Supersizing the issue with a nanny state- Mookychick

Language gives away a lot about the state of society and the people in it. We have words for fat. We have words for super-fat. We label some things, and not others. Should the world turn into a nanny state that labels everything it can get its greedy, mollycoddled hands on? Or do we need to draw a line, and start taking some real responsibility for our actions?

‘Fett,’ My German friend replied. ‘You don’t need super in front of it, it’s strong enough on its own.’

‘No super? How strong? How big?’ I enquired.

‘WALRUS-LIKE,’ he said. Yes, you can get fetter than ‘fett’ – in Germany, or anywhere. It’s ‘fettleibig’. Apparently, the world is becoming fettleibig, and we (the smartest species on earth) cannot control it. Or, more accurately, cannot control ourselves.

I watched a formerly obese woman talk on television about the Governments’ responsibility for us getting fatter as a nation. She wanted to slap junk food companies on the bottom. Not a ‘hey, you’ve done great’ slap… More like a ‘bad, bad… Brainwashingly bad’ slap. Send the companies to healthy food prison, she was intimating. Make sure they sleep on their bed/stepper/push-up bench and really think about how they dare to produce and sell the food they do. Jesus Christ, those guys must have some balls.

However, for every new snack food on the market, somewhere in the world there is an equivalent in the form of a gym/sneaker/yoga mat/dog coming onto the market, too. Ying and Yang are polar opposites that nevertheless need to exist in tandem with each other, to balance each other out. Take too much Yang and Ying gets wildly jealous. Too much Ying, and you will have one hell of a diva fit from Yang on your hands.

Forget the Da Vinci Code. The only lost, mythical inscription out there seems to be the pyramid food chart (and no, it’s not a toblerone chart). If we are all salivating in our own puddle of drool, fixated on the new Cajun squirrel flavoured crisps advertisements, something has gone terribly wrong in evolution.

Is it coupled with lack of education? Willpower? Initiative? Discipline?

Cigarettes carry warnings of the inevitable damage to your health. Should cookie packets carry the same? They could read: ‘May increase weight and lead to diabetes and sugar addiction’. Equally, should PlayStation’s carry warnings that say ‘Not classified as exercise, may lead to an unhealthy sedentary lifestyle’?

Should the government or parents be blamed if a child cannot identify a mango? Do adults, far more than children, need to go back to the drawing board to discover how to lead a healthy life with moderation? I wonder.