Mr Fat: Your children are too fat -so you will never see them again

A story appeared in two papers over the weekend reporting that a married couple in their 50's from Dundee in Scotland have been informed by the local authority that they are likely to lose four of their seven overweight/obese children into 'No Contact' foster care or adoption.

Now anyone reading my blogs will know that I write on any number of things and one of the things that is close to my heart is being FAT.

In 2009 I tipped the scales at 23 1/2 stones [329 lbs]. Being a good Scot I did and do like my mince and tatties and was extremely partial while living in Scotland to a black pudding in batter, now partial to the odd sausage in batter these days. But, my diet was also fairly healthy in that a lot of salad was and is eaten and I never have fat filled fry ups, everything is usually grilled.  I also eat a lot of fish and seafood as well. To check out some of what I eat today you can visit my Twitpic page.

As a kid, growing up in Scotland in the 60's there were no Jamie Oliver's about to tell us what we were eating was unhealthy and there was not the proliferation of 'fast food' establishments that we have today.  A relatively poor household, there was always plenty of bread, proper butter, mince and tatties, stovies, full fat bacon, mutton pies, etc, etc.

The latter was best enjoyed hot with a full buttered roll.  You would break or nibble the raised crust of the pie, get yourself a nice thickly buttered soft morning roll, place the pie inside, squash a little (so that you could at least get it into your gob without suffering lockjaw) and bite into it.  The sheer unadulterated pleasure of this is hard to describe if you haven't tried it as you get this culinary rarity into your gob and your teeth and lips close over it. The melted butter and the fat from the mutton are beginning to dribble down your chin and you can feel it warmly coursing down just like the first offerings of water down a dried up river bed at the beginning of the rainy season.  And, like the creatures of the plains who so rely on that first beginnings of rain and who eagerly lap at it, you, while lazily chewing in rapturous abandonment of that first life giving mouthful of pie and roll, you are also busy catching the drips on your chin with your fingers, licking the greasy mixture of mutton fat and molten butter off of them to add to the ecstasy of the pie, ah, sheer heavenly memories!

So, was I a fat kid, with all that unhealthy eating, not particularly.  I know it is trite these days to say it, but back in the sixties we weren't sat in front of an gaming console, nor did we have computers, and we did not have 24 hour TV with Music videos and cartoons or Movie's that the kids can sit in front of and become desensitized to the real world. We had to go out and play and run about, additionally, back in those days the school curriculum whether it was primary (junior) or secondary (high) school they had PE /gym sessions a couple of times a week.  And lets face it if you had school dinners (which I had but only when free) they were far from the healthy options that every one harps on about today.

So while an unhealthy diet is clearly as bad for you as say smoking, it is not as bad for you if you are also burning off the calories that you take in each day, and therein lies the problem with modern society.

I know it is not the only answer but surely it plays a big part in it.  Everyone agrees that one of the most healthiest, dietary speaking, periods here in the UK was during and after WWII, crazy, I know.  But if you speak to the experts they will all say the same thing.  Here in the UK when rationing was the norm during and after the war people were eating little meat and lots of vegetables.  Butter, sugar and everything else was heavily rationed.  Car ownership for the working class was still a wet dream for most of the car manufacturers and so everyone had to walk or cycle to work as most of the factories were within walking distance of the 'social housing estates' of the day.  So every one ate healthily and exercised, win win all round.

Then came the end of rationing and the introduction of supermarkets with shelves laden with all manner of unhealthy foods.  There was little by way of Food Standards and manufacturers were putting all sorts of unhealthy things and not just too much salt, into packaged food.  Of course standards have changed today but most of what we buy still has too much salt or sodium or this and that and flavour enhancers or colourings or whatever.  I mean for gods sake if it needs a flavour enhancer, WTF are we buying it in the first place?  And if it was so pallid in looks to the eye without the colouring, would our senses not baulk at it in its original state that we wouldn't want to eat it any way?