Bit of a shit article to be honest, but I do think it is an interesting question and intersects loads of issues, prejudice, education, class, gender ...

"Walking through the park on the first sunny day of spring, I passed an ice-cream van surrounded by children. One boy, aged eight or so, was idling on his bike in my path, messily eating a strawberry split, the pink juice running down his plump cheeks.

As I swerved round him several thoughts ran through my head, all unedifying, in retrospect. He could do with a bit more cycling and a lot less junk. I wonder if he gets bullied because of his size? Probably not – loads of kids are fat these days, aren’t they? So I bet he’s fine. Until he gets diabetes, of course, then we’ll all be paying for it.

And so, judgement done, I went on my merry way. (Ironically, I think I was heading to the cheesemonger’s in search of a nice piece of Brie for an al fresco lunch.)

Now, I’m a liberal – I’d fondly believe I’m against all forms of discrimination. Yet here I was, blithely indulging in perhaps the last socially acceptable form of prejudice: fattism (yes, even the name is faintly risible). What’s worse, the object of my criticism was a child, who could hardly be said to be to blame for anything, let alone his weight.

Shocked or not, many of you, whatever your background, must have had similar thoughts at one time or another. Almost half of the people surveyed for a Mintel special report in 2009 blamed the rising tide of obesity on “laziness” and a fifth attributed it to greed. Even Tam Fry, the spokesman for the National Obesity Forum, has described the obese as “eating [themselves] silly”. "

... http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/health/2013/05/our-big-fat-fear