Obesity is a disease. But we continue to treat people living with obesity like it’s their fault. We wouldn’t blame our friends, family, and neighbors if they were living with a mental illness or suffering from cancer. And we need to stop blaming people living with obesity.
Obesity is due to complex interactions between genes, development, and the environment and has many different causes.
Obesity puts millions of Americans at greater risk for life-threatening illnesses like cancer, heart disease, and COVID-19. A single solution won’t work for millions of people — we have to stop pretending it will.
It’s time to work across sectors and industries to meet this challenge. It’s time to focus on what individuals need to secure better health. It’s time to interrupt the conversation and confront the disease of obesity together.