Letter: Facts about fat

Sir: You illustrate an article reporting Virginia Bottomley's injunctions about the increasing prevalence of obesity in the UK with a picture of 'a typically high- cholesterol meal' (16 November). But eating cholesterol-rich foods, unless done to great excess, has very little to do with being overweight.

Obesity results principally from eating too much, drinking too much and exercising too little. In addition to correcting these faults, the replacement of convenience foods with vegetables and fruit would reduce the problem.

Yours faithfully,

M. F. OLIVER

Royal Brompton National Heart & Lung Institute

London, SW3

17 November