THE Department of Health has decided not to ban the new anti-fat drug Sibutramine, even though two British patients taking it have died.

The drug, sold in this country under the brand name Reductil, is taken by obese people to suppress appetite.

With one in ten children under four clinically obese, as well as 17 per cent of men and 21 per cent of women, excess weight is becoming an acknowledged health problem.

But it is not as simple as that. Being extremely overweight may be bad for the health, but carrying a couple of extra pounds surely isn't. Do slimming clubs, stick-thin celebrities and the popularity of programmes such as ITV1's Fat Club reveal that we are unhealthily obsessed with weight?

Here is what some members of our readers' panel think. Please let us know your views.

Katherine Hague, 36, is the manager of Monks Cross shopping park. Her hobbies include running and cycling to keep fit.

I DON'T think it's weight that matters, so much as health. If you are healthy, fit and slightly overweight, what's wrong with that? It's when you become obese that your health starts to deteriorate. The difficulty is that there is too much fast food around. People tend not to spend time cooking a healthy, balanced meal - they just pop stuff in the microwave.

There is a tremendous amount of pressure on people. You are judged totally on the way you look, which is wrong.

I take a pride in myself. I lost a stone in weight after Christmas, because I was a stone overweight. I just made a valiant effort to lose it. I felt I didn't look nice. I started a regime of running and cycling every day. But I also watch what I eat- lots of fruit and veg and stuff like that. It certainly works for me, because I feel healthy.

But when you start talking about giving people pills to help them lose weight, there is something wrong. There should be a way of dealing with what somebody is eating, other forms of support and help. Pills I think could be dangerous.

Sarah Brownbridge, 45, runs York restaurants Blue Bicycle and Blue Minelle with partner David Rose. She would like to keep fit but never gets round to joining a gym

I'M physically quite slim. No matter what I eat - and I do eat a lot - I never put much weight on at all. Now, I think that's great, but when I was younger I used to be very self-conscious. At school, other girls were a lot bigger than me. They all had breasts. I didn't get breasts until I was 30!

So it's not just people that are overweight, it's also people that are underweight. I think, especially now, there is too much pressure put on people to be too slim. That's why we have problems with anorexia and dieting. A lot of people are actively dieting, and you look at them and think, they really don't need to.

If you are overweight and it's affecting your health, so that you can't do things that you would be able to do if you were slimmer, you need to do something. But as long as you're happy within yourself and fairly healthy, I don't think it matters.

There is too much pressure put on people. It should be down to the individual. I have a friend who is quite large but she keeps very active and does a lot of sport, and she isn't over the top on her eating habits. It is just part of her metabolism that she is bigger.

I have never been on a diet, but I think I would find it very hard if I had to, because I do like food.

Updated: 08:57 Tuesday, March 19, 2002