Jumping on the low-fat bandwagon

Simon Nixon says food companies will make money out of the government’s obsession with obesity – and consumers will pay

Sometimes life really does imitate art. It’s less than 10 years since the satirist Chris Morris made his infamous episode of Brass Eye in which he persuaded a host of self-important politicians and celebrities to stand in front of the camera and utter lurid warnings about the risks of ‘cake’. This dangerous substance was said to be having a devastating effect on children. ‘One girl threw up her own pubic bone,’ claimed a Tory MP who went on to ask questions about ‘cake’ in Parliament.
Well, cake is now firmly back on the agenda. And not just cake either, but pizza, burgers, pies, fizzy drinks and chocolate — unless it’s Green & Black’s fair trade organic chocolate. But this time it is no joke. Thanks to our addiction to this stuff, Britain is sitting on a potential public health time bomb, warns the government. So far, there are no reports of people throwing up their own bones but, according to Diabetes UK, ‘we will soon be seeing children losing limbs and going blind’.

Who is responsible for this terrifying prospect? Step forward the food industry, headed by some of Britain’s biggest companies, including Unilever, Cadbury Schweppes and Associated British Foods. The government holds them responsible for an epidemic of obesity. Department of Health figures show that we’re turning into a nation of porkers. Some 22 per cent of British adults qualify as obese and 50 per cent are overweight. Obesity among children has risen from 11 per cent to 17 per cent in a decade, putting them at greater risk of diabetes, heart disease and strokes in later life.
Obesity