Horizon - Man and science today

If you are feeling guilty about Christmas over-indulgence, this programme offers you some timely advice. Fatness affects fifty per cent of the population and one woman in sixteen is more than fifty per cent overweight. It is perhaps because it is so common that this growing problem is ignored. We know fat people are funny and jolly, but the medical evidence is that obesity is a killing disease.
Tonight's programme investigates the bio-chemical causes, the psychological origins of the problem and takes a look at some promising scientific research.
But it is the fat themselves who talk of the embarrassment and even loneliness their fatness can bring, and the frustrations of trying to lose weight
(Colour)