Actually, I think the solution is even more basic than that - rather than weighing and measuring kids in the schools, at the start of each term of school, check their blood pressure, blood sugar levels, cholesterol, respiration, heart rate - you know, basic checkup kind of stuff. Since the government in Britain already runs and pays for the health care system, this wouldn't require the same kind of funding issues there that it might here, and they'd be able to give parents a MUCH better idea of their kids' health than weighing and measuring them.

See, you really can't tell much about a persons health status by looking at how big they are. While it's true that there is a *correlation* betwe...

Actually, I think the solution is even more basic than that - rather than weighing and measuring kids in the schools, at the start of each term of school, check their blood pressure, blood sugar levels, cholesterol, respiration, heart rate - you know, basic checkup kind of stuff. Since the government in Britain already runs and pays for the health care system, this wouldn't require the same kind of funding issues there that it might here, and they'd be able to give parents a MUCH better idea of their kids' health than weighing and measuring them.

See, you really can't tell much about a persons health status by looking at how big they are. While it's true that there is a *correlation* between being fat and having heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and so on, there's no proof yet of *causation* - and its important to note that not every fat person has these conditions (I've known people who've weighed over 300 lbs or more and didn't have ANY of them,) and that some thin people *do* (which, technically means that you could probably say that being thin *also* has a correlation with those disorders.)

I mean, seriously, causation and correlation are such different things, and its sad that so many people don't recognize that it's correlation that's been observed in regards to obesity and health issues.