Obesity and Money.

As was reported in recent medical literature, obesity has become an epidemic in the USA.  Since 1960, the number of obese Americans has trippled and six times more Americans are now extremely obese than 50 years ago.  Not only does this obesity epidemic cause adverse consequences to obese Americans' health, it also makes everyone else pay.  To comprehend financial cost of this obesity tsunami, you can peruse ten following numbers:

1. 105% - According to a Brookings Institution study, this is the increased amount that obese Americans pay for prescription drugs compared with slender Americans.
2. $190 billion - This is annual added medical cost that results from obesity-related healthcare cost.
3. $3.4 billion - This amount stems from increased cost of gasoline that cars are burning to carry chubbier Americans.
4. $164 billion - This is the money that U.S. employers are losing in annual productivity due to obesity-related issues.
5. $6.4 billion - Employee absenteeism that is related to obesity costs this much every year.
6. $1 billion - This amount comes from extra 350 million gallons of fuel that U.S. airlines pay to fly obese passengers.
7. $14.3 billion - According to the Brookings Institution, this is how much childhood obesity costs the USA every year.
8. $62 billion - This is what Medicare and Medicaid are spending every year to pay for obesity-related health problems.
9. $66 billion - According to Columbia University researchers, this is projected annual medical cost relating to obesity in the U.S. by 2030 if current trend does not change.
10. $580 billion - This is projected annual loss of economic productivity by 2030 if current trend of obesity continues.

Developing countries where obesity becomes a trend should take note.




United States President William Howard Taft was often ridiculed for being obese