Obesity named most common form of discrimination

The World Obesity Forum have revealed the results of a survey about obesity and the stigma people face.

They found that weight was the most common form of discrimination in the UK – above race and gender – with 81% of adults polled believing people with obesity are viewed negatively because of their weight.

One in four admit they would hire a candidate with a healthy weight over an overweight candidate.

Dr Sue Kenneally is a Christian and a qualified nutritionist who helps people with weight management and runs Fit For Life Forever, a group with a ‘Bible-based approach to fitness’.

She told Premier: “I think that compared with gender and race and various other things that we’ve been accused of causing stigma about, obesity is being viewed as being something that is somebody’s fault. So, we look at someone who is bigger than we think they should be and we just think that they’ve done this to themselves and that it’s all their fault.

She said this stigma was something health professional are trying to change: “We understand it really isn’t, it’s a societal thing, it’s an environmental thing and as such what we’re trying to say today is that it’s really usually not people’s fault and therefore it shouldn’t be discriminated against in any way, in the same way that colour shouldn’t be and race and gender and anything else”.

At the same time, the levels of child obesity are…