Download
Gut instinct: Tackling obesity in lockdowns
CGTN
Europe;
11:08

Obesity rates may be rising across the globe – but the problem in the UK outstrips much of the rest of the world. Over 60 percent of the UK's population is overweight, and a quarter of British people are clinically obese.

Stuart Flint is a doctor, contributor to the all-party Parliamentary group on a Fit & Healthy Childhood and a director of the charity Obesity UK.

And, as he tells Stephen Cole, he's concerned that the pandemic lockdowns are only going to make the problem worse: "Our eating habits are changing… because of the different emotions we're experiencing in lockdown. Depression, anxiety, stress will impact people's weight status."

But the worst thing we can do, he says, is to stigmatize the obese: "We think stigma will lead to increased motivation to lose weight. But that's simply not the case when it comes to people living with obesity…. It's a chronic health condition, so we need chronic interventions."

 

CLICK: FOR MORE STORIES FROM THE AGENDA WITH STEPHEN COLE

Search Trends