If you live in Scotland, you'd better not be fat

Because if you are, according to the Sunday Herald, your doctor can prescribe Accomplia (generic name: rimonabant) if you haven't "responded to other treatments"--i.e., if you're still fat despite his/her best advice.

That's because Scotland has gone completely bonkers on the subject of fat. Especially when it comes to the children. According to a spokesman for the Scottish National Health Service, "Being overweight or obese during childhood can lead to physical and mental health problems in later life, such as heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, back pain, low self-esteem and depression."

Maybe he hasn't seen this study on how feeling bad about your weight is much worse for your health than actually being fat.

Accomplia, on the other hand, has been linked to depression and other mental health issues, heart attacks, and suicide. Sounds like a perfect "fix" to me.

Thankfully, not everyone in Scotland has leapt onto the anti-obesity train. The Sunday Herald quotes Dr. Ken Paterson, chairman of the Scottish Medical Consortium, as having said, ". . . our advice is that [the drug] shouldn't be used. . . . People regain weight very quickly when they come off this drug, so the real question is what is the benefit of having a short-term, non-sustained weight reduction? We don't believe it should be in general use."

I worry, I really do, about what life will be like here and elsewhere in 10 or 15 years if you're fat.