Half of U.S. Adults will be Obese by 2030
By Donald A. Donahue, Jr., DHEd, FACHE
The number of obese people in the United States will increase from 99 million in 2008 to 164 million by 2030, a new study predicts. Obesity-related diseases and health care costs will soar as a result, according to the report published last week in The Lancet. The U.S. obesity rate will rise from 32 to about 50 percent for men and from 35 to between 45 and 52 percent for women. The cost of treating obesity-related diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke, would increase $66 billion per year by 2030, and represent a 2.6% increase in overall health spending.
See: http://yourlife.usatoday.com/fitness-food/diet-nutrition/story/2011-08-26/Study-Half-of-US-adults-will-be-obese-by-2030/50146742/1?csp=34news
“This is the day of the expanding man…” So sang Donald Fagen of Steely Dan in the song “Deacon Blues.” And the expanding woman… Perverse obesity continues as a hidden epidemic for the United States. Note that we are not talking about merely being overweight, but of obesity – a body mass index in excess of 30. The medical costs of obesity have been widely described. The obese incur twice the medical bills of the remainder of the population, some $161.3 billion in annual costs. Studies have documented increased absenteeism, lost productivity, and a decrease in academic and career achievement. But these are indirect, if significant, effects. Obesity extracts a direct toll on the economy as well. The weight gained during the 1990s required commercial airlines to use approximately 350 million extra gallons of jet fuel in the year 2000. This will only grow. The irony is much of this can be avoided through adjustments in diet and increased exercise. In rare cases, prescription weight loss drugs or surgery are indicated. These options carry significant risk, however, and should be discussed in depth with a physician. The science fiction films of the 50s and 60s often depicted humans with flaccid limbs, subordinated and prisoner to the machines they had created as measures of convenience. Sadly, an ever-heavier population appears to be moving in that direction, where fiction becomes fact.