But you can’t beat eating less

THE popular theory is that you can ‘catch’ obesity only by hanging out with fat friends, eating the junk food they indulge in and following their sedentary lifestyle.

But it’s a theory being increasingly questioned as more work is done with the adenovirus-36 virus.

Although a large number of specialists think the idea is fairly ridiculous – after all, viruses tend to cause weight loss rather than gain – it would be foolhardy to dismiss it out of hand.

Researchers have repeatedly popped up in the 30 years since Dr Nikhil Dhurandhar first looked into the virus – the potential cause of an epidemic that killed off fat chickens in India. Dr Wilmore Webley is the latest to be caught by the bug.

What is particularly interesting is Dr Webley’s theory that a vaccine could be developed to prevent obesity occurring in the first place.

Vaccinating children would be the obvious initial step, since we seem to have little answer to preventing a quarter of them being overweight or obese by the time they enter primary school. Once fat, it is an almost insurmountable task to bring them back to a healthy weight.

It will take many years before any product is granted a licence to be used on humans.

Dr Webley is quite correct to emphasise that, even then, there would be no substitute for eating healthily. And you cannot exclude the importance of exercising and remembering that portion size is also a major factor in protecting your health.

This applies as much today as in the future – and remember that Dr Webley’s anti-obesity vaccine may never happen.