In a recent study, it was found that obesity related medical expenditures have reach $147 billion per year and growing. This means that obesity related health issues make up about 10% of all medical spending.  Here are some more alarming facts:

• The prevalence of obesity has increased 37% between 1998 and 2006
• An obese person has $1429 more, per year, in medical costs than a non-obese person
• Obesity accounts for 8.5% of all Medicare expenditures, 11.8% of all Medicaid expenses, and 12.9% of all private insurance expenditures.

So, what are ‘obesity related heath issues’?  Research has shown that being overweight or obese increase your risks of:

• Coronary heart disease
• Type 2 diabetes
• Cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon)
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Dyslipidemia (for example, high total cholesterol or high levels of triglycerides)
• Stroke
• Liver and Gallbladder disease
• Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
• Osteoarthritis (a degeneration of cartilage and its underlying bone within a joint)
• Gynecological problems (abnormal menses, infertility)

While some of this information you probably already knew, are you really surprised by any of the information that you didn’t know?  It isn’t a new revelation that being overweight or obese is unhealthy.  We’ve known that for decades…if not centuries.  Even with the knowledge of how you become overweight or obese, and the associated related issues, the problem only gets worse…day after day…year after year. 

Why is it that we have all the knowledge we need to do something about it but the problem only gets worse?  If only we could point to one thing and say, “That’s the problem!”  The ultimate responsibility lies with the individual.  However, that is not to say there aren’t external contributing factors at work.  Since it is next to impossible to cover all of the personal and environmental variables involved, we will turn our attention to those external factors. 

Contributors to the obesity epidemic

The focus of this series of articles is on the contributing industries to the obesity epidemic.  We will concentrate on six industries:

• The restaurant industry
• The fast food industry
• The diet industry
• The fitness industry
• The pharmaceutical industry

Each will be featured separately and how each contributes to the obesity epidemic will be explored in depth.  They all work together to create a perfect storm of sorts that tends to keep us in a repeating loop. This is not to insinuate there is collaboration between these industries but rather an unfortunate system that has evolved over time…and continues to evolve.

Stay tuned for part two of this series: the restaurant industry.