There is evidence that obesity was present, (although rare) during Biblical times (around 3500 years ago)
5, and while today we understand that obesity is associated with elevated rates of diabetes, cardiovascular and metabolic disease and some musculoskeletal disorders and cancers
6,
7, an appreciation of the dangers of obesity only began to be understood around 500 BCE. At this time, the Indian physician, surgeon and teacher Sushruta described the disease ‘Madhu‐meha’, which caused ‘a sweet taste and smell like that of honey’ in patients. Sushruta wrote, somewhat prophetically, that ‘Madhu‐meha’ was associated with either a congenital defect, whereby patients would be emaciated, suffer a dryness of the body, excess thirst and loss of appetite, or with an ‘injudicious’ diet, whereby symptoms would include ‘obesity, voracity, gloss of the body and increased soporific tendency’
8, known today as type 1 and type 2 diabetes, respectively.
The Ancient Greeks were aware of obesity as a health risk, causing for instance irregular menses and infertility in women
4. Greek physician and teacher Hippocrates (460–377 BCE) based the workings of the human body on the four internal humours
9, noting that premature death was more common in people who were fat than lean. He wrote, ‘it is very injurious to health to take in more food than the constitution will bear, when, at the same time, one uses no exercise to carry off this excess’
9. The prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher Galen (129–200 CE) made reference to the polysarkos (morbidly obese) person, a description derived from poly (much) and sarka (flesh). A polysarkos ‘cannot walk without sweating, cannot reach when sitting at the table because of the mass of his stomach, cannot breathe easily, cannot give birth, cannot clean himself’
10.
