Conservatives like to talk about the “nanny state”,
and shake their fists at the sky as their mouths foam with rage whenever they
perceive that someone better informed is attempting to tell them what to do.
I have a peculiar fascination with Tories who comment
on health, much like my bizarre compulsion to order a custard slice when one is
available in a cafe. In both cases it starts out as fun but then I feel
decidedly queasy afterwards and remind myself to avoid a repeat of the
situation.
You see, when it comes to poor public health the instinct
of a right-winger isn’t just to bridle at the prospect of a Nanny State
intervening, it’s to actively encourage the roll-out of a Feckless State that
aimlessly flops about when there are people in need. Why bother addressing a
problem when instead you can get on your high horse and judge people?
The latest bid for fecklessness comes for
Conservative health bod Jackson Carlaw who is appalled at 5,600 Scots
youngsters a year getting healthy weight interventions. On the one hand he
describes obesity as “the next great public health challenge” yet on the other
happily wags a finger to warn that it is “an issue of personal discipline and
responsibility.” Little Archie’s a bit overweight? Well, it’s his own fault.
What’s that? He’s only five and can’t possibly control the obesogenic
environment that surrounds him? Nonsense. He just needs to buck up a bit, the
slacker.
The healthy weight interventions that Carlaw uses
to make his argument for a feckless state are of course the tip of the obesity
iceberg. Our Bairn is due to start P1 in a few weeks and as part of the
preparations we’ve been given some complicated looking charts to keep track of
her weight. By all accounts whenever a child is found to be overweight – that
is, unhealthy – the parents don’t take kindly when it’s pointed out to them.
There is probably a more subtle way to manage these interventions but at heart
they’re well-intended.
The big challenge is to shift the unhealthy culture
we’ve developed in our society, where it’s OK to eat crap and move our bodies
as little as possible. You walk to school and your dad cycles to work? Loser!
You have carrots for a snack rather than a second can of Monster? What a dweeb.
Even at this time of sporting frenzy we see
unhealthy products happily associated with muscular, good-looking glory. We may
have impishly celebrated our fondness for chocolate-coated mallow teacakes and
caffeinated sugary drinks in the opening ceremony but should Barr’s really be
sponsoring the whole gig?
And when the baton came through town a few weeks’
back it was accompanied by a generous breakfast for the kids, comprising pain
au chocolate, pancakes and other sweet treats. Would have it been so hard to
hand out bananas?
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| Breakfast of sporting champions, apparently |
Recent stats show our unhealthy tastes aren’t
changing, so I’d suggest Carlaw’s on a hiding to nothing with his “personal
discipline” schtick. Growth areas are fizzy drinks other than cola (ie,
caffeinated sugary Irn Bru or caffeinated sugary energy drinks), hot chocolate,
fancy coffees and pies and sausage rolls.
Scottish teens are also buying into the eating out
of home market at an earlier age, with little evidence that they can eat
healthily when doing so – chips and cola is the default setting. Upsize meal
deals are also much more common in Scotland.
Then there’s the issue of kids streaming down the
street at lunchtime for fast food or crisps and chocolate in the supermarket.
Again, personal discipline is a pointless argument here. The siting and opening
hours of these food providers is a matter for local authorities, yet we as
voters and taxpayers choose not to make a fuss when they give planning
permission to supermarkets next to schools and grant licenses for places
offering fatty sugary treats during school hours.
Occasionally the idea of taxing unhealthy food and
drink comes up, a prospect that causes apoplexy among the Feckless State
promoters. Of course the alternative is to simply make it much clearer how
unhealthy some products are – think of those gross images on cigarette packets.
Why not an equivalent image on cans of pop or at least bold lettering
explaining the sugar content?
As well as preparing for P1 by taking a look at the
Bairn’s weight we’ve been advised to send her to class with her own water
bottle; very sensible given the obvious benefits to concentration and health
from regular hydration. But pause for a moment. When she’s older and if she
chooses to go down the street with her mates for lunch where would she fill up
her bottle? She couldn’t. Where’s the demand for public drinking taps and why
isn’t there an incentive for local shops to provide them? It’s all part of the
culture shift the state could achieve but which rhetoric about personal
discipline won’t.
It’s also tempting to think if you make the healthy
stuff cheaper people will buy more of it but I’ve seen studies which show
people simply spend their savings on gulch.
On our recent campervan holiday around the South of
Scotland we indulged the Bairn (and ourselves) in the usual treats – ice cream,
cake and so on but the real treat for all of us was a visit to a PYO farm near
Kelso. We harvested the most amazing strawberries and raspberries, living off
them for days. No meringues or cream required!
This leads me to wonder why we don’t do more to
celebrate the great fruit and veg we have here in Scotland. Think of any
celebration and sugar will be involved. Chocolate now smothers Christmas advent
calendars, Valentine’s Day, mother and father’s days, Easter and even
Halloween. I’ll admit I’m partial to black bun in the depths of winter but
where we have healthy and exciting foods we should be making more of them.
Sadly strawberries are now synonymous with
Wimbledon rather than the Borders or Tayside; native apples have a day a year
but the other 364 we’re crunching boring Braeburns from New Zealand; fish come
and go but are undeniably healthy and simple to cook – I live in Musselburgh
yet the shellfish that gives my town its name seems to be something only
specialists seek out.
As a parent it’s easy to assume bairns don’t like
veg but our experience is that a bit of fun can win the day. We stick butternut
squash into soup and call it A Squash and A Squeeze Soup (Julia Donaldson will
surely sue), carrots and peppers are great for scooping up hummus and other
dips, and cucumbers have become snozzcumbers thanks to Roald Dahl’s BFG.
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| Snozzcumbers. Lovely in gin. Maybe not for the Bairn. |
But the real challenge will be post-Games. For next
week the Great British Bake Off is back on our screens. A clear example of the
state foisting unhealthy obsessions upon us! Of course, being inspired to create
chaos in the kitchen with the Bairn to perfect the occasional lemon drizzle
cake is a world away from daily gorging on biscuits, Irn Bru and sausage
suppers.
It could even be argued that putting home-baking on
such a pedestal is a way of encouraging that good food culture we’re missing.
I’d rather we were fretting over soggy bottoms than the bottom line of our NHS
obesity bill, and blaming on it on wee Archie’s lack of discipline.
