BBC news: from the mouths of babes

Somehow BBC news manages to write things that wouldn't appear in the US. I don't mean torture news or the Downing St memo, I mean really controvesial stuff. For instance, this piece: "Co-habitating makes women fatter". The blunt wording alone ensures that it wasn't published in the US. Pretty direct, huh? Try this:

Another study of 9,043 adults in the US found marriage itself led to women putting on weight, and moving out of marriage was linked to weight loss in women.

I guess this is a good time to point out that someone in the US thought this might be worthy of study. (A 9000 person study takes some cash too. I'd love to see the grant proposal.) Let's see what they conclude:

The authors suggested this was caused by more structured eating and less time for exercise within marriage.

Nice try US authors. Structured eating makes you gain weight...but only for women and not for men. Suuure. The Brits are a little more forthcoming, and ultimately more constructive. Here's Dr Frankie Phillips of the British Dietetic Association:

She said: "If women are finding themselves struggling with weight after moving in together, portion sizes would be one of the first things to address.

"On average men require more energy (calories) per day than women, and so having equal portion sizes could mean that women are eating too much."

Probably even among the Brits though, a man would have had to think twice before uttering those last 8 words. I guess Frankie has some constructive advice, but eating less is a step backwards for feminist equality. Just remember ladies, equal portions means equal weight.

Often the best source of truth in the US comes from stand-up comics, one of whom described this same phenomenon as: "The race is over, take off the uniform." I forget which comic it was, but BBC being BBC, I bet they would have quoted him if they'd heard it.