11.18, 30 July 2010
Society is getting fatter. It’s a bit of a
taboo subject really, but there’s no avoiding it or dressing it up – looking
around the streets of almost any city, the number of overweight people has
increased. The media is consumed by reports of obesity levels – celebrities are getting skinnier, but on
average, society is getting larger.
Public health issues are at the fore for the
new coalition government so it seems, with obesity one of the big players, NICE
only this week published its guidelines on weight management,
and anyone and everyone in the public health arena is looking at ways to
reverse the trend.
This
week, health minister Anne Milton has looked at the semantics of the issue – she believes GPs ought to tell patients
they are’ fat’ as opposed to ‘obese’. According to reports,
she was speaking in a personal capacity when she said that if she thinks of herself
as obese, she’s less worried, than if she thinks of herself as fat. She feels
that NHS staff are worried about using the term. I can totally appreciate Ms
Milton’s point of view – we have shied away from ever using the term, because
it has a degrading inference and is essentially offensive. But I think staff
are right to be cautious. ‘Obese’ has a clinical, professional feel about it,
‘fat’ is an insult and has an almost childlike approach to a serious subject –
it harks back to the school playground. Will it work to tell people they are
fat? I think it’s a very emotive term. Everyone knows that to be told you’re
obese is to say that you are fat, but will health professionals telling us that
we’re fat change the situation and make people more or less likely to shed the
pounds? I’m not convinced. It’s eating a healthy balanced diet and exercise
that will do it – I’m not sure referring to someone as ‘fat’ is going to
provide the necessary motivation, in fact I think it may have the opposite
effect.
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