Doctors should tell people they are fat, not obese, in a bid to make them lose weight, according to the public health minister.
Anne Milton claimed the NHS should not be using the term "obese" as it does not have the same emotional impact on overweight people.
She told the BBC that it was important for people to take responsibility for their own lifestyles.
"At the end of the day, you cannot do it for them," Ms Milton said. "People have to have the information."
However, Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum was quoted by the Guardian as saying: "We had this debate 18 months ago when the Department of Health said we should call people overweight...Obesity is a wake-up call to do something about weight. It's not just being fat."
Yesterday (July 28th), the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence issued advice for pregnant women struggling with their weight during pregnancy.
It highlighted the risks obesity posed to women and their foetus.
Search our research reports to gain an insight in to the latest management issues.
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Comments
Sure, give it to people straight, but you also have to make sure they have the info required to make the changes they need.
I agree with the minister, my personal position on Political Correctness is that when you use words like obese it dilutes the message. It's a bit like using jargon and technical terms in reports it can confuse.
I notice it when my wife, who is a teacher, writes school reports they are couched in language which does not tell the parent the true story.
Rather than worry about the vocabulary, why not focus much more on practical solutions to their predicament. That would strike me as the most obvious thing to give attention to, not semantics.
Paul
Overweight people are not stupid. They know what obese means. No matter what word is used , the impact of what it means should be made clear to them, preferably in an understanding manner rather than in a way that treats you as it you are stupid or have no will power. There are often deep psychological reasons behind someone's bad eating habits and treating them poorly will simply reinforce this and have the opposite affect to the desired outcome. Doctor's suggesting you should stop eating chips and cakes and eat a carrot instead is not helpful either, so the informaiton given has to show people how to make gradual and permanent changes and sometimes they need as much support as someone with anorexia or who is trying to give up smoking. I would suggest the support offered and not the semantics is what is letting these people down.