There is a largely held (pun intended) belief that whatever occurs in the US will inevitably find its way over to Europe and the UK. So waddling its way over the pond comes the weighty (ouch!) subject of obesity.

The top echelons of the UK medical profession have stated that more than half the UK is either overweight or obese. Apparently over 70% of men and 63% of women are classed in this category. That’s an awful lot of fat people.

These wise old sages are also concerned that obesity is growing among children at an alarming rate and are urging the government to do something about it before it’s too late. The government?!

All they’re gonna do is knock the ball around the court, have a few ‘consultations’, a couple of ‘major debates’ and hope they can ride it out until they’re out of power and the next poor sap has to field it. Situation normal there then.

But first of all how do you define obesity? Apparently you have to use the Body Mass Index, or BMI. This is arrived at by dividing your weight in kilos by your height in meters squared. A BMI of over 25 is classified as overweight and a BMI of 30 or over is obese.

Lets work it out then: in my case, the weight is 71 kilos and the height is 1.83 mtrs. My height squared is 3.35, so 71 divided by 3.35 gives me a BMI of 21. There you have it: I am officially not obese. Well that’s a relief!

Of course, I could have told you that myself, all I have to do is look in the mirror and I see a tall and gangly beanpole!

But what if I was a keen body-builder or sportsman? All those years of training would surely have put on a considerable amount of muscle and, as we all know, muscle weighs heavier than fat.

So let’s assume that I now weigh 13½ stone which is not unreasonable for the finely-honed, super-fit athlete that I now am. You can do the maths if you want but take my word for it, the result is a BMI of 25.6 - I am now officially overweight.

To take it a stage further: if I was a world-class heavyweight boxer weighing in at 15½ stone I would have a BMI of 29.5 and would almost be classed as obese!

Ok, I’m not suggesting for a moment that the BMI figures are wildly out because of the above examples, but it’s widely admitted that the BMI can be somewhat unreliable as a guage of obesity.

What I am suggesting is that you don’t need a doctor, or a professor, or a government, or a BMI to tell you whether or not you are obese. Just take your clothes off, stand in front of the mirror and have a good look at what you see - you’ll know.

To understand and tackle the problem we don’t need a toothless bloody government, what use are they most of the time anyway? No folks, what we need is a reality check. We need to stop pussy-footing about, ditch the political correctness and face up to reality: Obesity is not about weight, it’s about FAT.

It’s about commercialism, marketing and lack of education. It’s about chocolate, sweets, burgers, pizzas, processed food, chips with everything, bingeing, beer and take-aways. It’s about filling our bellys with trash.

It’s about ignorance, laziness, couch potatoes, Neighbours, Eastenders (UK soaps), ‘reality’ tv, computer games, driving 300 yards to pick up the papers and being driven half a mile to school.

It’s about not buying fresh fruit and veg, not cooking balanced meals, not getting any physical exercise and parents not educating themselves or their children to eat healthily.

You can’t blame the kids, it’s not their fault. One report has said that obesity among children aged two to four almost doubled between 1989 and 1998, from 5 per cent to 9 per cent. Children aged two to four!?

How many of that age group are capable of making their own decisions on what is good for them? All they care about is how sweet it is and which cartoon character is on the packaging. But they can’t get hooked on this rubbish if their parents don’t give it to them, can they?

What’s needed is for parents to stop slobbing out in front of the telly with a pizza and take an interest in what they’re putting into their and their children’s mouths.

They need to be educating their children’s palates away from all this processed garbage and getting some real food and some fruit and veg down ‘em. That’s basically all there is to it. Stop looking for somebody to blame and deal with it.

The sooner families start to realise this the healthier it is going to be for our future. The frightening alternative is looming large (sorry, last one!) across the Atlantic.