According to a story in the Daily Middle Class, obesity is now as great a threat to the planet as climate change.
Apparently being a right fatty can take up to nine years off a person’s life and trigger a host of unpleasant illnesses, diseases and dress sizes. However, I suspect the main worry for Hyacinth Buckets everywhere is that one of these lumpfish may move in next door, with their smelly chip pans and coarse beer drinking, reducing property values and offending the WI.

Not surprisingly the ‘specialist’ quoted slashes and burns his way through salt, sugar, Happy Meals, marketing and how children should be fed nothing more substantial than dock leaves.
Inevitably the blame hauls up at the door of the motorist and sits very well with people who see the velocipede, rather than garlic bread, as the future.
It seems that were we all to take to public transport, Britain would be a nation of pole dancing whippets. In particular the motorway network is singled out as a cause of cellular ugliness in buttock and thigh.
Raising a couple of points. Agreed, I have never seen a bus in a drive-through hamburger restaurant but I have seen a lot of really fat backsides on the train.
And, logically, how is sitting on a coach from Liverpool to Birmingham any less sedentary than driving a car?
On the other hand may I recommend a car that’s been on a diet, the skinny latte Renaultsport 197 Cup with a weight reducing, calorie controlled equipment list.
With the exception of metrosexual, £35 tax bracket, hatchbacks, cars generally have been porking up over the years. The reason is simple. When the average focus group member gets a hand in the crisps, there’s no stopping demands for a bigger boot with more cabin space and a host of electrical goods. Result; one fat motor.
The standard 197 is in demand for one-touch electric windows, hands free entry, air conditioning, heated mirrors, cruise control, fancy-pants dash and curtain airbags.
Do not expect to find any such overindulgence in the diet cola version.
In the interest of getting 6.9 second to 62mph time out of the normally aspirated two-litre, six-speed Cup, everything you don’t need to enjoy the best-driving hot hatch on the market, has been stripped out. As a result there’s a grand knocked off the price bringing it in at £15,000. Alternatively, Cup suspension is an option on the ‘normal’ car for £400. You decide.
What is fitted? ESP, ABS, some seats, a nice wheel, electric windows, 17 inch alloys and Thatcham alarm.
Right then, down to business. While a seven-second sprint is hardly the stuff of rocketry these days and flat out 139mph is not escape velocity even if it sounds like shuttle lift off, clever work on the suspension makes this a rock solid drive like no other while still retaining a suppleness which makes the car acceptable for everyday driving. Extractors and a frankly show-off rear spoiler force the Cup to the floor. And if you have ever wondered if being forced to the floor is fun, it is.
And there are the very reasons for owning this car. Response, secure handling, clear evidence of tinkering by the men in white coats and an ear to ear grin. If the Cup was a dance it would be a waltz in a world of pogoing.
Weak points? Too much steering assistance at lower speeds, the lightness goes as the fun element increases.
Don’t, please, imagine you are getting something that will make motorway driving a joy and a pleasure, even with slightly longer gears in the latest Clio. Do take the option of £850 Recaro seats. And do remember this is a specialist motor which is why Renault reckons most will opt for the 1.6 per cent heavier 192 with optional Cup suspension.
On the other hand you will be doing your bit for British obesity. The 197 Cup, the car with the less fattening centre.

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