Over-tolerant Attitude to Fatness? :

Scotland's Sunday Herald has a lengthy diatribe deriding the nations "over-tolerant attitude to fatness".

This ever-expanding national girth is a reflection of our over-tolerant attitude to fatness. It is a much more comfortable social experience to be fat in the UK or the US than it is in Europe. Call it body fascism if you like, but in Europe excessive weight gain, much like excessive drinking, is socially disapproved of.

The author claims the UK is on the edge of a health disaster, with the obesity epidemic threatening to bankrupt the NHS (the UK's publicly funded health care system).

She acknowledges that a small group of people become overweight due to medical reasons - but for most people it is a behavioral problem.

A few people become fat for complex medical or psychological reasons outwith [outside of?] their control. But most people are fat just because they can't be bothered to take themselves in hand, and their lives are the poorer for it. They need to get a grip.

Some people may feel the piece is a distasteful rant. However the impact of future health costs is something that must be discussed. A recent Duke University study found that "...the heaviest employees had twice the rate of workers' compensation claims as their fit co-workers." ( src ).

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