The project, titled "The Impossible Gym," opened at the Norblin Factory venue and was created by pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly Polska.
Organizers cut the ribbon on "The Impossible Gym" obesity awareness project in Warsaw this week. Photo: Danuta Isler/Polish Radio
Through specially designed routes and tasks, visitors are invited to experience barriers that often remain invisible to people who do not struggle with obesity.
The installation, which runs until the end of May, also offers free body consultations.
Organizers say the project uses physical activity as a metaphor to encourage understanding and promote awareness of obesity as a medical condition.
Thursday marks European Obesity Day, an annual observance launched in 2010 to draw attention to rising obesity rates across the European Union.
Around 60 percent of adults in Poland are overweight or obese, according to health data.
"It is exactly the same disease and condition as hypertension or diabetes," said endocrinologist Alina Kuryłowicz (pictured below, third from left), a professor at the Warsaw Center of Postgraduate Medical Education (CMKP).
"It has biological causes and is not a matter of good or bad will," she added. "Just as no one chooses to have hypertension, no one chooses to be obese."
“Health begins in the mind,” say the medical specialists behind "The Impossible Gym" project as they seek to help people better understand obesity. Photo: Danuta Isler/Polish Radio
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Click on the audio player above to listen to a report by Danuta Isler.