'Fat tsar' post created to get Scots healthy

By FRED BRIDGLAND

A "fat tsar" is to wean obese Scots off their fat-soaked, deep-fried, vegetable-shunning cuisine.

The job was created after a three-year study showed Scotland's health problems to be among Europe's worst.

But the "fat tsar," and a new physical activity taskforce to advise on fitness, is not enough, critics say.

Scots have the world's worst records for heart attacks and angina, the Scottish Health Survey of 13,000 people found.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot, of University College, London, the head of the survey team, said deep poverty in the cities caused a nine-year life expectancy gap between people from the highest and lowest social classes.

The survey classified one-fifth of the 5 million population as obese. More men than women were overweight, 62 per cent to 54 per cent. Seventy-five per cent of Scottish men aged 45 and over were overweight.

Michael Lean, professor of nutrition at Glasgow University and author of the 1995 Diet Action Plan, a Government move to tackle Scotland's poor health, said: "It's a step in the right direction, but it's hard to imagine one person succeeding at what a group of people have been trying to achieve for years.

"This needs someone with real vision who will have to backed by resources and finance. The obesity problem is incredibly complex and can't be solved from within the health service. It needs everybody working together and involves agriculture, retail and education."