It is my opinion that the media have to bear a LOT of responsibility for exacerbating the problems of the obesity epidemic in the UK today.

It has become commonplace, these days, particularly television companies, to jump onto the 'obesity bandwagon' without a single iota of understanding of the problem, to make programmes that are aimed at 'reshaping' anyone that doesn't conform to society's ideal, appearance-wise. When these programmes concern the overweight it is often done under the guise of wanting to 'improve the nation's health'. However, the way the programmes are made suggests that this is far from the truth; instead they are the modern equivalent of the Old-Time Freak Show.

Let's take 'You Are What You Eat' as an example. First of all the programme shows exactly what the person has been eating for the past week, with a voice-over from a totally unsympathetic person whose tone of voice is meant to do nothing but bully. Then we are subjected to the sight of the participant/s photographed from the most unflattering positions possible, meant to emphasise the size of the stomach, breasts, arms, legs etc so that they often look twice as big as they should. Women wear no make up, with their hair a mess, in old clothes or semi-nude and without even a smile (NO WONDER!). At the end of the programme we see the same person, made-up, in new clothes, hair done and looking happy. OF COURSE THEY LOOK BETTER. ANYONE WOULD - even if they HADN'T LOST A POUND!

This programme, presented by a stick-thin, far-too-intrusive woman who looks like she never ate a decent meal in her life and certainly doesn't understand these people psychologically for all her training in nutrition, does NOTHING to help overweight people at ALL. All she does is provide an entertainment programme for those masses of people who love to criticise or laugh at people with a problem that they personally are lucky not to have. Yes, many of these people DO eat too much and eat the higher-calorie foods - but WHY, when they are more than aware that they are unhappy and unhealthy (to the point that they are shortening their LIVES) as a result? What has driven them to the kind of desperation that means they are prepared to put self-respect aside and appear on this kind of trashy programme in order to get help? I have yet to see the presenter - or ANYONE ask that question and get the REAL, or even a convincing, answer. It is NOT just a simple case of gluttony or lack of self-control in many cases, as the media would have us believe. I know from personal experience that we are NOT just 'what we eat', there are many other factors that come into play, not least of which is the one that affected ME - HOW and WHEN we eat. There are also now studies that show that genetics, sex, sleep, chemical balances and even emotional state may well have a bearing on our weight. One thing that is for sure is that no amount of bullying and lecturing is going to put ANYONE in the mood to diet. I would bet that if the participants of this program were sent to a PSYCHOLOGIST, instead of having their faeces examined (is that really necessary on public t.v.?), some genuine and lasting help would eventually be achieved.

It would be interesting to see how many of the people who took part actually maintained the weight loss once the cameras were no longer on them - because most were still well over the type of weight needed for the public in general to treat them with the dignity and respect they need. Indeed, having been on the programme, if they gained any weight they would be ideal targets for the press and media to jump on and the usual result of that is even more comfort-eating.

The same is true of a recent programme which showed overweight kids going to a 'FAT CAMP' in the north of England. They were in a group of people who all had the same problem and who, as a result, were free of prejudice and treated one another with respect. The adults around them were also non-judgemental, though of course they had a vested interest in seeing that they succeeded in losing weight and improving their self-image and self-confidence. OF COURSE THE KIDS LOST WEIGHT AND FELT BETTER - they weren't subject to the type of abuse and criticism that was part of their normal daily life in the 'real world'. HOWEVER - at the end of the programme, although they had lost weight and felt better about themselves, they were still well above the type of weight that gets them acceptance from their peer group. So, itt would be interesting, again, to see how they faired when returned to a world where they were still regarded with little respect and where they realised that they were no longer in a cocooned environment but were subject to the usual temptations of shops and supermarkets selling a 'quick fix' for their misery!

WHAT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED, before anything else in that particular programme, was a psychological evaluation of each person, to find out exactly WHY they were overweight and what drove them, if this was the case, to over-eating. Without that understanding and a CURE for the CAUSES, there will never BE a permanent change for them.

As this week's Radio Times Letter's Page reports - in the programme 'Claire Sweeney - My Big Fat Diet', Claire gave up watching what she ate and no longer took any exercise. As a result she gained weight and became a SIZE 14. At this size her female friends commented that she looked 'pregnant', her male friends said she looked 'gross' and she herself found her body 'repulsive'. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE HELPFUL? THIS IS SUPPOSED TO ENCOURAGE OVERWEIGHT PEOPLE - MOST OF WHOM ARE MUCH LARGER - REGARDING THEIR SELF IMAGE? All it does is increase the average overweight person's lack of confidence, self-respect and self-worth. It reinforces an unrealistic goal for most overweight people (the majority of whom would KILL to be a size 14!), and reinforces the public's attitude that Size 14, far from simply being the top of the so-called 'Normal' range, is now almost obese! JUST WHAT THE HELL DID IT ACHIEVE? WHAT DID IT TELL US THAT WE DON'T ALREADY KNOW - APART FROM THE FACT THAT CLAIRE SWEENEY AND HER FRIENDS NEED TO RETHINK THEIR ATTITUDES? NOTHING!

It is also about time that someone told comedians that a condition that can kill people and that is now epidemic in this country and many others, is NOT a subject for jokes or rude comment - something that is becoming more prevalent at the moment. I used to make such jokes, at my own expense, from the stage, for many years - but that time is now long past. Have I lost my sense of humour? On that subject, yes I have. As it has become more the norm for people to laugh AT overweight people and not WITH them, my attitude has hardened and I no longer even find my own jokes funny. Being obese is no funnier than having cancer. The fact that people wrongly see it as being 'self-inflicted' seems to make it 'ok' to make disgusting remarks so far as the comedians are concerned - well I'm sorry, but it's NOT. Boxers get injured, indeed, it's the AIM of the sport to inflict injury but nobody sees THAT as a subject of humour when they end up with bleeding eyes or a brain injury! It's about time that people stood up and said that OBESITY is NO LONGER A LAUGHING MATTER. I would urge every decent & fair-minded person in this country to go to the No 10 petitions website to sign this petition.

There was a potentially superb programme by the oddly appealing Gok Wan called Too Fat, Too Young in which he examined the case of a young man whose life was being made intolerable because of his weight. Gok Wan seemed surprised that the lad actually considered suicide. It didn't surprise me in the slightest - having already tried it when younger than the young man concerned! The programme revealed that Gok Wan had himself been over 20 stone when at school and had suffered the same kind of problems. He pointed out that one of the huge problems was the lack of self-esteem in obesity sufferers, which often prevents them from taking any remedial action. He also commented that because of the lad's appearance, he was misjudged by his peers. This was all going nicely until he reviewed a video of himself at his heaviest and then declared - 'My God - I was REPULSIVE'. That comment undid all the rest of the programme for me - for he was using the very language that he considered wrong used by others. Just because it was himself he was commenting about doesn't make it any more justified. This was an ideal opportunity for going into the classroom to talk to the people who were making this lad's life a misery - giving them a damn good telling off and a few home-truths about themselves and their attitudes... but it seems nobody is actually willing to do that. I wonder WHY? I ended up feeling that yet again, it was a partly very good but potentially GREAT programme that had instead been wasted.

On the news this morning yet ANOTHER 'we have to change the shape of a group of fat people by extreme physical methods' has been announced. EXCUSE ME! Some of us cannot DO physical things to solve our problems - what about US? And yet again - where is the effort to get respect out of people WITHOUT having to change their body shape'? That's yet another one I won't be watching!

Can someone also tell me - why all this emphasis on the YOUNG? There is a group of people, the pensioners, in this country who are also suffering from this problem. It's almost as if the people making programmes have said 'It's too late for that lot - so let's concentrate on the young, who are going to potentially cost the NHS a fortune if we don't DO something'. Call me cynical if you like - but that's the way it FEELS. A lot of us are not fit enough to jump up and down with Mr Motivator in the morning! In fact, I am so FED-UP of GMTV ramming my weight problem down my throat in the morning that I've now TURNED IT OFF - the LAST thing I need, first thing in the day, is a reminder that my weight might soon kill me. I don't think they've even thought about THAT result of their campaign! A lot of us can't even stand without dreadful pain and I'm sure I'm not the only one with badly damaged shoulders who cannot even lift their arms to exercise. I have a mini-bike that I can exercise my legs on whilst still using my supportive armchair and I DON'T need a programme to tell me that those are available or that I should be using one. I need a programme to tell me how an infirm pensioner can lose weight and I need to see some psychological understanding of OUR problems, not a simplistic Eat Less:Exercise More approach. I wonder if anyone, like me, has noticed that ALL the people yelling 'All you need to DO, is exercise more and eat less' are the slim ones who don't actually need to DO IT?

FINALLY, I recently saw a programme in which a group of young people, all very overweight, took part in a 550 mile walk in America. The 'prize' at the end of this was a share of $1,000,000 for every person who completed the walk. It was a gruelling and often highly emotionally charged task, which got the better of some of the strongest competitors, whose joints simply gave way under the unusual amount of exercise, causing doctors to advise them to stop. It was wonderful to see the determination of these kids and intensely moving when they finally walked into Washington. HOWEVER, what was most revealing was one young couple who obviously fell in love during the walk. She made it all the way, he didn't - nevertheless it appeared that they were probably destined to spend their lives together. The young man's comment at the end said it all; he had found someone who loved him DESPITE his size, who gave him RESPECT when he was at his biggest, who saw his HIDDEN qualities rather than the external ones. He could see from that that she was genuinely a NICE person, who loved him for HIMSELF. I suspect that they WILL go on to lose weight and that they will be extremely happy together because they know that they fell in love when things were hardest for them... they didn't HAVE to CHANGE to be loved or to be treated decently. If only the programme makers had seen that for what it was - the true defining moment of the whole programme. There is a real opportunity for programme makers there - if any have the courage to run with it.

I wish someone on the 'box' would give ME the chance to make a programme - the one that people in my position REALLY WANT to see... but possibly a large part of the population would be surprised to hear....