14 DAY TRIAL // Political correctness will be the end of us, British public health minister Anne Milton believes, at least as regards the obesity epidemic that is sweeping over the world and leading the NHS in the UK to financial ruin. One way to end it and make those who need help just how bad a state they’re in to speak the truth to their face. This way, banning terms like “overweight” and “obese” becomes necessary, as they should be replaced with “fat,” Milton says, as cited by the Daily Mail.
Of course, such a direct approach can lead to traumas that one may not even estimate, experts believe. However, Milton is positive that only having the truth spoken to their face will make people who have weight issues see that they’re putting their life in danger and, at the same time, forcing others (namely, taxpayers) to pay for them. The minister is convinced that one may be more easily talked into losing weight if their condition is not sugarcoated with the help of terms like “obese” and “overweight.”
“If I look in the mirror and think I am obese I think I am less worried than if I think I am fat,” Milton says, speaking strictly in a personal capacity. She also believes that staff in the NHS are afraid to use the term fat when dealing with weight-challenged patients for a range of reasons. What they should bear in mind, though, is that losing weight eventually boils down to the patient and not them. “At the end of the day you cannot do it for them. People have to have the information,” Milton adds.
Professor Lindsey Davies of the Faculty of Public Health disagrees, saying the very term “obese” was introduced to make patients see their extra pounds in a different perspective. “Obesity is something that happens to people rather than something they are. The language you use all depends on the relationship you have with a patient. I would probably be more likely to say something like ‘can we talk about your weight’ rather than obesity, but that is a judgment you make patient by patient,” Davies says.
Harry MacMillan, chief executive of healthy living charity Mend, also sees using the term “fat” instead of “overweight” as a very bad idea. His philosophy is the contrary of what Milton believes, saying he usually talks to his patients in very positive terms (“above a healthy weight” for “overweight”) to motivate them to change their lifestyle and lose weight.
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