Eating on trains

Eating and drinking on public transport, especially on crowded buses or trains, can be unpleasant for those required to watch. But should it be banned? In her final set of recommendations before stepping down as chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, called for the practice to be prohibited in the interests of tackling obesity among children.

During her time in the post, its first woman occupant, Dame Sally, was nicknamed the “nannyin-chief ” because of her predilection for telling people what to do. It was not a sobriquet she relished, once branding it “sexist”.

But it was actually Dame Sally’s function to give tough messages about lifestyle and diet. The role was established at a time when cholera and other diseases were rife. The equivalents today are not associated with poverty, privation and poor sanitation but are the conditions caused largely by overindulgence, indolence and prosperity. Too many people eat too much unhealthy food, consume too many fizzy drinks and don’t move around enough.

Since we are assailed with advice from all sides on how to improve our lifestyle it would be odd were the chief medical officer not to join in the national tut-tutting. But the issue is how far the state should go in influencing behaviour through pricing and prohibition. Extra taxes have already been imposed on sugary and salty foods and Dame Sally wants these extended to milk-based drinks.

But an eating ban on public transport would be a step too far. Obesity is as much a function of too little exercise as it is of excess snacking. If people walked more they wouldn’t be on the bus in the first place.