A new study finds that obesity exacts a higher toll on health and healthcare costs than either smoking or problem drinking.
A report in the journal Health Affairs says tobacco still has a higher death toll because lung cancer can kill more quickly than some common obesity-linked diseases. But author Roland Sturm, a researcher at the UCLA/RAND Managed Care Center for Psychiatric Disorders, said obesity is worse when it comes to long-term health problems.
The study said being obese increases health care costs 36 percent and medication costs 77 percent, while smoking increases those costs 21 percent and 30 percent, respectively.
He added that obesity contributed to a decline in quality of life at nearly four times the rate of smoking or alcohol abuse.
As the economy booms, double-income American families are eating out more. Obesity rates are soaring, and are starting to affect children as much as adults.
With schools under pressure to increase class time and raise the quality of education, physical education gets less attention, so children are not as likely to go outside and expend energy.
Over-stressed American parents also commonly resort to sweets as behaviour modification tools. At a Friendly’s Ice Cream parlour recently, a young couple silenced their screeching toddler and 5- year-old with hefty hot fudge sundaes.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has spoken of instituting low- calorie school lunch programmes, a supplemental nutrition programme for low-income women, and other educational programmes, but little has been done.
