Obesity Can Cost You
You don’t need to be a master of observation to recognize this country’s obsession with weight; obesity is constantly in the news, diet pills and supplements are everywhere, and fad diets, like Atkins and South Beach, run amuck. But maybe all our concern is justified, because according to Dr. Fuhrman the number one health problem in the United States is obesity.
In Eat to Live he points out that if this current trend continues by the year 2030 all adults in the United States will be obese. Well isn’t that a depressing glimpse into the future. Now, consider this recent article in The New York Times and you’ll see it could be a whole lot worse—for each and every one of us.
Reporter Damon Darlin takes a look at the individual cost of being heavy—and he’s not referring to the toll it can take on your health—Darlin is talking about the actual price tag for being overweight or obese. And the cost is a lot more than just a few bags of cookies. Take a look:
In Eat to Live he points out that if this current trend continues by the year 2030 all adults in the United States will be obese. Well isn’t that a depressing glimpse into the future. Now, consider this recent article in The New York Times and you’ll see it could be a whole lot worse—for each and every one of us.
Reporter Damon Darlin takes a look at the individual cost of being heavy—and he’s not referring to the toll it can take on your health—Darlin is talking about the actual price tag for being overweight or obese. And the cost is a lot more than just a few bags of cookies. Take a look:
Heavy people do not spend more than normal-size people on food, but their life insurance premiums are two to four times as large. They can expect higher medical expenses, and they tend to make less money and accumulate less wealth in their shortened lifetimes. They can have a harder time being hired, and then a harder time winning plum assignments and promotions…You don’t usually get this kind of perspective in the obesity discussion. Usually the overall cost obesity inflicts on the society gets all the press. So I was surprised to read how being overweight can directly effect a person’s ability to accumulate wealth. Now here’s the scary part. Couple Dr. Fuhrman’s prediction with Darlin’s investigation; does this mean by 2030 all Americans will be fat and broke?
…Complications from obesity, particularly diabetes, which afflicts 21 million Americans, push up the bill: $44,000 for a heart attack, $40,200 for a stroke or $37,000 for end-state kidney disease, estimates Judith A. O’Brien, the director of cost research at the Caro Research Institute, a health costs consulting firm. Amputating just a toe, a not uncommon consequence of untreated diabetes, averages $15,000, she estimates.
