Tackling the Obesity Epidemic: Leading by Example

Human beings are group animals and very easily influenced by the example set by those around them, especially when they're movers and shakers and figures of authority. In the playground children join in games of follow-my-leader. In real life they follow the same behavioural pattern, unconsciously copying the example set by their parents and teachers. American surveys show that the biggest obesity risk children face is to have an obese parent. Parents are exemplars, and if they take steps to lose their excess flab their children are highly likely to follow suit. This was clearly demonstrated by researchers at Stanford School of Medicine, California, who found that when overweight parents lose weight by undergoing gastric bypass operations, their children were twice as likely to try to achieve the same end result by eating more sensibly, taking additional exercise and watching less television. Even the books children read can have a beneficial effect. This was shown when a large group of obese girls aged 9-13 years was enrolled in a healthy lifestyle programme. Half were given a novel about a roly-poly lass who took steps to improve her general health and physical fitness. The remainder received either an everyday novel or no book at all. The results showed that, compared with the control group, the girls who'd been given the good example showed a significantly greater reduction in their weight.Today obesity is commonplace, which means it's becoming the 'norm' rather than an unusual aberration. Nowadays we more likely stand out from the crowd if we're fit than when we're fat. A recent Canadian study of well over three thousand children showed that those who see people in their environment who are overweight or obese tend to 'develop inaccurate perceptions of what constitutes appropriate weight status.'
Surveys show that kids with an obese brother or sister have a 37 per cent increased risk of following their example and putting on excess weight. We can't choose our kith and kin, but we should take great care when selecting our friends, for they too have an significant impact on our behaviour. Researchers at the University of Canada have discovered that subjects have a 57 per cent increased risk of becoming obese if one of more of their close friends is corpulent. Media celebrities have a similar impact, and can benefit their loyal fans by demonstrating that it is infinitely better to maintain a healthy weight rather than be pudgy or skeletally thin. Julie Wooldridge, a young Essex woman, was in many ways a mirror image of Princess Diana. People in the street would do a double-take when they saw her face, then realize that she wasn't their idol when they looked down at her 14 stone body. 'Every photo of HRH was like looking in a mirror at the figure I could become', she told reporters. Given this incentive she lost 63 pounds, dropped four dress sizes and won an international slimming competition.
The UK government has been using advertising and restrictive legislation to tackle the obesity plague, but it would be far more effective if politicians led by example. We're influenced less by their messages, than by the behaviour of the messengers. For instance, Nigel Lawson, when Chancellor of the Exchequer, set the British people a splendid example when he modified his life style, ate less meat and stepped up his intake of fruit and vegetables. On this regime he lost five stone in twelve months, a loss he has maintained ever since. The same applies to Mick Cornett, the Mayor of Oklahoma City, who set his people a splendid example when he shed 40 pounds and set up a website - http://www.thiscityisgoingonadiet.com - to show them how it could be done. Since then, forty thousand Oklahomans have joined the campaign and shed a total of more than half a million pounds.
It's easy for politicians to put on weight, because they lead lives which are stressful but largely sedentary. This is why there was for many years a custom in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire for mayors to be weighed before and after they took up office. This was to show they hadn't grown fat at the public expense. It's unlikely that mayors and cabinet ministers today would submit themselves to such a test, but there must surely be some who would follow Mayor Cornett's example, and lead by example rather than by exhortation. That would enhance the nation's health, decrease the financial burden on the NHS, and boost the UK economy, for studies show that roly-poly employees have twelve times the levels of sickness absenteeism as their slimmer, fitter counterparts. Are there any volunteers among our elected leaders who will play this role?
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