WHO WILL DARE TO FACE THE FACTS ON OBESITY AND COVID?

WITH each day that passes, with each new grim death toll, we learn a little bit more about the nature of this ghastly virus. This week in particular, statistics have come to light showing that obesity is emerging as one of the biggest risk factors for Covid-19.

According to data released by Britain’s national health service – the NHS – being overweight raises the chances of dying in hospital from the illness by 40%.

Having a body mass index of between 30 and 34 makes a person almost twice as likely to be admitted to ICU as someone with a BMI under 30. For those with a BMI of 35 or more, the likelihood is nearly four times higher.

This is a very tricky piece of information for governments to handle. Obesity is a highly politicised issue: ‘fat-shaming’ is one of the more heinous crimes against political correctness.

The notion that the medical establishment is acutely aware of the newly discovered risks of obesity, yet fearful of talking about it, was reinforced by a conversation I had last week with a friend who is a leading bariatric surgeon.

‘It’s a very difficult subject to broach,’ he told me, ‘and no one quite wants to say it, but there’s no question in the mind of any of my colleagues: patient size is a major factor in this disease.’

This is of grave concern. Yet persuading people to accept that their weight can be a major health issue is very hard indeed.

That is because size is deeply bound up in psychological issues and self-esteem. Fat people, as I know from a lifetime’s struggle with the scales myself, can be very defensive about their condition. We interpret any concern about our weight as negative criticism, an attack on our identities.

Big people – and in particular bigger women – have become so sacred that none but the most bigoted would dare criticise.

I know how joyless life can be when you feel – as so many do – that your only friend is the tub of ice cream in the freezer. That is why I’ve always felt that obesity was in effect an eating disorder that needs to be managed as much in the mind as in the body.

For any politician to have to step into this minefield is tough. It’s hard enough having to ask the over-70s to shield themselves; can you imagine the hysteria if a politician asked the obese to do the same?

Or suggested that people should isolate according to their weight, rather than their age? But if the science is correct, maybe that should be the strategy.

BECAUSE there is one fundamental difference between the obese and the over-70s. Age is not a choice. Size, ultimately, is. Obesity puts us at increased risk of developing cancers, high blood pressure and type-2 diabetes – conditions that cost the health service untold sums of money a year.

So if we really want to protect our health services, those of us who are overweight or obese can start by taking a deep breath, stepping on those scales and beginning the long, hard journey back to health.

The virus may be tailing off now but a second wave is expected in the winter. There are a good few months between now and then.

If you can be inspired to lose weight, you might not only help to save the health service. You might just be saving yourself.