Understanding obesity and weight regulation is very complex, yet everyone seems to have their own non-scientific advice to those living with obesity. The negative bias towards people living with obesity has fueled stigmatizing paternalism to advise patients to engage in better behaviours while ignoring the science. 

Understanding genetics and the brain has allowed for advances in medical intervention for those living with obesity. How will these new advances be received in a world built on obesity stigma and discrimination? Will these advances jeopardize the advances of respecting every body size? There is much to unpack in this scientific and social field of weight management.

This lecture will shed some light on these developments but may generate more questions than answers.  

Please contact Alumni Relations, if you require information in an alternate format, or if any other arrangements can make this event accessible to you.

Dr. Sean Wharton completed his doctorates in Pharmacy and Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is the medical director at the Wharton Medical Clinic, a community based internal medicine weight management and diabetes clinic. He is an assistant professor at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto and adjunct professor at McMaster University in Hamilton and York University in Toronto. He is also clinical staff at Hamilton Health Sciences. Dr. Wharton’s research focuses on bariatric medicine and type 2 diabetes. He is the co-lead author of the 2020 Canadian Obesity Guidelines, and has published many peer-reviewed articles in international medical journals.

Dr. Wharton is involved in activism to achieve health equity in Canada. He founded the Black Medical Students Association (BMSA) at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto in 2000. The BMSA is now a recognized mentorship organization across Canada.