If you wanna ban guns for being dangerous you'd better start with pizzas, burgers, and chocolate cake.
IN his fascinating book Unnatural Causes, forensic pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd observes how, over the years, the dead bodies he examines have changed.
One of the most noticeable is the rapid increase in body fat.
He says: “Unless a patient is homeless or has died of cancer or is so old or poor they could not eat, few are the same shape as the dead of the 1980s when I started practising.
“Looking back at forensic photos from that era I am astonished at how thinness was then the norm.”
Fast-forward just three decades and obesity levels are now rising at such a rate that one expert says the “timebomb has exploded” for our health services.
Consequently, the NHS is reportedly bracing itself for soaring levels of cancer, Type 2 diabetes and heart and liver disease.
For a taster of what’s potentially to come, let’s cross the Pond to America, where talk-show host Bill Maher had this to say: “In August, 53 Americans died from mass shootings. Terrible, right? Do you know how many died from obesity? Forty-thousand.”
A shocking statistic indeed and it’s indisputable that it should be highlighted and widely debated.
But he then said this: “Fat shaming doesn’t need to end. It needs to make a comeback. Some amount of shame is good.
“We shamed people out of smoking and into wearing seat belts . . . shame is the first step in reform.”
Meaning that, fuelled by Brit James Corden’s robust response on his chat show, Maher’s call to “fat-shame” became the debate and smothered the real issue of how supposedly developed nations can tackle this spiralling health crisis.
Obese Indian teen Meher Jain, 14, looks on in his hospital room in New Delhi on July 6, 2018. - Meher underwent a successful gastric bypass surgery at the Max Super Speciality Hospital in New Delhi, after reaching 237kg (522 pounds) in December 2017. He was labelled by the hospital as the "heaviest teen in the world", and advised to shed the weight with a low calorie regime and the surgery in order to save his life. Since the surgery and drastic diet, the teen now weighs 196kg (432 pounds), the hospital said. (Photo by MONEY SHARMA / AFP) (Photo credit should read MONEY SHARMA/AFP/Getty Images)