Why size matters when it comes to the fats of life
I’M thinking of launching a campaign to save the UK from obesity by getting restaurants to serve smaller portions. While this may sound a laudable mission I have to admit ulterior motives. Neither my wife nor I have ever been able to eat big meals.
This has cut down the times we can enjoy dining out as a couple or with friends because it’s embarrassing when waiters ask what was wrong with a meal because we have left half of it.
“Nothing was wrong,” I have explained, in the past. “You gave us too much.”
To avoid such conflict, Maria slipped a large piece of steak into her handbag at a hotel in Filey in 1988 because the chef was a big bloke with an attitude and I smuggled half a fish wrapped in a napkin out of an upper-class restaurant in Hastings in 1999.
Which is one reason we still go to curry restaurants. Anything we leave can be bagged up and taken home to provide nourishment for the next three days.
The serious side of the issue is that obesity can lead to health problems and shortened lifespan but two thirds of UK adults and a third of primary school children are overweight.
We have the highest obesity rate of any major nation in Western Europe and it is rising faster than the US where all-you-can-eat restaurants and waddling are a way of life and have made the Yanks a laughing stock for decades.
The problem is exacerbated by a society that expects to choose from the biggest menu of enticing dishes heavy in sugar and saturated fat ever known to man – whether from supermarket, restaurant or take away.
Let’s face it, portions are huge. Even adverts for giant burgers on TV make me queasy.
So I’m appealing to anyone with a rising Body Mass Index to cut down on what they eat for the sake of their health, and force pubs and restaurants to reduce the size of the meals they serve.
Then Maria and I can eat out more often without embarrassment.