Thoughts on Britain’s newest healthy living advocate

Over the weekend, the Department of Health unveiled their newest and most unlikely recruit yet in the fight against the bulge: doughnut eating, beer drinking and pot bellied Homer Simpson & family. The initial reaction by some was one of disbelief, others applauded the choice. Of course, no one has actually seen the result of this campaign, let alone the actual campaign yet - but apparently it will involve the Simpsons sitting down together in front of a table full of their usual treats (aka fast food), which then magically disappears and turns into health food.

I have to admit, I do like the idea a lot. Despite being a little bit cynical about the claim that Homer & Co actually do represent a British family broadly, i applaud the fact that Homer & Co are… well, they are just simply not perfect. That makes them a lot more human, and much better as a role model, then some perfectly toned, always eating/drinking/not-smoking-right model, which frankly is not what most people would even dream to compare themselves with. The problem is that, if the goal post is staked to highly or seems impossible to achieve, then most people simply give up and don’t try - not even a bit, which means a lot of wasted potential benefits. After all, it isn’t always about always eating right, and never drinking etc - it is about eating right most of the time. And who could resist being taught that by a man whose quoted as saying “Doughnuts. Is there anything they can’t do? “

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