An “unfortunate” and “very serious” challenge, which puts “the mental health of the victims” at risk. The doctors of the Italian Society of Obesity and Metabolic Diseases Surgery (Sicob) strongly condemn the social challenge called ‘Boiler summer cup’, scheduled (despite the protests) for tomorrow 21 June, and which provides for the assignment of a score to the participants for various phases of ‘boarding’ of overweight girls, documented with photos and videos – taken without the victim’s knowledge – with maximum points if the attempt ends up in bed. An initiative based on the stigma against overweight and obese people that must be opposed in every way, remark the Sicob specialists, who will open their Congress in Cagliari on 23 June.
“In our work and in all our projects we fully involve the patient associations that fight at a social and political level to break down the stigma on obesity”, explains the president of the meeting Roberto Moroni, echoed by the president Sicob Marco Antonio Zappa who condemns all demonstrations, especially those targeting adolescents. “We strongly condemn – declares Zappa – phenomena such as that of the Boiler Summer Cup, which are increasingly widespread and which create a sense of enormous discomfort and marginalization in young people suffering from obesity. No we have always fought against these very serious attitudes which can have serious repercussions also on the mental health of our young people “.
The Sicob, he adds, “instead favors all educational programs that contrast and prevent them by involving professionals, institutions, companies, schools and families. This trend must be definitively stopped. Obesity is a disease to be prevented and treated, not by denigrate “.