WHAT springs to mind when you think of Nicholas Soames, Eric Pickles and Henry VIII?

I’d wager poverty wouldn’t be top of the list.

But according to public health minister Anna Soubry fat people tend to be poor.

The honourable member for Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire says that she can now “almost tell somebody’s background by their weight.”

Which is a bit of a neat trick.

Fat = poor, thin = well off.

Bob Geldof must be raging, all that money he raised for those millionaire Ethiopian famine victims in the 1980s.

Miss Soubry says she believes that a culture of ‘TV Dinners’ has eroded the traditional mealtimes of family life and, shock horror, some families don’t even own a dining table.

Where to begin with this?

First of all replace the word weight with colour in the single mum-of-two’s statement.

Oh wait a minute, now replace the word colour with whether they’re a single parent.

Let’s try it: “You can almost tell someone’s background by their marital status.”

Oh wait a minute it’s at least absolute cobblers and at the most borderline offensive.

I don’t doubt there’s some link between family affluence and health but surely it’s just one factor in what is a complicated mix.

What about time?

Hard-pressed families now often have both parents working due to the rocket-like trajectory of housing costs overseen by both Conservative and Labour governments.

Surely that means they have less time to prepare meals?

Which by definition means the meals will be made of ingredients which are pre-prepared.

Which in turn are often recognised to contain more fats, salts and sugars.

As you can see it’s easy to debunk Miss Soubry’s theory but you grudgingly have to accept there’s some fact in the headline grabbing soundbite.

The Department of Health’s own figures show that just under one in four of the most deprived 11-year-olds in England are obese while just over one in seven from the wealthiest backgrounds are carrying extra timber around their tummies.

What can we do about the problem?

Miss Soubry wants food manufacturers to cut the nasties from the muchies they make.

That’s one thing.

We also need to make a cultural change. I don’t believe a family needs a dinner table.

That’s some sort of middle-class yearning for families to talk to each other in the style of ‘How was little Johnnie’s day?’ in some idyllic world that doesn’t exists.

I know one family who didn’t have a dinner table and the children (now grown up) are all well-adjusted members of society with a variety of good jobs under their (non-straining) belts.

Families need to understand that, like life, you get out what you put in.

If you eat well and exercise then you’ll be healthy. If you don’t, you won’t.

How Miss Soubry and co achieve the successful delivery of the message is up to them, but ridiculous statements like the one above do the fight against obesity no good at all.

And if you see Nick, Eric or Henry begging for coppers, please pop a penny in their hats; they’ve got to eat too.