Foodie thoughts

S T R I N G O U T TO B E AT O D D S O N C OV I D - 1 9

I’m packing a few extra pounds. No idea where they’ve come from, though I’m a stranger to the gym, certainly since March but possibly since 1976. I might have binged a couple of box sets and approached the odd tube of Pringles, but the tightness of my waistband is a bit of a mystery.

I’m tall and “big boned” though, and according to my OH “you can carry it”, but as my straight-talking chum puts it “it’s not the jeans that make your backside look big”.

Dr Michael Mosley – inset – has just been on talking about how many folk don’t realise they’re obese.

There’s an easy way to work it out, he says: the Ashwell test. It’s simple. Take a piece of string. Measure your height with it. Fold it in half. Put it round your waist and if the ends don’t meet, you’re obese. Oh dear. A period of carb-dodging is on the cards.

Rather more seriously, being overweight puts us at greater risk of death from Covid-19, and now new antiobesity strategies have been launched around the UK.

At Bradford Royal Infirmary, Prof John Wright, a veteran of cholera, HIV and Ebola epidemics, explains why radical thinking is necessary. “Early in the pandemic, we spotted common patterns in our sickest Covid-19 patients – they were more likely to have diabetes and heart disease and, in particular, to be obese,” he says. Prof Wright is writing a coronavirus diary for BBC News and recording from the hospital wards for BBC Radio, providing a fascinating and useful insight into Covid-19. Essentially his advice is to eat less and move more.

I once joined Weight Watchers in an attempt to shift a stubborn stone. Newcomers had to introduce themselves and talk about what they do. “Hello, I’m Amanda and I eat for a living.” The leader looked at me for a moment before she deadpanned: “Good luck with that.”