Changing Perspectives – Let’s Talk About Obesity

4 March is world obesity day, and this year’s theme is “Changing Perspectives: Let’s Talk About Obesity.” And, more than ever, in the past year, we are talking about obesity – from reactions to the shocking the times editorial last october calling for an increase in fat-shaming to the polarised conversations sparked by the recent oscar-nominated film the whale – but are these the conversations we need to be having?

This quote is not from a patient but from Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, MD, MPH, MDH Obesity Medicine Physician at Massachusetts General Hospital on primetime US television (60 minutes 1/1/23). She found that most medical schools don’t teach that obesity is a disease — even though obesity is now the second leading cause of preventable death in many countries. This leads to worse health outcomes for patients with obesity.