People with obesity are not only at risk of serious medical complications; they also face a pervasive, resilient form of social stigma.
Research studies show that stigma of obesity causes significant harm to affected individuals including both physical and psychological consequences. People who experience such stigma are less likely to seek and receive adequate care and are often discriminated against in the workplace, education and even in healthcare.
The social stigma of obesity is based on the typically unproven assumption that body weight is entirely under volitional control, and that individuals with obesity lack self-discipline and personal responsibility. In fact, people with obesity are often perceived, without evidence, as being lazy, gluttonous, lacking will power. Such portrayal is inconsistent with current scientific evidence demonstrating that body weight regulation is not entirely under volitional control and that powerful biological mechanisms defend against weight changes. There is also ample evidence that biological, genetic and environmental factors critically contribute to obesity.
The prevailing view in society is that obesity is a choice rather than a disease; a condition that can be reversed by a voluntary decision to eat less and exercise more. Such view runs contrary to an undisputed body of evidence, misleads public health policies, confuses messages in popular media, undermines access to evidence-based treatments, and compromises advances in research.
For all the reasons above, weight stigma represents a major stumbling block in the fight against the epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Tackling weight stigma is therefore a matter of human rights and social justice but also a way to advance prevention and treatment of these diseases.
