The global obesity pandemic
combined with society's anti-fat bias is more
damaging to women than to men, an expert has
warned at an international conference.
"Being obese and female is as bad as it
gets," Berit Heitmann, a nutritional and
medical research advisor to the Danish government,
told a meeting of world obesity experts gathered
in Sydney.
Not only were obese women socially stigmatised
more than their male counterparts, but their
health suffered to a greater degree, delegates
at the 10th International Congress on Obesity
heard.
Heitmann said that although gender differences
in the obesity epidemic were narrowing, the
vicious circle of obesity and poverty still
had a greater impact on women.
Poverty was well known as both a contributor
to and result of obesity, a condition that
was five times more common among poor people
in the developed world, she said.
A recent Finnish study showed that obese
women faced more job discrimination and earned
less, not only compared to men, but also to
women of normal weight and obese men with
a similar education and job.
"Appearance and size seem related to
getting and keeping both job and salary,"
she said.
Prejudice began early in life for obese
females, with children as young as three shunning
their obese peers, Heitmann said.
Family, teachers and healthcare professionals
were also more biased against obese girls
and women than boys and men, she said.
"Obese women are deprived of friendships,
intimate relationships, social interactions,
education, income and respect," Heitmann
said.
In the realm of education, with fewer grants
and scholarships awarded to obese women, she
said.
In addition to social disadvantages, obese
women suffered more from diabetes, hypertension
and heart disease than men with the same body
mass index, Heitmann said.
"The risk of developing diabetes type
two for an obese man is about half that of
an obese woman," with similar figures
for hypertension, she said.
Paradoxically, while obesity appeared to
cause more disease in women, death rates were
similar among the sexes, she said.
Women's tendency to carry more fat on the
backside than on the stomach, where it was
more dangerous, may explain this, she said.
Research dedicated to alleviating the burden
of obesity on women's health included a study
showing women could achieve weight loss more
effectively when exercise was augmented by
a higher protein diet.
Professor Donald Layman, whose 2005 study
was published by the Journal of Nutrition,
reported that higher protein diets, when combined
with exercise, meant dieters tended to lose
fat rather than muscle.
Although Layman was invited to speak by
the lobby group Meat and Livestock Australia,
Manny Oakes of CSIRO -- Australia's government
body for scientific research -- called Layman's
results exciting.
The obesity conference, which is held every
four years, has drawn more than 2,000 academics
and health professionals to seek practical
ways of fighting the greatest single contributor
to chronic disease worldwide.
The World Health Organisation says more
than a billion people -- nearly one in six
of the world's population -- are overweight,
outnumbering the 800 million who are under-nourished.
