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Soap characters damage our health, says Bupa
29 December 2008
The UK’s soap operas feature some of the characters with the unhealthiest lifestyles on TV and as a nation obsessed with the soaps, these characters’ bad health habitscould be rubbing off on us, according to Bupa, the leading health and care provider. The company is appealing to soap opera writers to accurately reflect the effects of unhealthy lifestyle choices to ensure the nation understands what they might be doing to their own health.
Topping the list of unhealthiest soap characters are Dot Cotton from Eastenders, who is a heavy smoker, Shadrach Dingle from Emmerdale, who is dependent on alcohol and Tyrone Dobbs from Coronation Street, who eats greasy takeaway food all the time. Eastenders leads in the unhealthy stakes, with four of the top 10 unhealthiest characters.
However, these characters appear to be in perfect health, which Bupa says is unrealistic and damaging to the public’s perception of smoking, drinking and fast food - which are all avoidable ways to shorten your life and increase your chances of developing a life-threatening illness or disease.
Dr Peter Mace, assistant medical director of Bupa Wellness comments: “Characters who have been smoking for many years have implausibly good health. Though Dot has a smoker’s voice – deeper than you might expect, she does not seem to be short of breath or wheezy, while Shadrach should, by rights, have a red face with some broken veins that you may see with high alcohol consumption. If we tested his blood, there might be evidence of damage to his liver, though this can occur later. Tyrone consumes far too much saturated fat and does little or no exercise, which would realistically lead to high cholesterol levels which, in turn, may lead to heart disease. This might make him short of breath, and perhaps give him chest pain on exertion, though he may dodge exercise to avoid these symptoms.”
Dr Mace continues: “It's only natural that viewers are influenced by the everyday lives they see acted out on the TV, so we ask that soap opera scriptwriters portray the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle more realistically, such as in the way they've handled other medical issues such as cancer or AIDS. The soaps are an important way of getting a message across, reaching out to millions of people on a daily basis, and a few more characters to demonstrate the benefits of a healthier lifestyle could go a long way to encouraging us to take better care of our health.”
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