4 March World Obesity Day Silent Danger: Obesity Panel
12.03.2025

Atılım University Faculty of Business Administration, Department of Business Administration Student Club Atılım Business Club organised a panel on the topic "Silent Danger : Obesity". The panel discussed the individual and social effects of obesity in the light of scientific data.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Badegül Sarıkaya stated that obesity is a chronic and complex disease defined by excessive fat accumulation, which can have a negative impact on health. She stressed that WHO considers obesity to be one of the most important health problems of the 21st century, as the annual number of obesity-related deaths is equivalent to the total number of deaths in the 2019 pandemic. The fact that global adult obesity has more than doubled and adolescent obesity has quadrupled since 1990 points to a major global health crisis, she said.

In his speech, Prof. Dr. İlhan Yetkin stated that obesity is not only a matter of appearance, but can also cause premature death, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, joint disease, skin disease and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, stressing that this situation is quite risky.

Prof Dr Nevin Şanlıer said that many people today are trying to lose weight or maintain their body weight. However, she stressed that popular diets based on quick weight loss methods may be preferred over treatments supported by scientific data and recommended by health professionals. She said that most of the wrong weight loss programmes contain low energy and therefore cause rapid weight loss. However, the risk of rapidly regaining the lost weight should not be forgotten and a healthy, adequate and balanced diet should focus on maintaining the current body weight.

Asst. Prof. Dr. İrem Çağla ÖZEL; In her presentation entitled 'Social Perspective on Obesity', she stated that obesity is not only an individual disease but also a public health problem that poses a great social and economic threat. She noted that obesity imposes high costs on the health care system and leads to loss of work and productivity. She stressed that social stigma and discrimination isolate people with obesity. She said that solutions to obesity should be addressed with a multidisciplinary approach and integrated into public health strategies, rather than seeing this situation as an individual problem.