麻豆社

Is obesity a lifestyle choice or a disease ? Anne McElvoy and conflict resolution expert Louisa Weinstein work with oncologist Karol Sikora and campaigner Sarah Le Brocq to discuss their different ideas about obesity and how we view and treat it.

Across the UK, the numbers of those seriously overweight been steadily increasing, with the latest Health Survey for England reporting that 60% of the working age population (16-64-years-old) are now classed as overweight or obese.

Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are being used to help people lose weight but are they too expensive to fund on the NHS for something which many see as a self inflicted problem. At the same time new research show some people are genetically predisposed to gaining weight which leads others to say that the matter should be seen as a disease.

Sarah Le Brocq who founded the organisation All About Obesity is campaigning for this classification but Professor Professor Karol Sikora an oncologist who has been director of the World health organisation cancer programme thinks this would be a mistake.

Presenter: Anne McElvoy
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson