Free Republic

The subject of the TLC show “The World’s Fattest Man” is fleeing the US for Britain — for an estimated $137,000 in free health care. Paul Mason, who weighed almost 1,000 pounds before having gastric band surgery in 2009, has been almost constantly hospitalized in Athol, Massachusetts, after starting to regain weight after a bad breakup. Enlarge ImagePaul Mason Facebook He feared being crippled financially by US medical costs — so is instead moving back to his native Britain this week to get the work covered for free by the National Health Service. “We all fall apart when things get...

Obesity is more dangerous than smoking and will dramatically shorten the lives of millions, a landmark study has found. While smoking reduces life by an average of ten years, the research says being seriously overweight can cut life expectancy by as much as 13 years. The Foresight report, written by 250 leading scientists, says Britain's obesity crisis is so severe that it would take at least 30 years to reverse. If current trends continue, by 2050 about 60 per cent of men, 50 per cent of women and 25 per cent of children in the UK will be clinically obese...