Asked whether he thinks Scots have become resigned to the fact that public health challenges such as obesity and alcohol misuse are part of our culture, Professor John Frank told Holyrood:

“There are other societies in the world fighting against much worse demons... Young people being overweight, that is completely biologically reversible. They can go back to normal weight within a year by just changing their life around. But in Tanzania, there are whole regions where one third of young people are HIV positive. And that is not reversible.

“So which is the bigger challenge?” he asks. “In a way, there is more hope here, even though I know it is a well-established pattern and people feel discouraged sometimes. But, heck, people can change and many of these health problems can be turned around.

“It is not that Mother Nature has consigned them to the dustbin,” he continues. “It is not that they are pre-ordained to have that disease. It is remarkably reversible until quite far on. So you have got to look at it that way. We all know people who turned around a drinking problem or a smoking problem or a drug problem, so guess what? It is actually a fairly positive set of problems to have, compared to the third world.”

Frank, a Canadian, also said he was attracted to coming to work in Scotland because of Scots “open mindedness to change.”

“You also have to feel that people are sufficiently open minded and willing to try new things and I think that is true of Scotland. I think there is a culture, which I’m very impressed by here, of being rational about things, discussing it, arguing it out if necessary,  but using powers of reasoning to decide what to do and then everybody putting their shoulder to the wheel, and I like that.”