British Expansion

Are you sitting comfortably? Then maybe you shouldn't be. Because apparently on both sides of the pond a ticking fat bomb is getting ready to explode – a quite revolting prospect, I'm sure you'll agree.

Now I know my fellow commentators have discussed this before in this slot, but according to the latest official figures a growing number of Brits are inflating at an alarming rate, and it's getting even worse.

Britain is in the top four fat countries in Europe and if we keep stuffing our faces at the present rate, we are told that one in three of us will be obese by 2010.

Last month, Prime Minister Tony Blair's strategy unit floated the idea of making us pay more for food that fuels weight gain. A sort of Hershey Bar tax. Our Food Standards Agency has advocated the banning of advertising junk food during children's TV programmes, and there is even talk of tax breaks on gym membership.

But is all this government intervention just another excuse to meddle in our lives and remove our freedom of choice as we are seeing with the powerful anti-smoking lobby?

The facts speak for themselves and are almost exactly the reverse of the fat-hype. In Sweden, where junk food advertising to minors is already banned, children are as porky as they are in any comparable country. There is absolutely no evidence that charging more for fattening foods would stop people from buying them and as for gym membership being government sponsored – well that's just plain daft. Who amongst us hasn't paid a subscription, bought the lycra, carried the sports bag and then driven straight past the gym on the way to the movies?

The truth is we don't need a 'nanny' government to nag us about weight gain. Eating habits are already changing here. Cadbury Schweppes, our biggest producer of fattening stuff, says that in five years chocolate sales have dropped by half. The big stores are reporting an increase in healthy food buying and even McDonalds has sold 10 million fruit salads in a year.

We know obesity is serious but growing up, for most of us, is about making our own decisions and living with the consequences – not being bullied and prodded into dieting and exercise. So I say, "let them eat cake" – but only if they'll share it with me.

By Petrie Hosken