A charity organisation is calling on the government to step-up its tackling of obesity and 'fattism' in the UK.
Obesity reportedly costs the economy up to £3.7 billion and accounts for 18 million sick days every year - according to a Commons committee - and the Obesity Awareness and Solutions Trust (Toast) is pushing MPs to make the matter a higher priority.
Toast's chief executive, Louise Diss, said: "Anti-discrimination legislation is part of the solution, but it won't stop people getting fat. It's not just about a change in the law it's about discussing how to deal with it."
Moreover, it has been suggested by Dr Brian Iddon, Labour MP for Bolton south-east and a patron of Toast, that the government should consider making discrimination against people based on their weight illegal.
He commented: "This government has gone to great lengths in its efforts to abolish discrimination in several areas of social policy. Obviously, it will have to look next at discrimination against those who are overweight."
This move comes as the results of personneltoday's obesity awareness survey were revealed, showing 93 per cent of respondents feel there is a social stigma attached to obesity, while two-thirds said their organisation had not discussed the issue enough.
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