Episode description

Over the past 50 years, worldwide obesity rates have tripled, and now headlines increasingly shout of a public health crisis, even an obesity epidemic. Tom Sutcliffe explores the consequences of using such negative and emotional language to describe weight and the increasing rates of fat phobia in society. He looks at the health issues and the so-called ‘miracle drugs’ that suppress appetite, and where genetics and diet meet.

He’s joined by Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow and recently appointed as the UK Government’s Obesity Mission Chair, the body-positive activist Stephanie Yeboah who’s the author of Fattily Ever After, and the businessman Henry Dimbleby whose book Ravenous reveals the mechanisms behind our food systems.

Producer: Katy Hickman