Michelle Obama has put child obesity at the top of the agenda in the US with her speech at a meeting of state governors; “Nearly one in three of our children in this country is overweight or obese. One in three kids today will eventually develop diabetes – and in the African-American and Hispanic communities the number is nearly half,” she stated. Powerful stuff!

From a UK media point of view, the obesity issue flares up from time to time and then fades away from the public eye just as quickly. Perhaps it hasn’t helped that obesity has oft been likened to a ‘pandemic’ or ‘epidemic’, equating it with the likes of ‘swine flu’, ‘bird flu’ or other storms in the health teacup.

However, unlike other modern ‘pandemics’, obesity must remain in the public eye. We need high profile spokespeople like Michelle to remind us that this health issue isn’t going away in a hurry and that childhood obesity is a vital place to concentrate our efforts.

Hooray for the UK. Not content with being just another country with steadily rising obesity one of us has only gone ahead and seized the title of the World’s Heaviest Man. Weighing in at 70 stone Paul Mason is big story in every sense.

Apart from the usual outrage and outpourings of pity and disgust, a story in The Sun claimed that Paul wasn’t a victim of circumstance but had actually set out to become famous for being fat. Looking at his average lunch of 4 large cod, 2 pies, 4 battered sausage, 6 large chips, mushy peas and curry sauce and habit of eating entire boxes of Sugar Puffs in one go one can certainly believe Paul was intent on making his dream come true.

However having now realised his dream Paul’s fame will be fleeting as he has been scheduled for a stomach stapling operation by the NHS who have total disregard for his accomplishment and seem intent instead on trying to save his life.

Whether such surgery will make a difference we’ll have to wait and see, but as we wave off a possibly thinner Paul Mason into obscurity we will always remember him for helping distort the perception of what obesity is even further and for throwing down a challenge to fame hungry fatties around the world.

Here in Fatville we have very few pleasant memories of PE lessons at school. Tripping over hockey sticks in an arctic mud-laden field wearing our less-than-flattering PE knickers did not overly enamor us of sports.

Thank god some boffins at the University of Essex have finally proven that letting kids have FUN is the key to fighting obesity amongst the young’uns!

The study (reported in the Telegraph) showed that encouraging children to play with hula hoops, skipping ropes and frisbees as well as introducing children to orienteering in green spaces is helping them to win the battle of the bulge.

This certainly fits with our own research that demonstrated the power of play versus the joy-sapping ‘exercise’ we’re so often prescribed…

We think the grown-ups in Fatville might benefit from a bit of the same medicine …You’re never to old to get hula-hooping afterall….

It was a fixture of weekday nights on Sky One for years – 2 episodes of the Simpsons, each preceded by a short advertisement for Domino’s Pizza. The product and show were, seemingly, a perfect match. After all, the protagonist of the show – Homer – is renowned for his love of all things indulgent. OFCOM’s ruling in February 2009 that the sponsorship was in breach of regulations that forbid advertising of food that is high in fat, sugar and salt during programmes that are predominantly watched by children. This ruling followed the pizza chain’s decision to drop its sponsorship of the show in late 2008, when Domino’s stated that it had a ‘clear and consistent policy of never marketing to children’.

The adverts of the new sponsor – the government’s Change4Life campaign – show a Simpsons-like family morph from junk-guzzlers into a vegetable-eating, sitting-at-the-table family. Analysis of the show by health experts revealed that skateboarding Simpson son Bart achieved the recommended 60 minutes of exercise a day, while his vegetarian sister Lisa probably consumed at least 5 fruits or vegetables a day.  

The line on the advert ‘Supporting the Simpsons –sometimes’ acknowledges that the food habits of America’s favourite family (it’s close between them and the Obamas) are mixed. For every hour of cardio Bart does on his Skateboard, Homer is gorging himself – famously in one episode in order to become obese (even more obese) in order to evade an obligatory employees’ health and exercise campaign in the nuclear power plant. Here he is in a fetching muumuu celebrating achieving his weight gain target.

Maybe not such perfect bedfellows after all….

According to a recent survey by the British Heart Foundation 30% of children said they can’t be bothered to exercise. Also, in findings that echo our own study, 20% of children asked said exercise is a chore and is only needed by people who were overweight.

So with only one in eight of the nation’s yoof getting the right amount of exercise and the rest them facing a future of obesity and heart disease what can be done?? It seems the BHF has the answer– Ultimate Dodgeball. The sport which recently featured as the subject of the Ben Stiller movie Dodgeball has been promoted by the BHF in schools in a campaign backed by Sally Gunnell.

You have to admire such an attempt to turn the tide on our strange attitude to exercise and the strange activities that have replaced it. We can only wish them luck and offer the advice of Patches O’Houlihan 5 Times Dodgeball All Star  – If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball – Take care of your balls and they’ll take care of you.

Ruddy hell! We thought Swine Flu was the only thing we had to worry about catching this Christmas, now a new book called ‘Connected’ suggests we can ‘catch’ obesity too!

Harvard brainiacs Christakis and Fowler mapped the social networks of 12,067 people and found that overweight people are more likely to be friends with other overweight people, whilst thin people are more likely to be friends with other thin people.

Moreover, the authors found that this doesn’t just apply to our close-knit circle of friends but also to the friends of our friends, even those living 1000s of miles away!

It seems that it isn’t BMI or government warnings or even fashion magazines that set the standard of what is or isn’t a normal weight but a norm that becomes socially accepted and spreads from person to person in the same social network.

This explains how us obese Fatvillians look calmly at all of the lovely ‘normal’ sized people surrounding us (including our one-time acquaintances on Facebook) and feel safe in the knowledge that everybody else looks just like us!

Here in Fatville we can’t stop watching the Biggest Loser USA, and we aren’t the only ones. Syndicated around the world with spin off computer, games, DVDs and most recently Biggest Loser weight loss camps, this show like our waist lines keeps on growing.

 Our study we found that people prefer to watch cookery shows than actually cook themselves and it’s not surprising to think that that the same would be true of exercise. It’s far easier to watch Gillian push a tubby contestant to exercise more than to push yourself to do the same.

 So much about this show reflects how distorted our view of obesity has become. The ‘Losers’ allow us to reassure ourselves that we aren’t really fat like them, so why worry? Plus watching contestants drop 8 or 9 pounds every week sets unrealistic expectations for weight loss in the real world and feeds the culture of yo yo dieting. The show also demonises food in the most perverse ways. The consumption of a single peanut butter cup or a traditional thanksgiving dinner becomes a terrible forfeit or punishment.

Weightloss as entertainment is really a sign of how strange our world has become. But like the cheap and unhealthy foods that played a part in getting us here, it might be wrong but it’s all too moreish.

Marketing has reported that health campaigners have criticized Business4life members (such as Mars, Cadbury and Coca-cola) for failing to adopt the change4life agenda.

It is easy to criticize brands, businesses and advertisers who are often at the heart of the blame storm when obesity is discussed. Fatville hopefully demonstrates that Obesity is a multifaceted issue that will require a multifaceted solution.

Just as every individual who begins taking those small steps towards a healthy lifestyle should be commended, so should every brand who is currently working with either Change4life or Business4life.

The road out of Fatville is a steep one and we’ll need all the help we can get.

If you thought just the lady on the far right was obese, you’d be wrong.

In fact the last four ladies on the right are in fact obese. Each has a BMI of 30 and over. Shocked? You’re not alone. Over 90% of people in our Fatville study struggled to identify an obese body. Even stranger is that 68% of obese people questioned didn’t even know they were obese.

Welcome to Fatville, the supersized society that’s lost touch with reality. A place where obesity is always someone else’s problem. Where stairs should only be attempted in an emergency. Where apple pies are cheaper than apples. Where a brand new set of chef’s knives is only used to pierce the cellophane on a microwave curry.

Take a look around and discover a strange place you might find strangely familiar.

According to a study reported in The Guardian, amongst other evils, the TV is making us fat 

The mesmeric and seductive power of the ol’ tellybox is well documented. Even in our survey, 38% of people said they preferred watching cookery shows to actually cooking.

If we’re ever going to find our way out of Fatville we’ll need to shake up the defaults that make up our daily lives. Get in – put telly on – check something or other on the internet– order takeaway – watch more telly – go to bed – get fat.

But it’s hard to not put the TV on when it’s so…well, normal.

Everyone remembers that kid at school who didn’t have a TV and didn’t know that Bouncer was the dog in Neighbours and didn’t have any friends…

Do kids get bullied nowadays if their mum and dad won’t let them spend countless static hours on Facebook and Youtube?

In truth, the TV is but one factor in our mightily strange and ‘obesogenic’ world….