Turkey is publicly weighing citizens, urging those overweight to slim down under new health crackdown
In a bid to combat rising obesity rates, Turkey has launched a nationwide health initiative that involves weighing citizens in public spaces and urging those found overweight to slim down, reported the Daily Mail.
The campaign, which began on May 10, aims to evaluate the body mass index (BMI) of 10 million people, roughly one in eight citizens, by July 10. Health workers equipped with weighing scales and tape measures have been stationed across all 81 provinces, carrying out spontaneous BMI checks in town squares, malls, bus stations, and even outside football stadiums.
At a recent nursing conference, Turkey's Minister of Health, Kemal Memişoğlu, highlighted the urgency of the issue, according to the outlet. 'Fifty percent of our society is overweight,' he stated. 'Being overweight means being sick; it means we will get sick in the future. Our young children are overweight; their body resistance is high and that's why they don't get sick, but when they start getting older, that weight will turn into joint and heart diseases.'
Ironically, Memişoğlu himself was measured by health officials in Ankara and told he was 'above normal weight.'
'Which dietitian should I go to?' he reportedly asked. In a later post, he added, 'Turns out I'm a little over. It's up to me now, I'll be walking every day.'
The campaign, run under the slogan 'know your weight, live healthy,' channels individuals with a BMI over 25 to state-run Family Health and Healthy Life Centres for free dietary counseling and follow-ups.
However, not everyone is on board with the public nature of the initiative.
Psychiatrist and academic Gökben Hızlı Sayar shared an encounter online, saying, 'I got caught in a fat checkpoint in Üsküdar Square. Luckily, they scolded me a little and let me go. Like drivers warning of speed traps, I tipped off three other chubby people heading that way. Solidarity, my fellow fat comrades!'
Memişoğlu acknowledged the jokes but stressed the gravity of the situation:
'Dear young people, I read what you write on social media. You are very entertaining, but the issue of being overweight is serious.'
Images from across the country show citizens stepping onto weighing scales in open areas as health staff measure height and calculate BMI.
While some welcome the effort, others have criticised it as invasive and insensitive. Many Turks argue that the government is ignoring economic hardships—like rising food prices and stagnant wages—that limit access to healthy diets.
Also read: 'General population is cooked': Eerily realistic videos of AI reporters created using Google Veo 3 raise red flags
According to 2023 World Health Organisation data, about 30% of the Turkish population is obese.
Dr. Arya Sharma, an obesity researcher at the University of Alberta, told Live Science that BMI is helpful for assessing population trends but has limitations for individuals.
'Many professional athletes qualify as overweight or obese based solely on their BMI. But they have much more muscle mass, which weighs proportionally more than fat.'
A recent report from the Lancet Commission echoed these concerns, stating that obesity diagnoses should be based not just on BMI but also on health conditions directly caused by excess body weight, like type 2 diabetes.
Under the BMI system, a score under 18.5 is considered underweight, 25–29.9 is overweight, and over 30 qualifies as obese.
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