Hi °C | Lo °C AS WE enter the season most associated with excess when it comes to food and drink, an article in one daily paper caught my eye yesterday.
'Safe dieting pills here within three years' read the headline.
Apparently, this will be the first diet pill (it's currently in the final stages of testing) without side effects.
Sadly, the story goes on to explain that: "It can shift the pounds by killing the joy of eating."
Food has to be in the top two physical pleasures that we enjoy. Sex is, of course, number one.
When it comes to food, I do plan my day around my menu.
I need breakfast, lunch and dinner -- and if I miss one meal I will make up for it later on.
I also never go to bed hungry as I then wake up angry. I say nay to the experts who veto carbs, or indeed any kind of food, after 7pm. It's nonsense.
I eat when my tummy tells me to. But I also exercise consistently to keep my figure -- and more importantly my good health.
SCARY
'Boffin' Stephen Bloom, who is behind the research of this new diet pill and is part of a team of scientists based at the Imperial College London, said: "If you take away hunger, food is not attractive. If you take away pleasure, people stop eating."
I'll admit to being a very fussy eater but I enjoy my food and living in a world where it does not give me any pleasure sounds scary.
Statistics show that over half of Irish adults are overweight, with almost one in four obese. So this is a very real problem for our health service.
Yet what I don't get is why there is no sense of personal responsibility involved in tackling this issue.
We already have existing varieties of diet pills and stomach stapling procedures on offer -- but what people need to do is buy some kind of healthy cook book, make their meals from scratch and take a half-hour walk every day.
It's as simple as that -- there is no such thing as a miracle cure for being overweight.
Unless you have a genuine medical condition, then being obese means it's time to take control of your body and overall health. In a million years, a pill will not achieve that long-term.
>Dee O'Keeffe
