There are many ways to support people who have overweight/obesity. Medical professionals can educate themselves both on the proper treatments for the disease of obesity and on proper ways to treat their patients with respect and dignity. In society, we can not only raise awareness of both obesity as a disease but also bring to light the weight stigma and discrimination people face. We can also support policies that promote healthy environments, such as building more green spaces in cities or creating healthy food programs at schools.
Act!
To concretize, we have listed what you as an individual can do:
- Read about obesity and obesity. Increase your own knowledge about overweight and obesity and spread your knowledge further!
- If you hear someone comment on someone's body size in a negative way, question that comment.
- We all have different bodies and body size does not determine how good health one has or how one feels. If you see stigmatizing images in the media, email the sender and ask why they made that image choice and suggest that they can instead choose an image that shows us in a positive context.
-
Do you watch TV with family or friends and notice that they pull "fat jokes", ie joke about people who live with a larger body. Pay attention to it and tell them that it is not okay to devalue someone because of their body size.