THERE is a direct link between the food and drink we shovel into our mouths and what we see looking back at us in the mirror.
Few of us really want to admit to this correlation as we enjoy our favourite pizza, vacuum up the last of the kids' chocolate Easter eggs or reward ourselves for surviving a tough day with a glass of wine or a few pints of beer.
The slimming products industry has made a fortune on the back of our persistent lack of acceptance of the equation over-eating+lack of exercise = obesity.
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But the buck starts somewhere, and it is often with parents. If they give their children too much of the wrong type of food, health problems linked to overweight can easily follow.
This situation was underlined by the revelation this week that six young brothers and sisters face being put into care because they are overweight.
They include a 12-year-old boy who weighs 16 stone and a three-year-old who is already four stone. Now, the parents have been warned that, if their youngsters don't shed some weight in the next three months, they could lose them.
On the face of it, this sounds a cruel ultimatum.
Who among parents has not gone into a cold sweat at the thought of losing a much-loved child in some way, including having them taken away by the authorities?
However, social workers are thinking of the health, current and future, of the children, and there is obviously something seriously wrong with this family's diet. So, yes, after the parents have some help, perhaps working with a nutritionist to address the eating problems, taking the children off them may be the only way forward.
We learn our eating habits young and need early exposure to good food, including fruit and vegetables.
Bolton Council's plans to give free school meals to all Bolton primary school children in their first term certainly has merit on this basis - anything which helps, even for a short time, is useful.
But, it is the parents more than the children who need to learn an important lesson on dietary needs here and, increasingly, I suspect that from now on the courts will intervene in families to force the issue.
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