I’m continually amazed at what fat people load into their trolleys at supermarkets. Before I go too far and offend the morbidly obese who by no fault of their own (read ‘have genetic disorders’) are fat, I must stress that the other 90% of fat people who just eat too much are costing me money, now and in the future.

I’m at the point of starting a movement to publicly ridicule these people. We used to be able to ask people to stop smoking. Why can’t we do the same to fat people?

Fat people are affecting their health so we’d be doing them a great favour pointing out the error of their ways. And we’d be saving ourselves money by encouraging them not to submit to diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, sleep apnoea and everything else associated with being overweight by eating too much.

I support the ‘no junk foods in schools’ initiative by the Labour government, but it isn’t going to stop parents feeding their kids crap food, or giving them crap food to take to school. We can’t be food nazi’s and check every childs lunchbox for chips and sugary drinks. But someone has to take responsibility, and when I see a fat parent with fat kids in tow I know that it ain’t the kids fault that they’re a little or a lot dumpy.

Because overweight children are likely to become overweight adults, these children are more liable to suffer from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes in adulthood, adding to the long term costs of health care and lost earnings, and probably increasing rates of depression and low self esteem.

How can we stop this from happening? Here are a few ideas:

  • lobby your schools to stop selling crap food and sugary drinks
  • confront people when you see them eating unhealthy food
  • encourage children (and overweight adults) to be physically active
  • complain in restaurants if the children’s menu contains only chicken nuggets and fries
  • be active with your children – if they see good role models then half the battle is won
  • make takeaway food a treat, not the norm

There you go then. I’ll be adding to this as and when I see fit (no pun intended).

4 thoughts on “What are we eating?”

  1. I like your mention of “we’d be saving ourselves money”. I think this is where you can find some kind justification in confronting people eating unhealthy food. YOU (as well as them) are affected financially from obesity related health issues.

    Another option could be to pull universal health care… then people can eat themselves to death without it affecting you personally/financially. But, I don’t think Kiwi’s want to live in such a society…

    Be careful with your fat talk though… people will start calling you a heartless rich white right-wing male soon… Yes, those name callers will probably be overweight too.

  2. Thanks John – I know I should tread carefully with my ‘fat’ posts because I’m not setting out to offend anyone intentionally.

    I know it sounds trite too but some of my best friends are fat, and it pains me greatly that if they aren’t careful they’ll end up with type 2 diabetes, dying a slow and miserable death – and I’m not being over dramatic.

    It is difficult to approach the subject even with friends, because often the underlying reason for being overweight is not something they are willing to confront…

  3. Isn’t it interesting that in the Old days it used to be desirable to be a little plump because it showed you ate well and nowadays it is desirable to look thin because you don’t eat all the cheap food.

  4. I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100% regarding What are we eating?, but it’s just my opinion, which could be wrong 🙂

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