During my time at Medical School, it was often supposed that the NHS was the second biggest employer in the world. Recent data shows us that although it is "only" fifth on the list, it is undeniably a huge employer in global terms. The biggest employer is the US department of defence with 3.2 million followed by the Chinese army with 2.3 million. Third place goes to the US retail giant Walmart which employs 2.1 million and fourth place is the domain of McDonalds with 1.9 million. But the NHS really is the fifth largest employer on the planet with a staggering 1.7 million employees. Thus, 5.5 million people are employed in a military capacity by the US and China in case of war, 4 million people are employed globally supplying us with much of the food we should be seeking to avoid and, here in the UK, 1.7 million people are employed to deal with the health of the nation - or lack of it. Recently, a major study linked obesity to ten cancers. In brief, the study concluded tha...