The final helping

neil donnelly

Neil is a Fellow of the bDa and retired Dietetic Services Manager. His main areas of interest are weight management and eating disorders

a few weeks ago i read an article in a tabloid newspaper about ‘Britain’s fattest man’. Some days later he also appeared on ‘this morning’ television. the article and the programme discussed the ‘takeaway’ lifestyle that this 33-year-old man was living. He was confined to his bed at home and relied on NHS carers. His current calorie intake was estimated to be around 10,000 calories a day. a few days ago i read that he had died. the police said that his death was not being treated as suspicious.

I was going to discuss this in this issue of Helping, but then we were invited for an overnight stay in the Lake District by my Mother-in-law. This obviously took precedence! Whilst there, we visited Allan Bank, a property near Grasmere owned and managed by the National Trust. William Wordsworth lived there for three years and in one of the rooms, Wordsworth’s study, there had been placed an old typewriter with the challenge: ‘What will you write?’ (See pic). Here is my offering, not written, I hasten to add, from the wonderful vista afforded to Wordsworth overlooking the Lake and Rydal Water, but from my dining room table overlooking a glass of wine, much later the following evening.

A final helping

O mortal man who canst not see A weight you are that should not linger Thus I am glad it is not me Who needs to lift more than a finger And we know what will be will be In life there is no certainty So you have seen obesity With eyes and mind and heart and soul Your future in your hands to be Your life once fragile, now a whole That looks forever o’er the hills Your golden host of daffodils

A child you were but are no more Now show your future, let them make A life well lived for three or four Score years and 10 and they will take Your memory on, with thanks to you They’ll live their life, will do, can do.

But I have seen and tell you so The beauty that you can enjoy Upon this earth so you will know The tasks that must you now employ Lest it be written on your stone Alongside those who are alone

Stand up and tell me to a man That wandered lonely as a cloud I hear you all say yes he can And gather round, they are so proud That you have conquered mountains high Now see your world, go touch the sky Recent figures suggest that over 68 million people in the USA are obese. More than the population of the whole of the United Kingdom including Northern Ireland.