New Report & Podcast: Obesity & Trauma

23rd March 2022

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650 million people worldwide have obesity with 39 million being children under the age of five (source). 

Obesity now has a global presence, with a “substantial rise in most countries”, as a result obesity is now classified as a pandemic with numbers set to rise unless we learn to tackle the problem (source). 

To solve a problem, it first must be understood and defined accurately, at the moment this does not seem to be the case when it comes to obesity.

• Firstly, due to having an observable phenotype, it is often labelled and defined as a weight problem.

• Secondly, this definition leads institutions and healthcare organisations to only concentrate on food and exercise rather than other systemic ecological factors such as exposure to pollutants and trauma.

• Finally, this gross simplification leads to a cultural framing of obesity as a personal lifestyle choice, which in turn creates a culture of stigma rather than healing.  

This report will take an ecological approach, focusing on the bidirectional pathway between trauma and obesity to highlight the disparity between scientific evidence and communication around obesity, as well as the psychosocial factors that contribute to, and maintain, this disparity. This is to ensure health organisations and policies support a holistic and equitable prevention strategy for obesity.