Section 5: Media Epidemics
Obesity
Contents:
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Obesity is defined by the WHO as a disease in which “excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that health may be adversely affected”. In other words obesity is a condition where someone has become ill because of the percentage of their body which is fat.
Defining obesity is not easy, and obesity is a contested term. This is because, whilst for some diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, there may be a statistical correlation with body fat, we cannot assume that therefore everyone with a high percentage of body fat will suffer with that illness.
This is because the exact causal nature of this relationship is often not known, and in many cases, these illnesses appear to be related to low levels of activity (i.e. not doing much exercise) rather than body fat.
Whilst there is some correlation between activity levels and percentage body fat, it is perfectly possible to have low body fat and be inactive and have high body fat and be active. Think about the people you know: I'm sure you can think of someone who does no exercise and yet has low body fat, and vice versa.
However, if we take the WHO definition literally, this problem wouldn't occur as people would only be classed as obese if their health is adversely affected (i.e. if they are ill as a result of their body fat). This would mean that those who have a high proportion of body fat but are healthy wouldn't be classified as obese.
But, this is where there is a problem in the way obesity is defined. The most common way of classifying someone as obese is to use their body mass index (BMI). BMI is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by the square of the height in meters:
BMI = kg/m 2
So, if someone weighs 65 kg and is 1.7 m tall, their BMI would be:
65/1.72 which is 65/2.89 = 22.5
BMI is then used to classify people in the following categories:
- Underweight: <18.5
- Normal weight 18.5-24.99
- Overweight: >25
- Obese: >30
However, there are several problems with using BMI like this:
- As described above, this is based on body mass rather than on activity levels and the associated links with ill health may be more to do with being inactive.
- This classification of people as obese does not take into account their health status, i.e. they may have a BMI of over 30 (obese) but be healthy, and someone could have a BMI of under 18.5 (underweight) but be unhealthy.
- BMI is not actually a measure of percentage body fat, but of body mass. As muscle weighs more than fat, someone who has a high percentage of muscle would be classed as obese. For example, Arnold Swarzeneggar would have a BMI which would classify him as obese.
- Everyone's body shape is different. Some people may have long legs, so are tall, and so their BMI would appear lower than someone who had the same percentage body fat but had short legs.
- There are no separate scales for people with different body shapes. Health risks associated with body fat are dependant on where that fat is stored (e.g. abdominal body fat is more of an indicator of ill health). BMI does not take this into account.
- The BMI scales are general. Women naturally store more fat than men (hips, breasts etc.), yet both men and women are judged by the same measure.
There are even more problems in classifying children and young people as obese or overweight as their bodies are constantly changing.
Often BMI scales are used to classify people according to their age, but this is difficult because everyone develops at different times. This means that what may have in the past been referred to as ‘puppy fat', as the fat is associated with the developmental stage of the child, will now classify that child as obese.
Researchers are constantly trying to find better ways of classifying people according to percentage body fat, but no adequate method has yet been found. This is partly because many of these problems are problems in classifying people into standard categories which don't take into account individual differences.
All this means that there are great problems in identifying individual people as obese, especially using BMI. However, in recent years there have been many reports covered in the media which state what percentage of the population is obese.
These reports tend to use BMI and don't take into account the problems with this measure outlined above. This way of classifying people as obese is clearly different from the WHO definition as someone could be classified as obese even if their health is not affected by their body fat. If this were taken into account, only a fraction of those classed as obese using only BMI would still be considered obese.
On this page, there is an outline of the way in which obesity has been covered in the media, and the possible impacts of this coverage. While obesity is reported as being a global problem, and some of the issues discussed below apply worldwide, this page focuses on the UK as a case study.
There have been several high profile government reports recently into the state of the nation's health, many of which have mentioned obesity and childhood obesity. This has often made headline news, as newspapers, TV and radio have reported the percentage of people who are obese, the cost this has on the health service and the problems which have caused this obesity. The government often refers to the rise in prevalence of obesity as an epidemic and so do media reports. Click on the picture on the left to see some of these headlines.
As well as reporting the percentages of people who are overweight and obese, this reporting often attempts to explain the causes of obesity. Often this explanation is simple: people are eating too much fatty food and not doing enough exercise. In addition to this, there is often an attempt to explain why this is happening and to find someone to blame: for example, parents for not giving children the right food, or advertising companies for advertising high fat and sugary food to children.
As well as news reporting, there have also been several documentaries about obesity, and obesity has become a focus for entertainment. Programmes such as the BBC's Fat Nation, and ITV's Fit Club, are entertainment programmes based on watching people who are considered obese or overweight as they attempt to lose weight.
Obesity has also entered the film world. Tthe recent film ‘Super-size me' tells of the dangers of eating nothing but McDonalds, and its discussion is focussed on the dangers of being overweight and obese.
So are the media right to term obesity an epidemic? Well, it depends on how an epidemic is defined. If we take the definition used at the beginning of this web site (see Basics page) an epidemic is a disease which can be passed from person to person, increasing rapidly.
Using BMI as an indicator of obesity, there has certainly been a sharp increase in cases. However, obesity is not communicable. It is associated with lifestyle and possibly genetics, but isn't passed from person to person so in this way cannot be considered an epidemic.
So why do the media call obesity an epidemic? As outlined in the page on ‘media epidemics', epidemic is a powerful word. Obesity is referred to as an epidemic to make it sound a serious problem.
In the pages on impacts of media coverage of epidemics, we saw how this coverage can have both positive and negative impacts. In this section, we will look at the impacts of the coverage of obesity in the media.
Positive impacts
The main positive impacts of the media coverage of obesity are profile raising. For some people, obesity, and associated problems of malnutrition (i.e. not getting the right nutrients from food) may be a result of low income, meaning they cannot afford to buy the variety of foods needed for a balanced diet.
By raising the profile of obesity, and highlighting these problems, pressure has been put on shops to reduce the price of what is considered healthy food, and schemes such as the free fruit in schools scheme have been developed to provide access to food to those who may not be able to afford it.
Negative impacts
Despite these positive impacts, there are many more negative impacts with the way in which obesity has been reported in the media.
Creating prejudice
In the UK (as in many other countries), being beautiful is often linked to being thin, and there is great pressure put on getting the ideal (thin) body. Because of this, people who are considered overweight or fat are often stigmatised. They are seen as being out of control of their bodies, irresponsible and are often bullied.
There is a massive industry associated with dieting in the UK , and in order to sell the latest diet, this industry encourages people to feel that fat is bad. This is shown in the pictures which accompany reports on obesity. Often these show pictures of people's middles with fat spilling over waist bands. Often these people would not be classed as obese even using BMI scales, but the focus is on the fat. Their faces aren't shown as they are not considered to be people, all that is important about them is the fat.
The way in which the media reports on obesity may actually reinforce this prejudice against people who are considered fat. It may do this in the following ways:
- Obesity is often discussed as being a result of people being lazy and not controlling what they eat. This reinforces the idea that fat is bad.
- Because of this, obesity is often assumed to be the fault of the person who is obese (or their parents). No consideration is given to the fact that people are all shapes and sizes.
- Media reports often state how much money obesity is costing the health service. As we have seen above, having a BMI of over 30 does not necessarily mean you will be ill, yet these figures assume this. Despite the fact that there is no adequate way of calculating this, this is reported as fact. As a result of this, people who are overweight or obese are made to feel guilty as they are costing the government money.
The reporting of obesity generalises about people. It sends out the message that everyone is unhealthy and needs to lose weight. This produces a moral panic about fat, fuelling the idea that thin is good and fat is bad. By classing people as obese or not obese, and talking about how bad fat is, thin is assumed to be good. There is no consideration of the dangers of being underweight.
This may mean that people are driven to try crash diets, which are often incredibly unhealthy and may result in illness.
