Why are today's young women so unashamed about being fat? Horrified by the rolls of flesh she's witnessed on show this summer, LINDA KELSEY takes no prisoners

Our writer is a self-confessed fattist

She thinks being obese is unattractive and unhealthy

She doesn't believe issue should be tip-toed around for fear of causing eating disorders

Standing in the queue for airport security at Luton last week, en route to Malaga and my fortnight in the sun, I became transfixed by the three young women in front of me.

All in their early 20s, they were laughing and chatting, clearly looking forward to their hols on the Costa del Sol, excitedly planning their days on the beach and nights on the town.

They sounded - and looked - happy and carefree. But what mesmerised me most about this jolly trio was not their conversation, but their appearance: they were size 18 apiece, at least.

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Fat friends: Linda is shocked by the number of overweight young people she often sees

They were not chubby, but fat. They had bulging bellies and billowing pillows of back and shoulder stuffing, punctured by flabby arms and lardy legs that no amount of fake-tan could disguise.

And what struck me even more forcefully about these lumpen individuals (there were dozens more, equally large, in the queue behind me) was how obviously unconcerned they were about it.

One was wearing shockingly skimpy crochet shorts, as seen on size-zero models in adverts. But in this case, the shorts made it appear the wearer had an extra bottom hanging below the cut-off hemline.

Another girl wore white stretch leggings with a pattern of cellulite dimples showing through, accessorised with a super-sized sausage of overhanging belly.

Meanwhile, the third sported a cut-away vest top revealing the entire back of her pink bra, complete with chunky rolls of fat above, beneath and around the straps. To top it all, these three were - I kid you not - sharing a bag of crisps.

"A generation of mothers seem to have swallowed a dangerously misguided message of body acceptance; making them terrified of telling their daughters they're getting fat for fear they'll stop eating altogether ..."

It occurred to me that if these girls hated their bodies and were racked with self-loathing, as we're so often told that the majority of young women do and are, they were doing a grand job of projecting exactly the opposite impression.

Far from body hatred, what I witnessed was a let-it-all-hang-out faith in themselves and a don't-give-a-damn attitude to their evident obesity.

And it's one that must be shared by many, given that it's not just in departure lounges that I witness young fatties confidently flashing their flesh. I see it on the High Street every day of summer, in the park where they strip down to their undies the second the sun comes out, and outside any given pub after dark, even in winter.

Un-PC of me as it may be to criticise my sex for their size, when it comes to weight I'm not afraid to say it: I am unapologetically fattist. It's unattractive, it's unhealthy and, given the problems that being fat can cause, it should be as unacceptable as smoking.

Yet to judge by the moral panic over anorexia you would think our daughters are a generation of self-starving stick insects. That each and every one of them is dangerously striving for Keira Knightley's razor-sharp scapula and fried egg breasts or Victoria Beckham's hand-span thighs and knife-edge hips.

Need to be stricter: Over-feeding children junk food is not love but abuse

This is clearly a fallacy, and it's one that needs addressing, because not only are most fatties doing nothing substantial to reduce their size, the cost of obesity to the nation's health - not to mention the health budget - is enormous. And it's getting worse.

I don't deny that anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders are a pernicious problem, and I've witnessed at close hand the devastating effects of anorexia as young daughters of friends and acquaintances have succumbed to it.

But in the cases I've come across, the psychological issues these girls were suffering from had far more to do with their driven personalities, their determination to be A* students at any cost, as well as troubles with over-demanding parents, than simply emulating glossy magazine images of super-skinny models and stick-thin celebrities on the red carpet.

Skinny celebrity icons are an issue, but I don't believe they're the issue on which society should focus in our muddle over body image.

"The majority of today's fatties seem greedy, ill-disciplined and or ignorant ..."

Far more attention and, dare I say it, opprobrium needs to be directed at young fatties who eat unhealthy diets and sit around watching TV and texting rather than going to the gym or even for a walk.

While it's well known that socio-economic factors have a bearing on weight - with those on lower incomes more likely to eat sugar and fat-laden diets, and less likely to exercise - there are other factors being ignored.

A generation of mothers seem to have swallowed a dangerously misguided message of body acceptance; making them terrified of telling their daughters they're getting fat for fear they'll stop eating altogether.

Mums are now so busy shoring up their daughters' self-worth by telling them they're lovely just the way they are, they're becoming guilty of benign neglect instead.

I can't count the number of mothers who have confided in me their concerns about their daughters' weight, while emphasising they'd never say anything about them tipping the scales because they don't want to tip them into anorexia.

Big and proud: But Linda thinks fat people shouldn't accept their size but do something about it

I don't have a daughter, nor do I have a weight problem. I've always felt it was unattractive and unhealthy to be fat and I've always been disciplined about what I eat without ever starving myself.

I love food, but even today, at 62, I am still very careful to cut back if I feel my jeans getting too tight. While I have sympathy for those with genuine metabolic conditions, the majority of today's fatties seem simply too greedy, ill-disciplined and or ignorant to do the same.

The statistics speak for themselves. According to the Government-backed Health And Social Care Information Centre, the proportion of overweight and obese women has increased by 10 per cent in less than a decade.

And youngsters are getting fatter at an ever earlier age - one in ten four to five-year olds are now officially obese when they start school. That figure almost doubles when you look at under-15s. These statistics are particularly shocking because the earlier fat sets in, the harder it is to shift in later life.

Of course we can, and should, blame the greedy manufacturers of addictive sugar and fat-loaded foods for cynically marketing them at the young.

Self-confessed fattist: Linda thinks being fat is unattractive and unhealthy

But as a mother of a food-loving son myself - who was only allowed biscuits, ice cream and the occasional McDonald's as treats - I know full well that healthy alternatives are out there. Overfeeding your kids is not love, it's abuse.

Fat is killing millions and costing billions. More than £5 billion to the NHS each year, in fact, compared to the £80 million to £100 million that eating disorders cost.

Of course, eating disorders can kill. But being overweight leads to high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks and even cancer. According to Cancer Research UK, as many as one in ten cancer cases could be prevented by improving our diet. The link to breast cancer is less clear, but dietary fats are increasingly thought to be implicated.

Type 2 diabetes, linked to being overweight, is on the increase and more children are suffering from it. Asthma, sleep apnoea, acid reflux, fatty liver disease, dozens of illnesses, minor and major, can be linked to being overweight. Fat, and this can’t be denied, is fatal.

We live in a society in which it has become OK to shame people for being skinny, but to come out and say 'You’re fat. Not healthy, not a good look' would be tantamount to a crime.

It's about time we stopped tiptoeing around the size issue, stopped kidding ourselves that anorexia, however serious, is the biggest eating problem we face, and started to tackle fat for the problem that it is.

Not because celebrities and models are worthy of emulating but because fat is a blight on both individuals and society.