166: The Alleged “Cost” of Fatness on Society

When we see headlines about the cost of fatness on society and what a terrible burden that is - are those numbers real? How do they come up with that number? We are looking at the supposed burden of fat people in Canada today and their $7.1 billion cost and working out how they got to that figure and how much of that number can be attributable to anti-fat bias and the harms living in a society dedicated to fat hate. TW: 3 mentions of O Word by mistake and anti-fat fuckery.

Episode show notes: http://www.fiercefatty.com/166

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The costs of obesity in Canada have been estimated at $4.6–$7.1 billion annually: https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/migration/phac-aspc/hp-ps/hl-mvs/oic-oac/assets/pdf/oic-oac-eng.pdf

Is there more to the equation? Weight bias and the costs of obesity: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6964496/

Letter to the Editor: Response to Singh et al. (2018). Is there more to the equation? Weight bias and the costs of obesity. Canadian Journal of Public Health: https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-019-00223-2

New “ob*sity” treatments and technology to save the NHS billions: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-obesity-treatments-and-technology-to-save-the-nhs-billions#:~:text=Obesity%20costs%20the%20NHS%20a,spent%20on%20key%20frontline%20services.