6:50am Friday 1st February 2008
We've tackled smoking, now for childhood obesity.
While we are winning the war against nicotine, now that passive smoking is a thing of the past in public and smokers are ostracised to the pavement, the battle against fat is just beginning.
A fifth of four- and five-year-old children in Oxfordshire are overweight, with a sizeable number clinically obese.
And the problem is set to increase without immediate intervention, according to Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust.
Schools, children's centres, GP surgeries, and leisure centres are taking part in initiatives to combat poor eating and lack of exercise.
There can be few people who do not know the risks of high salt, sugar and a sedentary lifestyle, yet the message is still not getting through.
Perhaps, like smoking, it will need the force of law to make sure we all become thinner, with subsidies on healthy foods and tax increases on the fatty varieties.
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