An open letter to the anti-fat brigade: enough is enough

But it doesn’t end there. We are also being told that children are doing less exercise than in years gone by, probably because of increased television, video and computer games usage. The evidence that children are doing less exercise is non-existent. In fact, some researchers concede that children are more, not less, physically active these days. The truth is we don’t really know.

As for television and video games, the research studies are now piling up and they all say pretty much the same thing: TV and computers seem to have nothing to do with how much physical activity children do. In fact, some studies have found that children who watch the most television and play the most computer games are also the most active. The idea that technology causes childhood obesity by reducing physical activity is as dead as a dodo.

Part of the problem is that the current “obesity epidemic” is a pseudo-problem with no obvious cause. There is no scientific evidence that we are less active than in the past and there is plenty of evidence that, if anything, we are eating more of the food that nutritionists say we should.

What’s worse (or better, depending on your point of view), some health research suggests that fatter might be healthier than skinnier, particularly for the over 55s. What’s more, for obesity to affect your health, you have to be really fat. Although increasing, the number of us who are really fat is low.

Although much of this runs counter to a lot of what we hear about obesity, the evidence is compelling. In recent years both the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and New South Wales Health have produced lengthy reports showing that Australians are living longer, healthier lives. These improvements have been particularly rapid in the last couple of decades when obesity rates have been rising.

This is not to say that some diseases are not increasing; some certainly are. But this is normal. It is a painful truth that, throughout history, our victories over some diseases are replaced by increasing incidences of others. What these reports show is that if, as we are told over and over again, we are the verge of an obesity-led health catastrophe, the evidence is very well hidden.

There are two other inconvenient “facts” which the anti-fat brigade are keeping quiet about. First, although females tend to do less physical activity than males, males are apparently more overweight. Second, even though wealthier people own more of the dreaded “household labour saving devices” which health professionals say are contributing to obesity, they are much less likely to be overweight than the less wealthy. If ever there was an issue about which people should be sceptical of the pronouncements of “experts”, this is it.

There have been a number of half-hearted attempts by Australian governments in the past to promote physical activity and “healthy” eating (whatever “healthy” happened to mean at the time). Each has had little if any measurable impact and usually involved forcing school students to do boring, repetitive physical activity and eat dull food. You may think I’m joking when I say that there are now Australian schools which have banned icing on birthday cakes and have mandated what food children can bring to school, but I’m not. I wish I was.

In so many ways, we have turned childhood into an apprenticeship for adulthood. The current panic about obesity will result in more children worrying needlessly about their weight and exercising in the mistaken belief that their health depends on it, just like their parents. And the anti-fat brigade will have succeeded in draining one more drop of fun out of life.