The harsh truth is these people are simply not going to reach old age. Complications associated with their obesity will get them first – after having cost the rest of us a fortune along the way in treating them just because they eat too much, and no-one seems prepared to tell them. To tell them that they need to stop, that it will be hard but they can - with help - do something about it. Efforts to ‘‘normalise’’ gargantuan appetites and bodies, as high street retailers are so cynically doing with aggressive marketing of high fashion plus sizes promoted by beautiful, but morbidly obese models, is utterly wrong.