Redefining Obesity?

This is a very interesting debate Holly Daze if a person is physically unable to do the job then they should not continue. Can he actually get down to floor level and back to interact with children.?

I am afraid I am inclined to think that food "addictions" etc, should not be allowed to be used as an excuse. There are very few conditions where compulsive eating is a feature of a diagnosable condition.

Very overweight people do manage to lose lots of weight. Addictions can be overcome.

To me though the question of how an addiction could be to blame in the now very large %tage of the population that are now overweight is very clouded.

How about a law putting food marketing adverts, portion sizes and the availability of ready meals back to where they were before this crisis took hold and the seeing what happens to the nations weight.
Not possible I know but it might provide interesting results.

Look what can be done to reduce or eliminate the progression of pre diabetes.
www.diabetes.co.uk/diet/newcastle-study-600-calorie-diet.html

If obesity prevents someone from doing tasks that a job requires, they clearly do not satisfy the job's requirements, so why should an employer employ them for that particular job?

Similarly, if a person gets a certain job before they become obese but then becomes unable to keep their side of the job contract, then hasn't the employer a right to dismiss them from that particular job? A contract is a contract is a contract. Works two ways.

Whilst I agree in general with what you say roses I don't agree with your point about medical help. I am not convinced that doctors do help very much with weight issues. They like to weigh you for anything these days - even if you go with a skin complaint. Presumably they have targets for this, with financial rewards, as with so many other checks. But what practical use is that? The standard response to asking for help re weight is to dish out a diet sheet. It's like giving a drug addict a sheet of instructions re medicating. It doesn't work.

Very few people went to gyms and did all the visible exercise we see every day around us in the fifties and sixties yet most had little trouble keeping slim. I am sure it's something to do with what is in our food - trans-fats, sweeteners etc. but also with the huge increase in car ownership. We walked everywhere when we were young as we had no cars and little money for fares. That must have helped.

Also, schools had proper PE and games lessons in their timetables which involved hard effort and proper workouts three or four periods a week. Thirdly, it was regarded as bad manners to eat in the street yet today people seem to graze non-stop. Maybe a return to three meals a day and no eating between meals might help with weight issues.

Demonising the overweight and obese does not encourage or help them and certainly does nothing to ascertain the reasons for it. It has to be several factors, not just eating too much and doing too little. Then only this week there was a press report stating that fitness is the most important thing and being overweight can actually provide protection in illness.

I wish there were easy answers but I fear not.

Would a wheelchair-bound person be given a job as a childminder in the first place? If a disability prevents one from doing certain things that a job requires to be done, it's not discrimination in the unfair sense. It is discrimination in the sense of distinguishing between a person who can physically and mentally do a job and a person who can't, which is what job interviews are for, isn't it?

I don't think Mr Kaltoft has any grounds for complaint, as he cannot do his job properly. However, I think his employers should have [maybe they did] give him many warnings that his weight was spiralling out of control, and that he may lose his job unless he did something about it.Obese people [unless it's a glandular thing] cannot be expected to be seen as victims, they must do something about their weight with help from doctors etc.Weight doesn't pile on overnight after all.The problem is that in the West, obesity has become commonplace, and instead of being accommodating [which kind of says it's ok to be fat] people have to take charge of their own bodies. Walk more, eat less.