Obesity becoming normalised in society

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Unfortunately, the number of people who are overweight and obese continues to increase, with the latest figures showing that approximately two-thirds of people in the UK are overweight and approximately a quarter are considered to be obese. Every year more people will become heavier than their ‘healthy’ weight and the gap between the ‘healthy’ weight and the average weight continues to grow wider. Apart from all the issues associated with being overweight, another factor that contributes to people being overweight is that it becomes more ‘normal’ and is seen more commonly. This has an impact because many will see being overweight as nothing unusual, and as a consequence they will often see it as less of an issue.

Obesity becoming normalised in society

 There is no question that if you go out into any town centre on any day of the week you will see far more ‘overweight’ and ‘obese’ people than you would have done say twenty years ago. If more and more people are overweight then it becomes more accepted in society and effectively normalised, and there is little incentive to manage your weight and make the effort to be at a healthy weight. And as long as the rates continue to grow and more people are overweight then the likelihood is that this will only help to increase these rates further.

Of course, there are many factors as to why people are overweight and in order to try and reduce these numbers and stop the growing trend there needs to be plenty of help. However, in a society where people naturally compare themselves to others it becomes even harder to reduce rates when so many people are visibly overweight. People are more likely to make an effort and reduce their weight if they are encouraged, motivated, incentivised and educated on the wide range of health benefits, but if they see all around them a growing trend of people being overweight and obesity rates growing then it becomes much harder.