Obesity a crushing weight on U.S. health care (OMG!!!! what a surprise!!!!)

[DEDixon 39]

Obesity is the elephant in the room of health care reform, a public health catastrophe that kills more than 100,000 Americans a year, cost the nation $147 billion last year and threatens to shorten U.S. life expectancy for the first time since the Civil War.

Whatever Washington does this year to reduce medical spending seems likely to be swamped by the nation's rising weight. Obesity lurks behind the top chronic illnesses - heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and colon, breast and prostate cancers, among many others - whose treatments routinely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

One of every three Americans, and one of every four Californians, is obese and rates are rising at an alarming pace, particularly among children, experts say.

"Rising obesity rates are increasing health care expenditures per person in a way that is going to be very difficult to finance," said Jay Bhattacharya, a doctor and health economist at Stanford University's Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research.

"Unless there is some vast improvement in the efficiency of the health care system - and I mean vast - we're going to be spending a lot more just because a lot more people will have diabetes" and other obesity-related diseases, he said.

Obesity is all but impossible to treat. Prevention is the only cure. Yet while health care legislation in Congress would increase spending on prevention of chronic disease, it does little to tackle the underlying obesity epidemic directly. Most of the bills are silent on what many health experts contend would be one of the most effective weapons: a tax on soda.

Junk-food taxes are part of a push to adapt the successful fight against tobacco to the more complex obesity epidemic. Food, unlike tobacco, is necessary to life, and cheap food has all but eliminated hunger among the poor; yet there are many striking parallels between unhealthy eating and smoking.

State a leader in fight

California is proving a bellwether in the campaign against obesity, introducing novel prevention strategies under a remarkable collaboration between nonprofits and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a body-building Republican who launched his political career pushing fitness.

Legislation that took effect in the state July 1 has put calorie labeling on chain-restaurant menus, while nonprofits, led by the California Endowment, a health foundation, are conducting groundbreaking experiments that range from farmers' markets at Oakland schools to public park upgrades in the Salinas Valley town of Greenfield. California was the first to set nutrition standards for food sold in schools; now half the states do.

Still, such moves are up against a barrage of junk-food marketing, sedentary lifestyles, and federal farm and transportation policies that make processed fats and sugars cheaper than fresh food.

"We know exactly what to do about the obesity epidemic," said Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy in Davis. "Every successful public health movement, whether it was sanitation or air pollution or drunk driving or tobacco, has shown that people can only be healthy if there are policies in place that support them in making healthy choices."

Recipe for obesity

Imagine a vast national experiment to encourage weight gain, Goldstein said. "We put fast food on every corner, we put junk food in schools, we got rid of P.E., we put candy and soda at the checkout stand of every retail outlet you can think of .... The results are in. It worked."

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's plans to establish public vegetable plots and eliminate junk food from city property sounds preciously Left Coast but may be the vanguard of an ambitious national movement that aims to redesign cities and the way people eat.

Two Northern California cities - Arcata (Humboldt County) and Orinda - limit fast-food chains, while Los Angeles limited them in the South Central district after finding that 30 percent of children in those neighborhoods were obese.

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee mocked proposed jungle gyms and bike trails in health reform legislation, yet studies show such efforts help.

"It doesn't sound crazy if you start looking at the causes of the problem," said Kelly Brownell, an obesity researcher at Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. "In poor neighborhoods there is low access to healthy foods, high access to calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods, and when healthy foods are available, they're more expensive."

The same holds for physical activity, where crime, poor facilities and parents working multiple jobs limit opportunities for safe play. "You put all this together," Brownell said, "and you have a picture that is maximizing calorie intake and minimizing calorie output, and there's your recipe for obesity."

Epidemic hit quickly

Life expectancy in the nation, rising since the Civil War to nearly 78 years now, could be halted or even rolled back as a result of Americans' weight gain and the chronic diseases that accompany it, many experts believe.

The obesity epidemic took hold over just one generation, a stunningly short period in the history of public health, said Marion Standish, program director for the California Endowment. Efforts to change individual behaviors have failed miserably; researchers now are focused on changing the environment that has fostered weight gain to prevent obesity in the first place.

"Policymakers who ignore or ridicule prevention do so at their own peril," Standish said. "Cost data just released by the Centers for Disease Control show there is no doubt the health care system is going to bear the brunt of this challenge."

Obesity by the numbers

$147 billion - Obesity-related medical spending in the U.S. in 2008

$15.5 million - Medical costs related to obesity in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties in 2006

50 - Percent of California adults who don't exercise enough

33 - Percent of children born in 2000 likely to develop diabetes

30 - Percent of adult Americans who are obese

20 - Average number of days a year an obese person is unable to work

16.7 - Percent of American children who are obese

Source: Chronicle research

Obesity defined

An adult with a body mass index, or BMI, between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight, while a score of 30 or higher is considered obese.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...;type=printable

[Dakine 26]

From what I see I'd say way more than 30% of Americans are obese. Especially here in Hawaii.

[Danno 1,228]

From what I see I'd say way more than 30% of Americans are obese. Especially here in Hawaii.

While I am used to the large numbers of... large folks, my wife is still in disbelief, even after a year and a half.

There are some heavy people in Russia but usually old.

We spent the weekend Backpacking in the Linville Gorge area (NC) and stopped at this little place to eat on the way home and my Wife commented how sad it was that such young people are so overweight.... as there were a number there.

The truth of it is: THERE IS NOTHING THE GOVT CAN DO TO STOP IT in any meaningful way unless they are going to suspend the concept that *We are free people*.

People love to eat and even when faced with dire warning from the doctor many continue on.

Now what will happen is, The govt will use this excuse to put in place more taxes which will raise money... but it will not Do anything meaningful to reduce the ever growing rate of obesity.

Ironically enough, the poorest and most "impoverished" among us... who collect money each month for their food and don't pay for their healthcare.... are the most obese.

[SuperDuper! 230]

From what I see I'd say way more than 30% of Americans are obese. Especially here in Hawaii.

Too many Spamburgers?

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

if the foodstamp program didnt allow chips and dip to be considered food, might help. You otta see what some of these ppl pack theyre carts with. These are also the same ppl suckin the medicaid pig.

[Anonymous 57 0]

The argument that 'healthy' food is too expensive is ridiculous. We're not talking tofu burgers and sprouted grain bread here. Normal food ingredients that can be used to cook real food is cheap. They were selling tomatoes at Safeway for $.77 a pound today. That's a lot less than a bag of chips would cost you. And junk food is also waaaay more expensive than healthy food because you end up eating so much more of it than you would a reasonable healthy meal because it's just empty calories.

The government could also help by cracking down on the food companies putting ####### in their food.

But I think that the only real solution is for people to get a clue.

[Dakine 26]

if the foodstamp program didnt allow chips and dip to be considered food, might help. You otta see what some of these ppl pack theyre carts with. These are also the same ppl suckin the medicaid pig.

Cases of Soda pop of all kinds also.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

The argument that 'healthy' food is too expensive is ridiculous. We're not talking tofu burgers and sprouted grain bread here. Normal food ingredients that can be used to cook real food is cheap. They were selling tomatoes at Safeway for $.77 a pound today. That's a lot less than a bag of chips would cost you. And junk food is also waaaay more expensive than healthy food because you end up eating so much more of it than you would a reasonable healthy meal because it's just empty calories.

The government could also help by cracking down on the food companies putting ####### in their food.

But I think that the only real solution is for people to get a clue.

When they are gettin somthin for nuthin why should they care? They just waiting for the next auto deposit from yours truly.

if the foodstamp program didnt allow chips and dip to be considered food, might help. You otta see what some of these ppl pack theyre carts with. These are also the same ppl suckin the medicaid pig.

Cases of Soda pop of all kinds also.

Popcicles,ice cream,swanson dinners,hamburger helper the list goes on and on.

[_Simpson_ 250]

if the foodstamp program didnt allow chips and dip to be considered food, might help. You otta see what some of these ppl pack theyre carts with. These are also the same ppl suckin the medicaid pig.

Cases of Soda pop of all kinds also.

Now that they have switched over to the cards that has helped to keep people from buying a piece of 5 cent gum with a food stamp dollar so that they could use that change and go buy smokes or alcohol.

[The Dude 206]

if the foodstamp program didnt allow chips and dip to be considered food, might help. You otta see what some of these ppl pack theyre carts with. These are also the same ppl suckin the medicaid pig.

Cases of Soda pop of all kinds also.

Now that they have switched over to the cards that has helped to keep people from buying a piece of 5 cent gum with a food stamp dollar so that they could use that change and go buy smokes or alcohol.

And you know this how?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I think the Supersize Me guy was spot on when he highlighted the huge advertising budgets that the manufacturers of processed foods spend on promoting their products - a lot of it aimed directly at children.

There really needs more of an effort spend on educating people about proper nutrition at an earlier age and getting them into healthier eating habits. Public schools doing away with soda (and candy) vending machines and switching their catering suppliers to those that offer healthier options wouldn't be a bad start.

[dalegg 143]

By the way, they typically set their A/Cs to a much lower temperature and run them longer throughout the day, so they contribute greater to global warming.

[NickD 203]

Listened to one of our idiot state legislators on WPR this morning, wants to pass a bill where repeat drunk driver offenders have to take pill that is suppose to counter alcoholism. Attempts to control drinking with extra taxes have failed. Just find it interesting that our government is doing everything to control our lives, either with taxation or with pills. So perhaps obesity will be controlled with pills as well.

Did you take your diet pill? No judge. You get ten days in the cooler, next time will be twenty days, then 90, then in a Hitler style concentration camp, that really works.

[The Dude 206]

I think the Supersize Me guy was spot on when he highlighted the huge advertising budgets that the manufacturers of processed foods spend on promoting their products - a lot of it aimed directly at children.

There really needs more of an effort spend on educating people about proper nutrition at an earlier age and getting them into healthier eating habits. Public schools doing away with soda (and candy) vending machines and switching their catering suppliers to those that offer healthier options wouldn't be a bad start.

Start with telling people that a fast food chain's so-called "healthy menu" is nothing of the sort. You could introduce a pre-school curriculum that simply states "If you eat big macs and hot pockets you're going to be a fatty"

[Peikko 1,575]

If insurance companies are so interested in keeping the population healthy, why do they not offer 'incentives' to get cheaper insurance if...

Also, why do they not offer some kind of co pay/free gym membership with the qualification being attendance to a minimum number of classes per week?

Why? Because they don't give a ** about how healthy the population, it's not their goal.