Stop telling people to 'eat less': It is time to rethink the way we all talk about Obesity
We’ve all heard someone turn to a friend, colleague or stranger who is struggling with their weight and mutter the words: “it is simple, just eat less and move more.”
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This archaic way of thinking is not only harmful to the people it is said to but will likely have a long-term impact on the health of the economy and public services across the country.
The challenges posed by obesity are complex, interlinked and fundamentally will not be fixed without a strategy that leverages innovative new medications and a digital first approach.
The vast majority of the country will now be aware of the emergence of weight loss medications as a method to treat obesity. Indeed, recent estimates suggest that as many as 1 in 20 people are taking them to manage their weight.
The fact that upwards of 2.5 million adults in the UK are now being treated by weight loss injections, through the private sector or the NHS, is testament to their effectiveness.
Despite this, the stigma associated with using GLP-1s to manage your weight remains. A shocking 60% of people using weight loss injections have received unsupportive comments, often from strangers which is regularly leading to people feeling uneasy in pursuing their weight loss goals via medication.
If we are really going to tackle the UK’s obesity crisis, we must start thinking about the way we discuss it. Obesity is a chronic and complex disease that impacts people in various ways. Whether that be cardiovascular disease, cancer or Type 2 diabetes, the co-morbidities associated with obesity are a leading cause of NHS spending.
Weight loss injections, however, have the ability to reshape our health and economic landscape. Take cancer as an example. Being overweight or obese is the second biggest cause of cancer in the UK, a disease that costs the health service around £19bn a year.
Why then would we choose to demonise people trying to support themselves for the betterment of their own health, the economy and the health service?
For many, it is not just the judgement they face that is a barrier to losing weight. Access remains a huge obstacle for many, and as part of the NHS’ ten year plan, we must start to look towards fully capitalizing on the notion of a digital first health system. It should be a basic right that people can access their medication online, to reduce the widening levels of health inequality we are currently facing.
The UK’s £100bn obesity crisis is not something that will be fixed by stigma but rather by concerted action bringing together policymakers with industry and the public sector to deliver game-changing solutions to improve the health and wealth of the nation.
A more rational, science-backed and levelled discussion about the way we view obesity in this country, is the starting point for leveraging the incredible opportunity we now must be the generation that ends obesity for good.
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James O’Loan is the Founder and CEO of one of the UK’s largest online pharmacies, Chemist4U. In 2017, he became first person to put weight loss injections online in the UK.
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