New report calls for obesity to be named as a chronic disease, costing economy $27B

Lisa Schaffer, with Obesity Canada, joined CTV Morning Live’s Kent Morrison to call for systemic changes on how people view obesity while recognizing it as a chronic disease.

 

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

 

Kent Morrison: One in three Canadians is living with obesity and a new report says not properly dealing with this costs more than $27 billion. Let's talk about that number. It is a big, big number. How did we arrive at that?

Lisa Schaffer: How we got there has a lot to do with the bias and stigma that we have been steeped in when it comes to thinking about people living with obesity or people living in bigger bodies. We really tried to flip the script with this report. It can be really heartbreaking to hear that one in three Canadians is living with overweight and obesity. But what's even more heartbreaking is how much is still misunderstood that this is a chronic disease. Obesity is a disease, it's not a decision. It's often still seen as a personal moral failing of one person. What we're learning is by not recognizing it as a disease and properly treating and giving access to the right kind of care mechanisms, we're impacting not only the health and well-being of Canadians, but we're really hitting that economic line, because we're not allowed to show up as our full selves and give back to our places of employment and live these really vibrant lives that we know is possible.

Kent: I want to key in on the chronic disease part. The WHO (World Health Organization) defines obesity as that. Societally though, as you mentioned, not as much. What changes need to be made here?

Lisa: Absolutely, it's not just the WHO. It's also our own Canadian Medical Association. What's heartbreaking is that no province or territory right now recognizes that, which is preventing us from having those right kinds of billing codes. Essentially, our science has moved faster than our systems are able to keep up. The evolution of these GLP-1 drugs have created such an amazing opportunity and really provide access to care in a different way, but our system isn't set up to support that. We need to have a large conversation, and that's what we’re hoping to do by releasing this report and bringing attention to the conversation. We need to have these conversations and start talking about obesity in a different way, and making sure that we're providing the care and access so it doesn't impact so many Canadians.

Kent: What would you say to people who are of the belief that obesity is a personal failing or a lack of personal responsibility?

Lisa: I think they need to challenge themselves, and we're inviting everybody to get curious and ask questions. It can be complicated, and it feels a bit nuanced, but at least if you're asking those kinds of questions or challenging what you believe, you're opening up the opportunity to think differently. That's what we need more than anything right now, is for people to truly recognize that what we've been told for so long, is incorrect. This is a disease that's impacted by our heredity, our genetics, by our environments, started in motion long before I was even a glimmer in my mom's eye. We need to relieve that pressure that we've put on people and move towards finding hope and opportunity, because there are a lot of solutions available out there. We need our employers, our policy makers, and our health care systems to be supportive, to really see this as a disease. I invite everybody to check out the report that we've released on the cost of inaction, because it does flip the script and move it from being the burden of somebody living with obesity, to the burden that we've created by not addressing it as a disease. I want to shout out Obesity Canada. We are the largest charity organization working towards obesity in Canada, and we've got a great campaign. If you go to obesitycanada.ca/donate, you can find information about the report and have an easy way to click and donate.