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It falls to me this New Year to dispense a little food for thought and, yes, you've guessed it, the subject matter is size - obesity. Fat, brought about of late no doubt, by overindulgence, but not necessarily so! On a personal level, I've gone the full spectrum of sizes 0 to 20 and back again many times over and tried every diet known to man, so to be told that you are 'morbidly obese' is a shock and a truly terrible title to live with. It's even enough to make you pass the fast food outlets on the way home, as putting it bluntly, you are so overweight that there is a distinct possibility that you could develop a life-threatening condition of which you will die and in the not too distant future - perhaps even sooner if you've just consumed a large chicken vindaloo. At the recent launch of The Foresight Project, which aims to tackle obesity, I was fortunate enough to be convinced that I was not alone in my quest for a sylph-like silhouette and that there was the backing of the entire government behind me and all the other morbidly obese people in the UK. The project has taken a strategic 40-year forward view of how society could respond sustainably to obesity. Indeed, such is the extent of the problem that tackling obesity has been likened in scale to the concerted effort required in tackling climate change. The figures are scary, with 60% of men and 50% of women likely to be clinically obese by 2050. By that time, obesity related disease is estimated to cost the NHS an extra £45.5bn a year. The Foresight strategy acknowledges the need for a societal approach on multiple levels: personal, family, community and national. It requires partnership between government, science, business and civil society and, surprise surprise, it actually mentions the role of the workplace in all of this and, of course, the good old works canteen. There were new terms introduced - well, new to me anyway - and the representative from Tesco who happened to be sitting next to me sat up and took notice when 'Obesogenic Food & Drink' was mentioned and how retailers were responsible for ensuring clear and adequate labelling to aid healthy choices. Not a lot new here, I thought, apart from the trendy new wordage, though the emphasis on the importance of health messages throughout the life course was quite heartening. Having been embroiled in the Health, Work and Wellbeing
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