Featuring fresh takes and real-time analysis from HuffPost's signature lineup of contributors
Scottee

GET UPDATES FROM Scottee
 

The Price of Pop Has Fizz All to Do With My Fat!

Posted: 21/02/2013 14:24

This week people in white jackets from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges have proposed we crack down on obesity by raising the price of fizzy drinks, banning junk food ads and taking the fat out of hospital food.

In a report issued by the Academy (who represent nearly every doctor in the UK), the doctors are calling for the government to treat fast food like cigarettes and yet again the doctors miss the mark, massively.

Obesity is seemingly the issue that everyone has an opioin on, fed largely by misinformed press headlines like the 'obesity epidemic', and questionable statistics that endorse the idea that every fat person on this great Isle is maliciously killing off our health service.

As much as George Osborne might like the Academy's suggestion of a 20% tax on fatty foods it's not going to do much for Britain's waistline - do you really think a £1 burger newly priced at £1.20 is going to make England thin? Whatever the government decides the best route is to tackle obesity, the price of pop has fizz all to do with my fat!

The suggestions raised by the doctors include a 100 million pound investment into medical interventions such as weight loss surgery. Here is where my many problems lie with this report - none of their suggestions tackle the real issue behind obesity: mental health.

I've had a difficult relationship with food since I can remember. I am the son of a bulimic and as a result I adopted bad eating habits. I also learned that food could supply emotional support at times of need. I am not fat because I'm greedy; I'm fat because I've lived with an emotional eating disorder for over 15 years.

If we are so set on tackling obesity then this report is completely the wrong approach. If someone suffers from anorexia it would be completely ludicrous to mock them in public, cut them open, expand their stomachs and expect them to magically have a new relationship with food. Yet why do we think this is the way forward with overeaters? Twenty per cent of people with eating disorders die - the largest number of fatalities amongst all mental health conditions. If you believe moving take away joints away from leisure centres is going to cure people with food addictions and get the nation slim then we need to talk.

We, as a society need to rethink how we treat obesity - medically and socially. Each day when I leave my house I am confronted by fat phobia - be it shouted from white vans or the huff and puffs of people forced to sit next to me on public transport. I am fully aware my body repulses some of you- but I don't care

Here's a radical notion: some of us chubsters don't want saving, we love being fat. This might sound like I'm contradicting myself but my brain and my fat and completely detached. Every time I sit down to eat a meal I have to re-evaluate my relationship with food; eating disorders are one of the hardest addictions to cure. Unlike drugs, alcohol or fags you need food to survive. Now, with my eating disorders under control, my fat represents a strong, sexy and confident person. I am happy with the body I inhabit.

March sees the start of the third annual Burger Queen pageant. It's a body positive variety show that celebrates chubsters who are able to make positive connections between mind and body, and who aren't afraid of flaunting their flab. It's a radical idea, but one that is becoming increasingly popular- ticket sales are bulging as quickly as the British waistline. Why? As the bullying of fat people increases, it's only natural that an outspoken band of fatties fight back... and we're doing it in sequin bikinis and high heels. Jeremy Hunt eat your heart out.

http://burger-queen.info

 

Follow Scottee on Twitter: www.twitter.com/scotteescottee

FOLLOW UK LIFESTYLE
 
 
  • Comments
  • 5
  • Pending Comments
  • 0
  • View FAQ
Comments are closed for this entry
View All
Bloggers
Recency  | 
Popularity
photo
HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Amy Murnan
02:01 PM on 02/22/2013
While I agree that the approach of the government to obesity and eating disorders in general is completely cock-eyed, I cannot be supportive of this idea. Preventing heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other more minor conditions that can be debilitating, such as arthritis, are probably more of a priority before attempting to tackle the difficulty many people have with being comfortable in their own skin. That is unfortunately a more complex social and psychological issue that, as you say, is widespread amongst people of all shapes and sizes. That is probably why the government is choosing to focus on the more immediate risks.
01:35 PM on 02/22/2013
I got fat because I wanted to for personal reasons. The trouble is that now I don't need to be fat, while it is easy to take the weight off (by eating smaller meals), it takes vigilance to keep it off, which is impossible in winter when I eat to try and stay awake! My experience confirms that a tax certainly isn't going to help me lose weight! In fact if I spend more money on food I will have less to spend on fuel and my winter "big eat" may be worse!
I think that obesity must have lots of different reasons. Support to discover the individual's reason may be the best way to help.
12:32 PM on 02/22/2013
At last, an article that hits the nail on the head! I think the Academy needs to sit down and watch Supersize vs Superskinny - I have been both at different times, and the cause is identical. We have too many people in society who don't feel able to ask for help with emotional problems. No, people didn't get so fat in the past because food wasn't as readily available in such large quantities so cheaply. But that is our modern reality and it isn't going to change overnight, especially not as a result of 20% tax.
09:07 AM on 02/22/2013
One half of me wants to dismiss the idea that being fat is a "condition" or "illness".

However, I am happy to accept that is not a straight forward issue of greed for some people.

That said, if it is an illness and we want to treat it, the money has to come from somewhere. So no, adding 20p to a burger may not stop one from eating it, but it will go towards payng for the consequences of that.
08:50 AM on 02/22/2013
As a society we cannot allow people, for whatever reason, to carry on eating themselves into ill health. That is what happened in the USA, people were left to become obese, and many even had feeders at home when they could no longer get to the shops themselves. When I was growing up in the 1950s there were very few overweight people around.