With reference to the letters on Rose Stokes’ article (I thought we’d entered the age of body positivity. Then came ‘shrinking girl summer’ – is everyone getting smaller except me?, 10 August), I would like to add a personal view. My lovely mom was overweight all of her adult life – between 17 stone and 18 stone. She could never run around and play with us children. In her 40s she developed diabetes and high blood pressure. Many DVTs and pulmonary embolisms followed. She died of a coronary aged 62.
We should all live without fear of stigma and ridicule. This doesn’t mean that we should make choices that shorten our lives or encourage others to do so. Being overweight brings health risks. Blaming the patriarchy, fatphobia or big pharma doesn’t reduce those risks.
My lovely dad – who was never overweight – died at the age of 93. In my mind, I lost a third of the time I might have had with my mom, a loss I put squarely down to obesity. I worry increasingly for our young people – men and women – where being overweight is becoming normalised.
Sadly, in my small town in south-west England, the idea that “everyone is getting smaller” is demonstrably untrue.
Frances Knight
Devon
