We are all fat

It’s everywhere, everyone is complaining about everyone else being too fat, but should the government intervene? Should the nanny state step in?

It’s a tough one, and in some cases I think it can be a double edged sword. So the government should intervene to stop people getting fat and draining the National Health Service with weight related health issues.. they should also intervene to stop people smoking and drinking excess because they drain the national health service.. good points but what exactly do you achieve? A nation of people with no freedoms and a social norm with absolutely no diversity. We are all healthy, thin and completely detoxed.

That’s great!

But I think there is danger is taking away peoples freedom to do what they want. If you want to eat, smoke or drink excessively then it’s your choice, the government do enough to inform people of the dangers, I don’t think they need to do any more. You pick up a packet of cigarettes and it blatantly tells you that you are going to die by rotting from the inside out. You have weight and nutrition rammed down your throats all the time in our new ‘fat free’ world. Everyone knows what alcohol does, and the same with drugs. We’re all told that excess in anything is bad from the moment we start school, so I don’t think it’s a case of the government having to do more to stop such things, it’s more a case of the every day Joe having to wake up and look around.

I mean realistically what can you do? You can take alcohol, cigarettes and MacDonalds away from people because you’re infringing on their freedoms.

It all stems from personal choice. Regardless of how much you warn people of the dangers regarding alcohol, smoking or drugs, people will still take them. So is the nature of a free society, so is the nature of the human being. If you go down the route of criticizing people who don’t fit the healthy, detoxed imaged you really do open up a whole can of worms.

“I think the NHS should help people who DIDN'T bring stuff upon themselves.”
[this is a quote I saw on a website in response to an article on obesity]

And how do you quantify that? I once told a gang to get lost and leave me alone in the subway, they then stamped on my head. I bought it on myself though; I could have just walked away, should the NHS have helped me? I also go out and perform stupid tricks on a stupid bike with complete disregard for personal safety, you are paying for my constant trips to a&e. Does the government need to be doing more to curb my behaviour? More to stop my sport?

I think all people in this country should be entitled to the same level of care, regardless of how little respect they have for their own health. Yes the government should educate people about the dangers but it isn’t their sole responsibility to do so. It’s all of our responsibility. If my sister went out binge drinking I’d kick her arse into shape and tell her when she’d had too much.

People fall into drink and drugs for their own reasons and it’s not for anyone to take the moral high ground, dish out blame and tell them that they aren’t worthy of treatment. If they do damage to them self, they will have to live with it, surely that’s enough?