Physical Education and Health: a Polemic or ëLet Them Eat Cake!í

Abstract

In recent years, teachers in the UK and elsewhere have been encouraged to include ‘health aims’ as part of the physicaleducation curriculum. The widely reported worldwide ‘rising tide of obesity’ has been a major motivating concern. This article looks critically at ‘obesity research’, offers a wayof reading it and suggests that many of its claims are at best over-exaggerated, at worst unfounded and, ironically, if translated uncritically in schools could damage the educational interests and health of children and young people. The article calls on those engaged in health and physical education to take a more cautious and critical attitude towards the obesity literature in the interests of preserving not only the educational aspirations of PE but also the health of young people.