38 Spotlight 10/2019 FOOD
Foto: zoff-photo/iStock.comindustry, which is part of it. The food and
drink industry wants to sell us health in
a box. However, no food in isolation is
healthy. What’s important is to have a
good relationship to food and a varied
and interesting diet. The food industry,
especially retailers, should encourage
people to eat more fruit and vegetables,
more fish and should help people make
better choices. The industry has a role in
reformulating existing products, reduc-
ing fat, sugar and salt. But I’m wary about
demonizing or banning food choices. At-
taching morality to food is problematic.
A cake might not be seen as healthy, but
a world without cake wouldn’t be good.
Spotlight: You write that “the real truth
about fat is that we are all afraid”. What
do you mean by that?
Warner: We hear terrifying figures about
this obesity “epidemic”. But we’re really
misidentifying the problem. The worst
problems are being experienced by people
who have an extremely high BMI (body
mass index) — 45, 50 or 60. The reasons
that is happening are complex and differ-
ent from what has happened to the pop-
ulation as a whole, where we’ve gained
two or three kilos on average in 30 years.
With an ageing population and more food
available, you might expect that sort of
small change, which probably isn’t so sig-
nificant to most people’s health. But we’re
creating this fear within society, where we
look at ourselves in the mirror and think
we’ve failed as individuals.Spotlight: You also highlight the links be-
tween poverty, inequality and obesity...
Warner: In the UK, there are more
overweight and obese people in lower
socio-economic groups. It’s particu-
larly prevalent among women, and no
one’s sure why. The experience of living
in poverty in a neo-liberal society with
vast inequalities is extremely difficult.
To navigate and cope with that stress-
ful environment, some people will eat a
real ly bad diet, using it as a sort of coping
mechanism. Asking those people, “Have
you tried eating more home-cooked food
from fresh ingredients?” is just ridiculous,
when what we should be doing is to im-
prove their lives fundamentally from the
bottom up, which is expensive and diffi-
cult.
Spotlight: You say that obesity is a “sys-
tem-level problem”. What solutions do
you see as realistic?
Warner: We can look at the food subsidy
system, which favours certain foodstuffs,
also taxes and VAT on food. We can re-
strict advertising and promote healthy
eating at work and in schools. It’s also
about investing in healthcare, psycholog-
ical care and pathways for treatment. The
best forms of intervention are individual
ones to help people deal with medical,
psychological and health problems, be-
cause being obese is not a matter of be-
haviour. It’s an outcome of a load of differ-
ent stuff. So trying a top-down approach
to stamp it out is never going to work.approach [E(prEUtS]
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, sich vor etw. hütenThe Truth about Fat
by Anthony Warner is
published by Oneworld,
ISBN 978-1-78607-513-0