little informed public debate on this issue, or the more general consensus of where to seek societal change in the interests of more harmonious eating patterns. The political Left tends to blame big food business, whilst the Right puts it down to failure of personal control (and blithely ignores influencing factors such as wealth and knowledge in its arguments over choice.)

Big questions - and perhaps requiring too gentle a touch to let our superhero loose on. Nothing's changed except the final digit on the calendar.

1. Prev:Supercharge Your Weight Loss
2. Next:The Worlds Greatest Diet For Weight Loss And Health