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How Does Obesity Affect The Economy

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Obesity affects the economy in multiple ways, both negative and positive. Costs of health care, disability and unemployment are directly affected by the rising obesity rates. Productivity in the workplace decreases due to excessive absenteeism caused by obesity related illnesses. On the flip side, obese individuals provide an enormous contribution to the fast food industry and manufacturers that produce high fat, sugar laden foods or “quick, ready to eat” products. Weight reduction products, gym memberships, exercise equipment manufacturers, and even companies that produce XXL clothes all benefit from overweight individuals purchasing these products. But, for the economy to stay strong everything must even out on the scale. In this essay we …show more content…

A body mass index (BMI) in excess of 30 is defined as being grossly overweight, and is referred to as obese. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) reports that close to 35% of US adults are obese (Center of Disease Control, 2014). Diseases associated with obesity include, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and obstructive sleep apnea. Because obesity has increased tremendously in the past several years, so too, has the cost of health care related to treating those individuals with obesity related health problems. It has been estimated that 21% of the annual medical spending budget in the United States is on obesity related illness (Cawley J., 2012). The financial burden on the health care system treating illness associated with obesity are affected by three major factors; the number of obese individuals being treated, the cost of treatments specific to obesity and the disparity of the population requiring treatment (Marder W, …show more content…

New products catering to overweight/obese individuals are produced every year, from extra-large clothes to heavy duty furniture. Fast food chains and unhealthy foods continue to emerge in our society which not only feeds the obesity epidemic, but is also feeding the economy by those purchasing these products. Weight loss programs, exercise equipment, diet drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter have become increasingly popular. An estimated 45 million people diet every year and spend close to $30 billion annually on products to either lose weight or control weight (Tang,

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