Flab Marches On.... at What Cost?

Despite a weight loss industry that that took in $189.8 Billion in 2018, Americans continue to get fatter and fatter every year. It is a harsh word, but it is a serious problem. Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in a recent article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, forecast that if current (2018) trends continue fully one half of the population of the US will be obese by 2030. Not overweight, obese. They they predict that 25% of Americans will be morbidly obese. That compares with 40% obesity and 18% morbid obesity in 2019.

As we debate how we as a society are going to manage runaway healthcare costs, it is time to introduce into the debate reality that many of the drivers of major chronic illness in our country are largely, if not completely, under our individual control. Mostly that we eat too much and much of what we do eat is garbage.

Losing weight is not super easy, but neither is it impossibly difficult. I say this from personal experience. It takes determination, support, knowledge and persistence. And sooner or later people are going to start asking why people who are determined, find the support they need to succeed, educate themselves and persevere are required to pay the endlessly rising sickcare costs of those who choose not to. Its a good question, and not one we can ignore forever.