How Boris Johnson can have his cake and eat it on tackling obesity, without hurting the poorest

Editorial: The public health message must be clear without body-shaming obese children and adults

Experts say obesity increases risks from Covid-19

Fat is a class issue. Obesity is concentrated much more among poorer families, and among people from a Bame background, though hardly confined to them. The Covid-19 crisis has exposed the comorbidities and risks associated with carrying too much weight and having an unhealthy lifestyle.

Boris Johnson, a product of lifelong privilege, has apparently had his opinions on intervening in the obesity crisis at least partly changed by his own brush with Covid-19. He might also be considering how a drive for more sensible eating might level up health outcomes among his new working class political base. Hence the new restrictions on television advertising and regulating two-for-one offers on treats. GPs will be encouraged to prescribe more exercise. Like the first day of Mr Johnson going on a diet, it’s a start.

The public health message needs to be clear, but obese children, and adults, do not need to be body shamed: what everyone needs, whatever their body shape, is to be more conscious about what they are eating and drinking, and nudged in the right direction. As with alcohol and smoking, it is not a simple matter of individual freedom to choose, laudable as that right is. It is about the impact on others, on family and friends, and on an NHS having to cope with so many of us living so much longer but in declining health.