Obesity is 'finally' being accepted as the disease that it is, according to the HSE's top doctor for the condition.
Professor Donal O'Shea was speaking to Newstalk Breakfast after new guidelines were launched for the treatment of obesity in Ireland.
"What we're doing, for the first time in Europe actually, is developing a set of clinical guidelines for managing overweight and obesity as the disease that we now finally accept it is," he said.
"The goal is that individuals with overweight and/or obesity will be managed in a structured way in line with international best practice."
The guidelines follow science and move away from obesity being a 'lifestyle illness' or solely defined by weight.
"Obesity is a disease defined by health impairment and driven by complex biological, environmental and psychosocial factors," the Association for the Study of Obesity on the Island of Ireland has said.
Patients are set to benefit from a greater focus on a proven and broader range of medical treatments, and a drive to destigmatise the disease.
The new Adult Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) are an adaptation of guidelines from Obesity Canada, based on over 550,000 peer-reviewed evidence-informed articles.
Ireland is the first health system in Europe to adapt them for its own use.
'We understand obesity better'
Prof O’Shea said the new guidelines should begin to destigmatise the disease.
"The narrative heavily remains, including within the medical profession, that your body weight is a choice, it's a lifestyle choice," he said.
"We understand obesity better now; lifestyle is an important part of how people develop obesity... but genes, the environment, stress, sleep [are also factors].
"It's a complex, chronic and relapsing disease and you need to treat it like that.
"It is about changing that narrative and seeing it as a complex disease.
"For years we were talking just about obesity surgery, but there are drug treatments now becoming available that are going to help - and used appropriately, will prevent people developing hopefully severe and complex obesity.
"They need to be used in a structured way and in line with international best practice, like we do for any other disease," he added.
'Programme of education'
Chairperson of the Irish Coalition for People Living with Obesity (ICPO) Susie Birney said: "In the past people who live with obesity have been shut out of receiving quality healthcare because of the biased, flawed misconceptions about what drives obesity and how we can improve health.
"Obesity has incorrectly been seen as the result of poor personal decisions, including within the health system and among health professionals.
"Now that we have these evidence-informed guidelines agreed at all levels we need to collectively apply and implement them.
"We also need a programme of education among healthcare professionals, and the public, to eliminate bias and stigma about obesity," she added.
More than one million people in Ireland live with obesity.
