Face the fats

Mothers in our country are wont to show terrible concern when their sons lose a few grams from their cheeks.

Fat people, we are now told, are not more jolly than their slimmer cousins. This is the verdict of a study, one guesses, to counter an earlier study that must have tried to explain how fat people — despite their straying from Hellenic beauty — continue to want to live. Whatever may be the case, the Archives of General Psychiatry published the results of a survey involving more than 9,000 adults which clearly state: mood and anxiety disorders including depression is about 25 per cent more common in obese people than in the non-obese.

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While one can be forgiven for being confused about why anyone would think otherwise, the rotund among us have been considered to be full of life — and therefore happiness — in popular culture. It’s the gaunt’n’gawky Stan Laurel and not the corpulent Oliver Hardy who is bawling and frowning and fretting all the time. Also, mothers in our country are wont to show terrible concern when their sons lose a few grams from their cheeks, rather than when they bloat up to a ‘healthy’ size.

Strangely enough though, despite their propensity towards depression, people suffering from obesity are less prone to substance abuse. Which may explain why alcohol and drugs are things we associate with the Beautiful People and the burger and fries with, well, the Big ’Uns.