express.co.uk/news/uk/54767...
So if overweight people are classed as disabled then people like us, with BI, should be classed as 'outstandingly disabled'... Especially if you have poor balance too :).
Being overweight is a choice. End of.
Do you think I chose to have a BI? I think not.
Well the article is from the express which is mainstream media which tend to fill you with absolute rubbish. That might be partly why I don't read or watch the news.
parsing the artical the salient point is this.
"However, Claire Dawson, employment lawyer at Slater & Gordon, declared the judgement "should encourage and support the full participation of obese people in the workplace".
She said: "Obesity in itself has not previously been classed as a disability in UK law.
"However, where an obese person has other health difficulties that can be associated with and potentially compounded by obesity, such as mobility difficulties, diabetes or depression, these may give rise to protection against disability discrimination at work.
"The European Court's decision does not change that position radically"
if someones mobility/health is effected, even if it's something they have directly/or indirectly caused, just being Obese by NHS guildlines will not cut it. in other words a man being 16 stone which for 6footer, its once you get into 25stone mark and behond that mobility/health really suffers though sometimes not as is the way with the world.
And closer to home, strokes have increased risks with heavy drinking/obesity/smoking/diet etc, and for folks like myself with traumatic Brain injoury. the cause is in all probability mine alone, I suspect the same is for plenty others.
Hi Matt
I'm not sure obesity is always a choice that people can have control over. Leaving aside metabolism problems etc, there is a strong connection between psychological problems/depression and weight gain.
I think in some cases obesity could be classed as a hidden disability, as in the cause of the obesity is sometimes hidden. I think most people would like to be fit and well, but struggle with the motivation to sustain it.
I am not obese (yet!) but have gained 2 stone since my BI, due to quitting smoking, lack of exercise and comfort eating. I hate the way I look now, but am struggling immensely to improve it. I lack the energy and the motivation.
I wouldn't want to see any one handed a disability card unnecessarily, but I also wouldn't like to see any one penalised due to disability or obesity. So if the purpose of this article is to propose making adjustments so that obese people are able to work, then I think it's a good thing.
Snap Hedgehog. I also gave up the weed whilst incarcerated during/after my bi after a lifetime of smoking. And I too have put on 2 stone but, as I've always been considered skinny, I'm apparently now 'more normal'. But I hate it and have had to replace my whole wardrobe !
Surely though, this is a metabolism issue as I'm not eating more and I've maintained a constant weight since the initial gain.
But on the subject of obesity it's clear to me that when manufacturers can be allowed to continue marketing their poisonous, sugary pseudo-American crap they are as culpable in creating unhealthy human beings as drug dealers who push other types of addictive substances.
We have many agencies helping people off illegal drugs and rightly so, but whilst 'pushers' of both illegal substances AND legal junk food are allowed to flourish, there will remain the problem of addiction for both. Druggies will continue to stay thin, whilst the junk eaters keep getting fatter.
And with the pathetic excuse for regulation of the food Industry, obesity is here to stay with the pressure on the individual to opt in or out of poor eating habits.
But labelling obesity as disability . . . . . . . . all sounds hair-brained to me.
Hardest thing I have ever done and that was with a 3 week head start of being unconscious. I was getting one of the nice nurses to charge my e-cig while I was still on HDU - awful or what! 
I lost over a stone while I was in a coma, so I was a bit under weight too, but made up for it now, gained the lost one with a BOGOF offer attached 
I am eating more partly 'cos I am craving the old cigs, but also boredom, and memory - sometimes I forget to eat at all and other times i eat repeatedly!
Also 'cos I am still struggling with tiredness and weakness, I am not doing much physically. I used to be on the go all the time and i think that has made a big difference.
Sigh ......
IT MAKES ME A BIT CROSS
MY BI IS AN ABI, EITHER A RUPTURED ANEURYSM OR A BURST AVM. NEUROS AREN'T SURE THE DAMAGE THE BLEED LEFT WAS A HOLE WITH AN INCONCLUSIVE CAUSE. THEY ARE TENDING TOWARDS AVM.
I DID NOTHING TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN.
WHILST I APPRECIATE THAT THERE CAN BE MEDICAL REASONS FOR OBESITY WHERE THE OBESITY IS SELF IMPOSED I HAVE NO SYMPATHY FOR THE OBESE PERSON. WHY SHOULD WE MAKE ALLOWANCES FOR THEIR HEALTH PROBLEMS?
THERE DOESN'T SEEM TO BE AS MUCH TOLERANCE AT WORK FOR BI AS THERE IS FOR OBESITY CERTAINLY IN MY CASE WHEN I COULD STILL WORK.
I agree, I have no sympathy for the obese people either.
There are people with medical conditions that cause obesity and I suppose that is not exactly a choice but I do think that a change in diet is defintely needed, add a lot more fibre to your diet.
I'm not a stick but I used to think I ate reasonably well, how wrong I was. Since September I have changed my diet, I intake more fibre now, fruit and nuts. I feel like I have lost pounds of weight. That isn't lots of weight but it has only been a few months.
All these foods that contain refined sugar in it, processed foods are the worst.
All you've got to do is look at the overweight people around you. UK is nearly as bad as America. I know there are many more people in the US than UK, but still.
Hi Matt,
While to a certain extent I sympathise withyour view, my own problem being a tumour over which I have no control, although who can say if it was because of smoking (self and passive), my exposure to asbestos, toxic paint fumes, weld fumes, bangs to head.
At one time I ran my own business and employed a woman as receptionist and she was morbidly obese, her chair had to be re-inforced and there were times I had to speek to her about body odour (in private and confidential ). She proovedvto be avgood and loyal worker, more so because I was the first to 'give her a chance' for many years.
I would not of said that she was disabled but as much a victim of predjudice as anyone that is 'different to the norm'. Her obesity was due to deppression and then the vicious circle, weight gain=rejection=depression=comfort eating.
No predjudice shoul be allowed, what ever the cicumstance.
However when my Father had a heart condition he was a smoker and had to be a non smoker for 2 years before the NHS would concider surgery. So predjudice is allowedbfor other self inflicted illness.
All cases should be assesed on their individul merit i.e. lazy poor diet choice or side effect of othrr coditions (some meds can cause weght gain).
Basicaly I'm a fence sitter.
I know what you mean, fence sitting. I do see some things both ways but I definitely dont agree with the above article.
Matt I think one of us is misunderstanding the article.
I read it as helping obese people to continue to work. So if I am correct (which I may not be, and please feel free anyone to point it out if I am misreading it ) and you disagree with the article, are you therefore saying the country should pay to support obese people by giving them benefits and declaring them unfit to work?
Surely it is better for all concerned to make reasonable adjustments to enable obese people the dignity of working and providing for them selves?
Obviously there shouldn't be discrimination against any disability, BI or otherwise. Every person deserves to be treated with dignity and have their needs met as much as is reasonably possible.
I read most of the article but I disagree withe EU declaring obesity as a disability. I don't t think it is.
I know some probably couldn't help because of medication or other reasons but a lot of obesity is caused by foods we eat. There is so much refined sugar added to foods these days and that would be the main culprit. Refined sugar is classed as a poison.
ok thanks for explaining your view point. I agree with refined sugar and foods we eat etc. But depression can cause us to crave sweet things, alcohol, drugs etc as they all cause serotonin release. Serotonin is the happy hormone, so it's a bit of a catch 22 really.
Also the definition of disability - is something that dis ables us, in other words something that makes certain things difficult or impossible for us to do. So in my opinion being obese fits into that definition.
I respect your opinion Matt, but I think we need to agree to disagree on this 
Did you see my post to iforget? I have Rudolph slippers 
I agree with you on the disability decision. In the days where I was a right hermit, I always used to say that everybody on planet Earth was disabled because we aren't all able to do the same sorts of things. There is seeing disability like that to make you feel better of yourself and then there is the EU doing near enough the same thing only this opinion is put on everybody, disability or no disability, whether they like it or not and I think it is very wrong.
Like you say though, agree to disagree :).
I am obese.
I am a size 16, I went up two stone since my accident which put me in the obese category. I buy clothes in normal shops, I can sit in normal seats, I am supposed to be the average uk woman's size. My obesity does not make me disabled.
My mother was massively super morbidly obese. It affected everything she did. Lymph odeoema and myx odeama, steroid treatments for cancer, no thyroid function, ruptured tendons ligaments in knee, no way of getting around, bed bound for months and then depressed due to her symptoms.
Very disabled as a consequence of illness and treatments. Now on the way up and only morbidly obese and size 24 which you can buy in most shops ( normalising bigger people) but joints are shot. It's so hard because when you see folk you don't know their story. I guess we will be trying to decide who is deserving of the disability title that actually I would rather not have.
Hi,
I can't think of anybody here that want to be 'labeled' disabled. Any sort of seperation from the 'Norm' is to my mind wrong. however in the real world it is the only way we can get the support and recognition of the daily diffulcties we face.
Just a thought!
My name is Nick and I'm an alcoholic...
Easy to upset
