LIKE millions of women, I have spent years yo-yo dieting, obsessed with being skinny.
Even when I went through a phase of using dodgy slimming pills, I didn’t think or care about my actual health because it wasn’t ingrained in me. “Health” was never taught to me as a kid. Diets were.
My mum sold The Cambridge Diet from our living room and I would listen in to conversations about how a body should look, not what it could do. I heard about being skinny, not being healthy. As a result, I didn’t eat a balanced diet.
At school, despite being an overweight kid, I’d go back for thirds of steamed pudding and neon-pink custard without anybody explaining to me what I was doing to my body.
For years, my unhealthy relationship with food continued — eating loads, then dieting like mad trying to lose the weight. This is the kind of mindset that has left millions vulnerable to a health problem that has already killed many more than coronavirus: Obesity. More than a quarter of British people (28 per cent) are obese.
A further 36 per cent are overweight. Obesity is one of our biggest killers, associated with diabetes, heart disease, stroke, some types of cancer and dementia. It is putting huge pressure on the NHS, costing a staggering £6.1billion annually. That is set to rise to £9.7billion by 2050.
Yes, many obese people have medical and genetic conditions. But in the main, the problem is down to how we live our lives, the bad habits we have got into. To prevent the next generation struggling too, we must change those habits and look at how we educate them. And we must do it NOW.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the next generation focused on having a positive body image so they could have self-esteem, self-acceptance and a healthy relationship with food and exercise — instead of seeing “skinny” as a measure of happiness and success, and “fat” as failure?
Right now, a third of children aged two to 15 are overweight or obese. Youngsters are becoming obese earlier and staying an unhealthy weight into adulthood.
Play our part
Lockdown has turbo-charged the problem, with millions slumped at their computers and consoles ordering takeaways and fast-food deliveries for months on end.
But the solution is within our grasp. In schools, I would like to see the return of home economics classes for every pupil, teaching them the basics not only about cooking but how healthy eating and exercise prevent disease.
Boris Johnson must ensure his new Office for Health Promotion tackles the real root causes of the obesity epidemic rather than wasting time with ridiculous nanny-state plans to put calorie counts on beer.
And in the home, we all need to play our part for the next generation. We can’t just leave it to teachers and campaigners such as Jamie Oliver and Marcus Rashford.
We need to lay down rules on healthy eating for our youngsters and break the cycle of bingeing and dieting that afflicts so many teenagers. After all, dealing with obesity is just as important for their healthy future as fighting climate change or Covid.
There’s not a Lottie to her loungewear
MODEL Lottie Moss captioned a photo of herself, in pink undies with matching pink lipstick, “Lounging around the house.”
She also tweeted: “Haven’t been able to keep a man longer than a week for literally ever, am I the problem lol?”
No . . . of course not. Why would anybody not instantly think you’re looking for a long-lasting, meaningful relationship.
Heaven forbid.
