How Much Does It Cost to Be Obese?

What is obesity?

Being obese, for many of us, means to be very overweight. A more professional definition will be an excess body weight that includes muscle, bone, fat, and water. "Obesity" means an excess amount of body fat - do not include bodybuilders or other athletes. They have a lot of muscle and can be technically "overweight" without being obese.

What is the health cost of obesity?

Although the Americans are obsessed with different slimming diets, they are still the most obese nation in the world.

More and more health professionals believe that at least 90% of all body malfunctions and illnesses are mainly a result of poor digestion which is a result of a poor diet. And, by poor diet, I don't mean "no food" but "wrong food", in excess.

It is not a secret anymore that obesity is an unhealthy condition of the body.

Obese people functional overload all the organs and parts of the body, leading to increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, risk of cardiovascular diseases, illnesses of the liver, an overload of joints and spinal column, gall bladder disease, reproductive problems and sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, gout, pulmonary (breathing) problems, menstrual irregularities and infertility.

What is the economic cost of obesity?

There are a personal economic cost and a national economic cost of obesity.

On a personal level, we have less income and more expenses to take in consideration.

Lower income can be a result of either many unpaid hours because of sickness, or just that the salary is lower because of a lower productivity. There are very few obese persons in management and high paid jobs. To these we should add the possibility of losing jobs.

Expenses include the cost of medicines (not covered by insurance), the clothing is more expensive for overweight persons than for slim ones. Not to mention that the choices for clothes are very limited. Obese people spend more on gas. Add to this the welfare loss, resulting from increased pain and suffering, even though this is hard to measure and so very personal. Also, on a personal level, there is the cost of relationships.

On a national level we can look at the costs as direct and indirect costs. When we make a payment, we have a direct cost. When we lose resources, we have indirect costs.

Examples of direct costs: the cost of treatment, care and rehabilitation for illnesses associated with overweight or obesity.

Examples of indirect costs: reductions in economic productivity stemming from the poorer health, absenteeism (that costs employers around $4 billion), disability and premature mortality that are a result of overweight or obesity. Also, because people are fatter, airlines spend more on jet fuel.

A lot of people say that it is cheaper to get fat and stay fat, than to slim down and keep the weight off. And, in many ways, they are right. Junk food is cheaper than healthy food. In California, for example, a hamburger at MacDonald's costs $0.99, while an orange is $1.50. Not only this, but canned fruits and vegetables are cheaper than the fresh ones. And this is only if one looks at the immediate costs. On a long run - and no longer than 5-6 years - the costs increase dramatically - the cost of gas, clothes, shoes, medical costs. Because of health problems, people lose jobs, are not able to get well paid jobs, live on disability pensions etc.

And the bigger these costs, the bigger the problem of affordability of a healthy diet.

Don't wait for things to get out of control. Act now!