Frowning on fat jokes might make us fatter

THE stream of support, both financial and emotional, for the 36-year-old Egyptian woman, who at 80 stone is reckoned to be the world’s largest woman, is telling. Not so long ago when fat-shaming was the guaranteed response to obesity, the logistics of transporting Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty for treatment – requiring that a wall of her house be demolished, so she could be lifted out by crane – would be manna from heaven for stand-up comedians.

The rush to turn a blameless woman into a freakshow would mean that her suffering from elephantiasis, which causes the body to swell hideously, the stroke that left her bedridden at age 11, and the fact that she hasn’t been able to leave her home for 25 years, would have all been overlooked.

Our awareness now of the complex medical factors that can cause obesity has led to its destigmatisation and a decline in victimblaming.

But the flipside is that it has let the rest of us off the hook when it comes to taking responsibility for our own spiralling weight.

And while none of us will ever tip the scales at 80 stone, obesity levels have never been higher than in this generation.

Our parents and grandparents thought nothing of cycling or walking several miles a day. Many ran farms and most people washed their clothes by hand, cleaned their own windows and got by with no mod-cons.

Also, they ate only three meals a day, two of which were modest.

IT’S fairly obvious that to lose weight we should mimic the previous generation: eat less and exercise more. Instead, though, we hide behind excuses like our sedentary, office-bound lifestyles, the highcalorie junk food we eat because we are too busy to cook, and the high fat and sugar content in processed food.

We call for legislation to curb the food industry and introduce sugar taxes. We blame our sluggish metabolism or the boredom of housework for forcing us to snack. We believe we need the solidarity of a slimming group before we can change our ways, so we put off the evil day until the new year when we join Unislim or take out expensive gym membership.

The keep-fit industry makes a fortune out of us as a result.

We need more incentives than the promise of better health or nicer clothes.

Increasingly, the corporate sector offers cash payments and reward programmes to workers who shed weight and maintain it.

Louise Ormsby, a former Operation Transformation contestant, only slimmed down when her fertility doctor said he wouldn’t treat her until she did.

Louise now has a baby daughter to show for her dietary changes and running regime.

She said: ‘I had to give up smoking, get my BMI down to 30 and eat healthily before they’d even consider me.

‘It seemed like a lot to take on, so I applied to Operation Transformation… I changed my lifestyle completely.’

Doctors often advise patients to lose weight before surgery but perhaps they should insist on it as a matter of course.

It might sound harsh to postpone a hip replacement for an obese person but if a patient has helped bring about their misfortune then shouldn’t they take a more active part in their treatment?

It would control the cost of obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension, which are so costly to treat that they are crippling our health service.

FOR the individual, the benefits of a healthy weight are considerable and long-term. But while health service incentives may force us to take responsibility as Louise has, the danger is that once the proverbial carrot is removed we slip back into old habits. Losing weight calls for a permanent lifestyle change and that is our responsibility.

The decline of fattist attitudes is a good thing but the price should not blind us to the fact that, medical conditions aside, it’s we who are to blame for obesity.