A lively and complex debate over whether obesity is a disease or instead a risk factor for conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease has been rumbling on. The argument – which doesn’t look to be resolved anytime soon – has implications for those seeking to solve the very real health implications of obesity on individuals and society, and for those seeking to tackle fat shaming and stigma.

So who decides what is a disease anyway? Infections are easier to call – who could deny that malaria is a disease – but non-communicable diseases are a different matter entirely. Osteoporosis used to be seen as a product of old age, now it’s considered a disease. Sometimes risk factors, such as high blood pressure, become diseases in their own right. And definitions can vary too. High blood pressure used to be anything over 140/90 but in 2017 the US changed its threshold to 120/80, meaning more people were suddenly more likely to suffer from it. Changing definitions have also brought the actions of pharmaceutical companies into question, by those who say we are over-medicalised, and shone a light on society itself – where perceived “sins” of the past were wrongly classified as mental health disorders.

Red meat is not only bad for the environment, it is also bad for our health. A new study sheds some light on why that may be. About 3m years ago, our ancestors gained a genetic mutation that inactivated a gene called CMAH. Chimps and other animals don’t have this mutated gene, so they can eat fatty foods and laze about with far fewer ill effects. There are numerous evolutionary quirks found in the animal kingdom that protect against common diseases. And by studying some of these, like cancer-free naked mole rats and diabetes-free blind cavefish, we might learn how to prevent them in humans. That’s if we can ever get round to agreeing what a disease is.

Also this week we followed one climate change researcher’s quest to avoid flying from Southampton to Shanghai (two weeks by train), read what the law of the sea had to say about Iran and detaining foreign ships in transit, and how autistic people use psychological strategies to hide from society. And you may not have heard about the asteroid that buzzed past the Earth, and which we barely noticed in time.

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