Food for thought

Over 20% of the UK's population are now obese.
The epidemic is costing the UK economy in excess of £3 billion a year.

But I am not going to preach to the increasing number of scale-breakers across the country. Instead I have a problem with the companies producing the food that is then shamelessly sold to these masses who, some by chance, some by choice and some by sheer misfortune have ended up rolling into this sinkhole of takeaways, fizzy drinks and chocolate. I'm not even going to go on about the monopoly of new fast food places that appear every time you turn a corner either. For this comment I am focussing on the beast that is the British supermarket - whether it be the likes of Tesco, Sainsburys or even Waitrose, I'm looking at YOU!

So, it's great that you can get low fat, very low fat and super-dooper-anorexicsRus low fat varieties, but what I don't get is why these can't become the standardised product. Surely it would be far healthier to label the original product as high fat rather than the norm. Of course the reason they don't do this is money and the sell-ability factor that is the essence of all marketing. But at some point can't the health of a nation provide enough clout to over rule the food giants - if people want the label they're still going to buy the label with slightly different wording. It would give citizens the ability to choose if they wanted to continue buying the fattier versions or go for the skinnier options that would then be considered the average.

To be brutally honest I don't hold out much hope. But I'll continue to think it would be a whole lot easier on consciences just to be able to pick up a standard product, because how many vaguely self - respecting people are going to let themselves be tempted to the fuller fat varieties that mark that unlikely, but still very possible fast lane to an early grave?