"...obesity is usually seen as a moral failing."

Weight Bias Makes It More Difficult to Overcome Obesity

Negative assumptions about obese children are ‘very pervasive’ in the health care industry, experts said at the U.S. News Combating Childhood Obesity summit.

Stanford and her copanelist, Dr. Ihuoma Eneli, director of the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children's Hospital, agreed that obesity is usually seen as a moral failing. Too often, Eneli says, physicians don't understand that patients who are obese have a disease that needs medical intervention, and scolding patients exacerbates the problem.

Surveys show that two out of three health care providers "have very low expectations of their patients in managing their weight. That in itself is a bias," Eneli says. "We think it's all about will power. We think it's about self-control" while ignoring underlying issues like genetics, socioeconomic status and family dynamics.