Fatness Begins At Home

The Wellcome Trust is posting archived medical films on its YouTube channel. Among them is "Cruel Kindness", this priceless three-part 1967 warning about childhood obesity. It includes the wonderful line "fatness begins at home". Marvel at how skinny1967's normal kids look in the playground. Note the salutary scene where the obese young Ronnie Brown is pictured drinking a bottle of sugary orange pop, while watching a swimming competition on TV.



Fast forward more than 40 years and the fundamental problem seems little changed, while its scope has been grown beyond all recognition. Spending on the Change4Life campaign is measured in hundreds of millions. Kids, meanwhile, are more fat and less fit than ever before. Have the efforts to engender behavioural change failed? Probably not. But it would appear to make sense, meanwhile, to look at the deeper socio-industrial issues around our lifestyle and our diets.

We might examine, for example, the way the promotion of car ownership has influenced the way children get to school. Or we might look at the way the food business lobby has influenced the guidance our governments give us on what to eat.