Are you one of the many who's terrified of having surgery?
Hundreds are just too scared yet hate being fat... what scares you? And how do you feel about diets - can they ever be as effective and long-lasting? ...
Is gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins? If gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins - does that mean that obesity is a sinful condition, and should we blame the sufferer rather than help them? That was the question I was expected to answer on a recent TV debate programme - and it pushed up some interesting thoughts with which even I, an ardent campaigner for fatties' rights, found myself struggling. Even if you're not religious, and most of the time I am not, most people find gluttony an ugly concept. To most, it means overeating and a heightened sense of delight at the thought of food. Perhaps it means stealing food, as Billy Bunter was always nabbing a fellow pupil's tuck or Homer Simpson consuming entire family portions of pie and leaving his long-suffering wife Marge staring incredulously at an empty refrigerator. I was surprised to learn, though, that gluttony is also the term used for a "worship " of food, for thinking about food all of the time, for deriving a strange pleasure from the shopping, preparation and consumption of food. Even more strange, in Biblical terms at least, the word glutton is even used to describe someone who takes his meals early, or merely because he wants food rather than needs it. There you could charge the whole of our modern Western society with the sin of gluttony. There's no doubt we have developed a society which talks about food all of the time. Indeed, the adverts which surrounded the very programme we were making, were mostly about food. "Naughty but nice" has become synonymous with food we crave even though we know its bad for us. Nigella Lawson and Delia Smith are referred to as domestic godesses because they teach us to savour food. The nation has mourned as one at the passing of one of TV's first ever celebrity chefs, the incomparable Keith Flloyd. During the debate, one of the panel, a Rabbi, confessed he'd never been drunk and had never - not once in his entire life - overeaten. The rest of us howled with derision. "Surely you must have been drunk when you were a student?" we all remonstrated. " What - never eaten to bursting point? Not even at Christmas?" The Rabbi gently reminded us that overdoing the Christmas Pud had never really been a problem to him! But our faux pas did steer the discussion around to the different religions around the world and their food cultures. Perhaps, we surmised, the breakdown of religious rules and regulations has given rise to this new popular idolatry - the non-stop feast without the famine. Undoubtedly, we have become a culture that not only expects over consumption but even celebrates it, and uses it as a sort of social passport to having a convivial time with friends. Yet we condemn those who dare put on a bit of weight. Attitudes are harsh. Even the young alcoholic on the programme admitted that he looked down upon fatties. "I can choose not to drink," he said, implying that fat people were morally inferior because they had somehow lost control. "I only drink when I go out to be with my mates and have a good time," he protested. "Fat people just sit indoors on their own and eat, eat, eat." But even if we accept that we're a sick and "obesogenic" society, where does that leave us? Still with the majority of adults overweight (yes, it is actually the "norm" to be overweight in the UK nowadays) and nearly a quarter of our children obese and increasingly unhealthy and unhappy, and facing a bleak future. Can we actually ban the advertising of fatty and sugary foods as we did, eventually, ban the advertising of all tobacco products? Can we introduce a sugar tax that'll force food manufacturers to give us healthier ready meals and take the "junk" out of fast food? These are measures currently under serious consideration by our present government, and they'll no doubt be fodder for debate in the upcoming months as we face a general election. Until then, all fatties have is the stick they're beaten with - the concept of "personal responsibility" - that they should take charge of their own health, and find a way to be slim, healthy and fit despite an environment that's working against them. As someone who has tried, tried and tried again, until eventually I sought weight loss surgery to help, I know how hard that concept is in practical terms. If gluttony is a sin, then we're all sinners - even those of us who're lucky enough to still be slim - because we are all buying into a gluttonous, overindulgent society. Until we change that, none of us deserve halos.
