Here at SLiNK towers we’re big on following the DM twitter feed. Whether it’s celeb gossip, news or simply pieces on ‘Obese Britain’ we know that the Daily Mail is our one stop shop!

Today the Daily Mail Article (found here) discusses how Britain is now is giving gastric bands to children as young as 15, with 20 kids having bands and stomach stapling carried out on the NHS in the past two years. For those of you that have read issue 5 of SLiNK you would’ve seen @mrsbebe_ ‘s article on her gastric band experience. While I’m not sure how I feel that bands are available at all on the NHS, the fact they are now being used as a first response for children deemed overweight is shocking.

Britain has become obsessed with weight and size, however this obsession is making us miss the bigger picture and some key points. We are instilling in these teens that beauty and humanity only comes in one size, (size S) and that a quick fix, a costly life altering op is a far better solution than re-educating people about diet and exercise. Larger size does NOT equal unhealthy or unfit. You can be a size 16+ and be healthier than a size 6 and here is where we are greatly missing the point.

These teens should be taught about diet and exercise, we already have a society where we want everything quickly and easily and with the least amount of effort, offering gastric bands to kids as young as 15 reinforces this false reality, that’s why when the summer riots happened, so many teens turned around and just shrugged saying ‘I wanted it, so I took it’ and why many people believe that government handouts are their given right, we’re teaching kids from all directions that it’s ok to be lazy the government apparently will do it all for you, now they even lose weight for you (how thoughtful).

Without reprogramming our attitude towards our bodies, food and exercise these operations are a waste of time and money, we need to lower the cost of healthy food and up the price of their chicken nugget, fried alternative. Jamie Oliver has the right idea but again the delivery is wrong, don’t penalise people because you think they look too big for your narrow boxed society view, get to know what their diet and exercise regime is like and lets starting basing health on scientific factors not our face value culture.

Finally! My last rant for the weekend… LA FITNESS! What a stupid, narrow minded and idiotic advert for their summer campaign. As a gym you’d expect them to marginally understand what is important in terms of health and fitness wouldn’t you? You’d kinda think that the LA Fitness team had the idea that health and fitness is well, more important that size? Check out their advert below. I was pretty annoyed that a gym I used to pay extortionate amounts too could come out with an ad that misses the core point of going to the gym and why so many people either avoid it or give up too quickly.

LA Fitness Banner

The implication being you are the fat pepper but you could be the hot chilli pepper. Wouldn’t it have been better if they could lead the way and remind people that getting active should be about health not looks, long term benefits and not quick fixes, wouldn’t that be a great way to encourage and keep clients focused, fit and attending the gym? – Just a thought!