Is Obesity a Disease?

Redefined: Sometimes But Not Always Says 56-Doctor Panel

- 

» Won't be solely defined by BMI under new plan for diagnosis by global experts.

Do people with obesity have an illness? A panel of global health experts looking at this controversial question announced Wednesday that the definition of obesity should be split into two categories – and diagnosed using more accurate measurements.

The recommendations hoped to move past the blame and discrimination that often revolve around obesity, which is estimated to affect more than one billion people worldwide.

“The idea of obesity as a disease is at the centre of one of the most controversial and polarising debates in modern medicine,” said a paper by the 56-expert commission in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal.