The Hindu Business Line : Obesity can be taxing

People who are fat and flabby are generally reputed to be good-natured and free from malice though often they are butts of innocent ridicule. For instance, a hefty man is said to have told people around that “people crack jokes at my expanse!”

There is the other instance attributed to Bernard Shaw and G. K. Chesterton, the latter, a bulky figure, on meeting Shaw, a tall, slim personality said mockingly “when people see you, they will wonder whether there is a famine raging in our country”. Sharp was Shaw’s retort: “When people see you, they will understand the cause for the same.”

Somehow, until recent decades, the term ‘obese’ had not been frequently used. This might be due to the reason that ‘obesity’ itself perhaps was not a widespread phenomenon.

In fact, it used to be mentioned only with reference to a particular ailment. But, lately, the problem seems to be growing by frightening proportions; to such an extent that analysts in the US fear that “obesity will dwarf even terror threat”.

Combating obesity

In Britain, official figures refer to obesity as “a public health time bomb”, which augurs badly for the future health of the people.

On the eve of the World Heart Day in 2005, the WHO stated that even by 2015 the figures of the obese and overweight in the world may rise to 1.5 billion.

While unveiling a campaign against juvenile obesity in the US, Bill Clinton declared that a lifetime of unhealthy eating led to his brush with death, and that inspired him to take up the cause of combating particularly childhood obesity.

Lately, the problem does not seem to be confined to human beings only. “Obesity dogs men and their pets in US” is the heading of a recent news item.

As many as a third of the pet dogs in America are found to be fat, being the result of overeating, lack of adequate playful exertions, etc.

Curiously, this problem seems to be expanding even as the number of starving millions in the world is not abating — this paradox observed even in Africa, not to mention India and China (Is this yet another instance of contradictions in Economics?).

Now, what accounts for the rapid spread of this problem? Growing affluence? Sedentary habits and aversion to physical exercises?

Craze for fast (fat! ) foods? Or not the least, the compulsions of current day professional obligations, especially in call centres and software firms, leaving little time for people for any relaxation or diversions. Interestingly, even easy access to modern gadgets such as TV remote control are mentioned in this context!

Psychologists in Australia have found “increasing compulsive buying among women in Western countries’ of ice-creams, chocolates, packed foods, etc., contributing to the same. More shockingly, studies in the US have found that obesity has become more of “a lifestyle choice!”

Fatness gene

Many governments have started initiatives to arrest this trend. Britain is providing dance classes to counter declining fitness levels and prevent a “national obesity epidemic”.

Measures are also taken to encourage people to take more physical exercise, and also some kind of disincentives are being introduced to discourage people becoming overweight.

For instance, insurance firms in Britain are planning to charge higher premium for the policies of the fat people. This is also called a “fat tax”. In Australia, people feel that obese passengers should pay for two seats in airlines. It is even contemplated that obese girls maybe denied employment in flights. Of course, that should be sad.

How would the obese feel when told that their size contributes to global warming because they require more fuel to transport them and that swelling obesity adds to food shortages and higher energy price?

All said, if the real villain of the piece is a single “fatness gene”, what could the progeny do about it? We hope that in course of time, humans will not emerge as a class of fat beings!

(The author is a Bangalore-based freelance writer.)