- Saturday 25 May 2013
- My Account
- Logout
- Register
- Login
- News
-
Voices
-
Find by writer
- Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
- Rebecca Armstrong
- Memphis Barker
- Terence Blacker
- Chris Blackhurst
- David Blanchflower
- Archie Bland
- Ian Burrell
- Andrew Buncombe
- Ben Chu
- Patrick Cockburn
- Laura Davis
- Mary Dejevsky
- Grace Dent
- Robert Fisk
- Andrew Grice
- Stefano Hatfield
- Philip Hensher
- Ian Herbert
- Howard Jacobson
- Ellen E Jones
- Alice Jones
- Owen Jones
- Simon Kelner
- Dominic Lawson
- Donald Macintyre
- Lisa Markwell
- Comment
- Campaigns
- Debate
- Editorials
- Letters
- IV Drip
- Archive
- Our Voices
- Commentators
- Columnists
- Democracy 2015
- IV Drip Archive
-
Find by writer
- Sport
- Tech
- Life
- Property
- Arts & Ents
- Travel
- Money
- IndyBest
- Blogs
- Student
Tuesday 11 October 2011
Deborah Ross: The glory days of being fat are definitely over
If you ask me...
If you ask me, although this proposed new "fat tax" has confused many people, I happen to have a razor-sharp mind – the day razor-sharp minds are taxed, I'll be ruined – and so can answer all your questions:
Would you say fat people are the new smokers?
Cameron has said that obesity is "on the verge of overtaking smoking as the biggest health challenge facing Britain" and so, yes, I would say so. Indeed, as it is, I always ask fat people who visit my house if they'd mind being fat down the garden or, if the weather is particularly vile, at least be fat while hanging out the window and wafting their fatness outside. I don't think fat people quite realise how they get right into the carpets, what with such a heavy foot-fall. You can still see the evidence weeks later.
So, the glory days of being fat are over?
Seems like it – plus, in future years, people will look back and find it hard to believe you were once allowed to be fat at your desk, in pubs and on the top deck of the bus. They will watch old movies and marvel: "My God, you were allowed to be fat everywhere! That was the time to be fat!"
Will there be aids to help you give up fat?
Yes, Fatorette patches, which you can plaster over your mouth if you've just passed Boots and Carphone Warehouse and know a Greggs has to be coming up.
Will I be able to eat fat secretly?
You can try, but your "bacon breath" will give the game away, and when you kiss someone they will probably recoil and say: "It's like kissing an abattoir."
But isn't obesity a "disease"?
There is that argument. I know a woman who caught it in the first year of her marriage and whose husband was most unsympathetic until he caught it in the second year, and now their kids have it and so, as a family, all they can do is sit around eating buns. Most tragic.
But haven't studies shown that "healthy" people who live longer actually end up costing the NHS more as they tend to die of the most expensive diseases, like Alzheimer's?
If you are going to ruin all our fun by pointing out where the truth stops and the political agenda begins, we'll thank you to go away. Also, and in case I happen to be pregnant, I'll thank you to not be fat anywhere near me or my unborn child. I'm amazed you even thought it was all right...
-
This week's big questions: How best to react to Woolwich? Has Miliband got what it takes? And is Stephen King right about ebooks?
Ian Rankin -
What, let gays get married? We must be bonkers
Mark Steel -
Dogma will always lead to murder. In the end, scepticism is the only answer
A C Grayling -
The Daily Cartoon
-
Farewell, Shameless. Your heirs have work to do
Owen Jones
-
Editorial: Salutary lessons from a libellous tweet from Sally Bercow
-
As Hay-on-Wye opens this week, it's time for book festivals to open a new and exciting chapter
-
Tim Key: 'If you don't have to tranquilise an animal to get it into your zoo it shouldn't come in'
-
The Holocaust can’t be a joke – least of all in Berlin
-
The new version of Ibsen's Public Enemy is a drama where democracy doesn't win any votes
Get your summer started with British Military Fitness
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
Visit York
Find out what The Independent's resident travel expert has to say about one of the most beautiful small cities in the world
Making reading fun for kids
Nook is donating eReaders to volunteers at high-need schools and participating in exclusive events throughout the campaign.
Introducing the 'Get Reading' campaign
Get the latest on The Evening Standard's campaign to get London's children reading.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Deborah Ross
-
If you ask me...six weeks to get a beach body? My simple plan will work faster than that
-
Top of the crops: Michael Bolton on critics, crooning and why the mullet had to go
-
If you ask me...there are some other people who could hand you back some cash, Iain Duncan Smith
-
Forget about ‘ethical’ labels for clothes. We need ‘unethical’ ones
Get the best in opinion from Independent Voices, straight to your inbox every Thursday lunchtime.
Subscribe
Amol Rajan
A weekly update from the Editor
Day In a Page
Johnny Marr talks relationships and reunions
In pictures: After the flood
Death becomes her: A very modern mortician
School of chop: Learning the art of butchery
The man who's eaten everywhere
A Berliner in 1963 – but did John F Kennedy once admire Adolf Hitler?