WIDLIMS podcast ep #7 – Weight stigma and obesity: what is known vs what is done – Dr Stuart Flint, Professor of the Psychology of Obesity

In this week's episode, I was delighted to talk to Dr Stuart Flint, an expert on weight stigma and obesity. This discussion was super interesting, and raised points I had not even considered myself. You can expect to hear us talk about...

• what weight stigma is and how it manifests
• whether weight stigma is justified to ‘tackle’ obesity – is obesity not a ‘problem’ after all?
• how language and attitudes when it comes to higher weight status differs to those in for example cancer
• what the science has shown (for years!) about approaches to managing health
• the UK government’s ‘wake-up call’ obesity strategy launched in July 2020

You can find out more about Dr Stuart Flint on his academic profile here, which also contains link to his published research. Follow his Twitter here.

This is one of my favourite episodes yet, because it covers such a range of topics and approaches. I first saw Dr Flint speak at a talk at my university in 2017, which I think was the first time I saw actual evidence and research presented to me, about how weight stigma presents and affects individuals. It is so incredibly engrained in society, and therefore also in medicine, in everything from how we talk to how we treat patients. I hope you listen and learn a thing or two!

Be sure to check out the resources I have linked below, they are some excellent reading.

As always, chat to me about what you liked or did not quite like as much, the best way to reach me is via @widlims on Instagram or Twitter, but also feel free to comment on this post below!

Mentioned in the episode

Covid-19 and obesity – a response by Flint and Tahrani

Dr Flint’s Lancet article on comparison between obesity/cancer attitudes and language use ‘The NHS long-term plan: a comparison of the narrative used for cancer and obesity’

About the ASK study ‘Knowledge gaps and weight stigma shape attitudes toward obesity’, paper in the Lancet here

The 2007 Foresight report may be found in full here, or a shorter summary here.

The UK Government’s new strategy (released 27 July 2020) may be found here, with the main points and changes summarised here

Rebecca Puhl and her research at the UCONN Rudd centre – find some of her talks here to get started!

Further reading

I would highly recommend this paper as a great summary or introduction for anyone new to the topic. If you only have time or energy to look at one piece of research just now, make it this one: Joint international consensus statement for ending stigma of obesity published in Nature Medicine, available here or via https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0803-x

Guardian article ‘New UK obesity plan fails to address underlying problems’ https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/27/new-uk-obesity-plan-fails-to-address-underlying-problems

BEAT (eating disorder charity) statement on the eating disorder inducing nature of the new strategy. https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/news/anti-obesity-proposals-slammed

Weight stigma and morals – interesting research on internalisation of weight bias here