fatwatch

fat has been called a feminist issue; these days it is big business. on the one hand there is the fashion industry and its allies telling us what the ‘right’ body should look like. on the other hand there is the convenience food industry tempting us with lovely treats. in the middle is medical and public opinion acting like the devil and angel on our shoulders.

obesity is on the rise; in some ways it is the sign that life has become easy.

with the rise of the fat nation comes a whole body of research that tell us why people are fat, more often than not the research will contradicts itself.

(oh how i wish i became a scientist – to think i have the answer to why people are fat: they eat too much, exercise too little. sorted. how much of a research grant i could have gotten with that!)

the joy of this research is that it throws up some very bonkers ideas.

this is the first in an occasional series of fatwatches.

the current reason for while people are fat is (wait for it) (wait for it) artificial light. yes people in cities are more likely to be obese than those in the countryside. a well-lit city encourages late night snacking. it is not just streetlights, but computers, televisions any artificial light.

the light makes us eat.

each bulb should come with a health warning – prolonged use means you become lardy.

the author of the research, professor randy (never trust a guy called randy) nelson of ohio state university says, “light at night is an environmental factor that may be contributing to the obesity epidemic in ways that people don’t expect.” which isn’t quite what the headline writers splashed at the start of the piece.

on a serious point i would say that it is not that light that has led to late night snacking it is that the changes in our modern lifestyles have made this possible.

on a flippant note the solution to the problem is staring us in the face. whenever an obese person turns up at their doctors all the doc needs to do is give them a set of household drapes and send them to sleep at 8pm.

though there is one aspect of the research that hasn’t been mentioned, and this might be the most fascinating part of it: cities are well lit and that is why people are fat. they are fatter than people in rural areas, so rural areas can’t have much in the way of light, don’t have much in the way of light therefore the rural areas are backward they are positively feudal.

we don’t just have a fat issue in the cities, but we also have s dire need to help those stuck in the countryside to embrace technology and come forward to the twenty-first century.

professor randy nelson has done us all a favour by pointing it out.