The stunning rise of costly obesity in America

There is a correlation between obesity and income. The bottom quartile is mostly on government assistance and has a 30% obesity rate. The middle class isn't on government assistance and has a 24% obesity rate. Its doubtful that 6% difference is just because of government assistance. Junk food is really cheap and is often cheaper than healthy good so less money doesn't necessarily mean healthy food. Less income might result in people replacing their fish and vegetables with ramen noodles and mac & cheese. There are also charities which give people free food including junk food as well.

Lower income people are more obese because they are often poor because they have low-self discipline. Many of them have hard lives so they use food as an outlet.

 

Tax payers are forced to do nothing of the kind. Neither in the US or the EU.

Where do you live? Russia?

Bollocks!

It is purely a social phenomenon in any country where people have a surplus of funds and therefore indulge in eating far too much because they otherwise do not know what to do with themselves.

Of course, there are others who run miles every day to work off their indulgence. But, at least in Europe, death is avoided because a National Healthcare System exists.

Nonetheless, obesity is also on a rampage here in Europe ...

 

Unhealthy food is cheap because of subsidies. For those on welfare, 10% of their benefits are used to buy sweetened beverages. High fructose corn syrup is cheap and it doesn't take long to develop diabetes. 1 in 3 Americans are diabetic or pre-diabetic. Once symptoms show up, rather than reverse the disease with healthy habits, pharm products are prescribed to mask the symptoms so that they can continue to consume these products.

I live in the United States. If I don't pay my taxes, they take my business, my home, and my retirement. You don't consider that force?

My taxes are used to subsidize many food items that contribute to our poor health, including the pharm products that mask symptoms so they can stay sick.

 

Let's cut the crap about taxes.

Taxes are something you are obliged to pay simply because you live&breath. We all have the same obligation.

What the country does with those taxes is a substantial matter of public concern. It deserves well-founded debate!

Not one liner sarcasm on Debate* Forum ... !

*Definition of debate

 

The topic is the cost of obesity in America. The government is using my tax dollar to make people fat and sick so that the food and drug industry can enjoy record profits. The fact is that most of what is making/keeping people fat and sick is subsidized by the government. You may demonstrate your master debating skills and refute my claim or you can take another cheap shot at me if you cannot.

 

This may come as a surprise to some people but in most of the country you can drink water from the tap. 1000 gallons for less than 50 cents, pretty reasonable.

 

Good post, especially the graphic. ("A graphic is worth a thousand words!")

I frankly do not know what is "going-on" in American schools, especially the primary- and secondary schooling. But, it is THERE that good eating habits must be taught.

Not only to kids, but to their parents!

Of course, the hard part is that people poorly paid eat badly because that it all they can afford. The minimum-wage at around seven-bucks an hour is a KILLER ... !

 

If you don't pay your taxes then we don't have roads, police department, and military. Then you are going to see much bigger problems than a smaller paycheck. If you don't like our social contract where you pay taxes, you are free to move to another country, or vote for leaders who want to lower them.

I know the costs for poor people on government assistance are subsized by the government. But it was these people who made their dietary choices not the government. The government gave them some financial stability, lower than that for the middle class, and they chose to use it on junk food.

Also, if the middle class also has high rates of obesity then you really can't blame obesity on the government. The middle class doesn't take government healthcare, welfare, or food stamps but still have a 24% obesity rate and a 40% overweight rate.

How much exactly is big pharma subsidized for middle class customers? Do these subsidies come anywhere close to the 1 trillion net worth of big pharma? Our farmers are subsidized, but that is food in general, and it is us who choose to use it to make junk food. Also, subsidizing farmers makes them internationally competitive, and the Chinese government's subsidization if their industries is their tool for exporting so much.

I do see the addition of junk food to the cost of healthcare as a problem. This is why I believe in taxes on junk food, so people who make these choices pay for the burden they are putting on taxpayers. Health insurance companies should be allowed to offer different plans to people with difference levels of healthy lifestyles. I also support removing any direct subsidies on junk food if we can separate them from subsidies on healthy food.

 

You are incorrect. If I don't pay my taxes, we still have roads, police and military; I just no longer have a house, business, or bank account.

You limit me to either pay to make people sick or move to another country. Currently, Americans are fatter and sicker than ever and it is getting worse. That is why healthcare is the hot political topic. (Poison the country and then have them vote for a cure)

Since our current system is not sustainable, it will eventually reach a tipping point. I hope it is before sickness reduces the workforce to the point of not having enough tax payers to maintain roads, police, and military.

I appreciate your idea of a sin tax, but Im not sure how a quadruple tax subsidy will reverse the trend. Your idea of removing junk food from welfare recipients is a great idea. It was proposed, but PepsiCo lobbied against it and it was squashed. Food and drugs companies are powerful and hold political power.

 

A sin tax that is sufficiently high will discourage obesity eating just like taxes on cigarettes have discouraged smoking but we will still have lots of obesity. The real purpose of this tax is to make unhealthy people pay for the costs they are putting onto our system. I am fine with them living the way they are and costing our system, as long as they pay for their choices. I also want to make wellness checks of BMI, blood pressure, and other things standard in getting big deductions in health premiums.

I am fine with subsidies and welfare money going to junk food, because its really hard to enforce which foods should get funding. For example, for food stamps, we would have recipients turn in their receipts and that would have to be evaluated. Or food sellers would have to categorize the health level of their foods so that they could be easily categorized. If someone with food stamps pays for junk food, they will have to pay the sin taxes on that and have less money for food so that is enough for me.

We have a lot of corporate lobbies in Washington and I wish we could ban all campaign donations from big corporations and limiting individual contributions. We would also have a lifetime ban on politicians becoming lobbyists.

 

Unfortunately, increasing taxes only gives the government more spending power and that is how we got here in the first place.

If you are okay with forcing me to buy sodas for the less fortunate, why not alcohol or cigs?

The last line is the best solution.

 

Dear, these 'cravings' are a product of your mind and your eating addiction .. they are not the result of complex carbohydrates.

I eat carbs all day long and don't experience 'cravings'. I have long accepted that hunger is our natural state, and don't listen to it unless there is a blood sugar reason to do so. Forever seeking satiation is your problem, not carbs.

 

I rest my case (my bold).

That's your problem, not the diet itself. You must learn to coexist with your hunger, just as Asians do.

 

You can't 'store' them when you burn them off within an hour of eating!

 

Haha .. less than grade school medical knowledge

Meantime, I'll say it again for you. More slowly. Carbs only cause problems if a) they're refined, and b) you sit on your arse all day.

IOW, you have to be very very naughty and very very lazy to end up with carb related problems. And why would you do that?

 

"hard times" like self-inflicted morbid obesity?

your standard for a difficult life could not possibly be more First World.

 

So obesity has nothing to do with the fat person simply being a greedy guts? Wow.

 

Of course, because the same dynamic which keeps them poor, keeps them fat. And junk food is definitely more expensive than raw ingredients. Processed foods which appear cheap, are also more expensive than the raw ingredients that go into them. So it's a bald faced lie that eating 'poor' is cheaper. It ain't. Technically, eating processed and junk foods etc is a luxury. The genuinely poor live on beans and rice.

 

It ISN'T cheap. It's quantifiably and measurably more expensive than simple raw ingredients. And spending 10% on sweetened beverages is a choice. Water from the faucet is much cheaper.

 

Its a bit more complicated than that. Few, if any, fat people want to be fat. The food industry knows their customer and knows how to keep them consuming their product.

Thanks to your tax dollar, corn is cheap and is turned into cheap sweet beverages, cheap beef, etc.

Fast food is addictive. Trigger, response, reward. Notice how poor neighborhoods have a ton of fast food restaurants?

You are forced to buy these products for the poor, they live a short, sick life, and the profits are huge.

 

these are more than just in your mind, the body create hormones (Ghrelin) that tell your brain it needs to eat, when you eat carbs your insulin rises when the blood sugar takes a crash but the insulin is still high your cells are starving as the insulin blocks using fat for energy, so even though you got plenty of reserve fat stores, your cells are still staring

not sure why you are promoting a extremely high carb diet as healthy, makes no sense to me

"I eat carbs all day long and don't experience 'cravings'."

lol, your eating carbs all day long, lol, you addicted? try to stop eating carbs for 30 days, like a smoker that says I can quit anytime I want..... you're keeping your insulin high all day long, that will have an effect on your body given enough time

just like someone quitting smoking or caffeine, that first couple weeks is gonna be rough as you get through your carb withdraw - but it's so worth it, even if you go back to eating the same as before, you will have improved your mitochondria big time

 

has mostly to do with being miseducated on what to eat - which you seem to be telling overweight people to eat high carbs and low fat... that is the wrong information imo - no wonder people are confused

 

this is true, though I wish they did not put fluoride in the water supply... good for the teeth while it's in the mouth, but not so good for the brain imo

of course most pop and fruit juice (made from concentrate) is probably tap water from somewhere as well

 

even if you did manage to burn them all off, which most people can't as they do not want to be on a exercise bike 6 hours a day, you still have to deal with the fructose in the liver from some of those carbs, taxing the liver, too much fructose and you get fatty liver....

 

1) Yes, they DO want to be fat. They want to be fat more than they want to control their gross appetites - so 'want' wins.

2) No one is forced to buy soda and beef. NO ONE.

3) Food is not addictive. If it was, every food-consuming creature on earth would be obese. EATING is addictive. You need to understand the difference .. it's an important one.

4) No one is forced to buy crap food. NO ONE.