Emporio Armani models on the catwalk for London Fashion Week 2006. Photographer: David Levene
We are what we eat - or indeed what we don't. Last week two apparently contradictory but equally important health issues have been at the forefront of the news agenda, both underlining the importance of healthy and sensible eating.
On the one hand the government had its bony knuckles rapped by an influential committee of MPs for its slowness to tackle the obesity epidemic in children, with efforts hampered by ministers' attempts to stay friendly with the powerful - not to mention rich - food industry. And at the same time, the debate about the use of stick-like models and body image was reignited in the run-up to London Fashion Week next month.
As revealed by The Guardian, the British Fashion Council, which owns and runs the annual event, has stopped short of demanding that designers do not use extremely thin models bordering on the anorexic. Instead it has recommended that designers use "healthy-looking" models (whatever that means) and agreed to set up a taskforce to draw up a voluntary code of practice. Experts in eating disorders expressed their disappointment that tougher measures had not been adopted, and the council was accused of kow-towing to the rich and influential (sounds familiar?) designers.
It seems staggering in this day and age that at one end of the scale we have the problem of girls not eating enough - in some cases, indeed, starving themselves to death in order to look attractive - and at the other end an entire generation of youngsters who are eating so much that they may die before their parents. We live in an information-rich age where we have more facts and figures about nutrition and healthy eating than ever before. What a contrast to the experience of previous generations, like my grandmother - forced to eat bread and dripping when there was nothing else in the house.
But that in itself has brought its pressures - we are bombarded with TV advertising and marketing aimed specifically at children, with parents the victims of "pester power". It is not surprising that young girls aspire to be thin when stick-thin models dominate the pages of magazines and advertising hoardings. Depressingly, bad habits start early and British youngsters as young as five are revealed by a Datamonitor survey on Friday as the biggest consumers in Europe of unhealthy sweets and fizzy drinks, skipping up to a quarter of their daily breakfasts - arguably the most important meal of the day.
MPs on the Commons public accounts committee called for the appointment of an "obesity tsar" to galvanise a public health drive and say parents must be given clearer guidelines about encouraging their children to eat more healthily. The outlook is truly shocking. A report from the Department of Health last year predicted that more than 12 million adults and one million children will be obese by 2010 if no action is taken. The Health Survey for England warned that 19% of boys and 22% of girls aged two to 15 will be obese. The government has set a target to halt the increase in obesity among under-11s by 2010, but is widely expected to miss it.
The fact is that it is not fair to blame the government alone for our bad eating habits - whichever end of the spectrum they fall. It is down to parents and families to use their instincts and to educate their children about healthy eating in the home. The external pressures and influences are powerful, which is why setting up taskforces and appointing "tsars" will, at the end of the day, only have a limited impact.
