It\'s easy, it\'s free, and you\'ll lose flab

THE secret to weight loss is simple and free, according to one of the country’s leading health experts. Lord McColl of Dulwich said yesterday: “The cure is free – eat less.” In a controversial speech he that said the Government should stop “misleading” people by promoting exercise as the key to tackling Britain’s obesity crisis. The former professor and director of surgery at Guy’s Hospital in London told the House of Lords that Britain is facing an obesity epidemic that is killing millions, costing billions, and would “wreck” the NHS. He branded the rise in obesity as the worst epidemic to affect Britain for 100 years. In a debate on non-communicable diseases, he said: “What a strange world it is. Half the world is dying of starvation; the other half is gorging itself to death.” Lord McColl said politicians were refusing to admit that the cause of obesity was over-eating. For obese people to lose weight – “bearing in mind that most of them can’t exercise because they are so overweight” – all they had to do was to cut down on food. He added: “I recognise it’s not the job of politicians to tell people how to live their lives. But it’s surely the duty of government to speak the truth and give a lead.”