How obesity affects our checkbooks

by Rigel Celeste (Subscribe to Rigel Celeste's posts)
Nov 24th 2007 11:04AM

Now that we're right smack in the thick of the holiday season it's as important as ever to balance your enjoyment of holiday goodies with maintenance of your waistline. Although holiday weight gain is generally very small (as little as 1 pound per year) the problem is that it is also generally very resilient and doesn't go away. And all those individual pounds are piling up not only on our bodies but in the bills we owe -- they're flat out costing us money. Here's an idea of just how much obesity costs us:

$800 per person for missed work
$275 million in jet fuel costs from carrying the extra weight
$7.72 per meal in costs accrued from super-sizing fast food dinners
$180 per year in taxes
Unhealthy foods (sweets and fats) have gotten 14% cheaper, but healthy ones (produce and dairy) have gone up by more than 50% since 1980

Source

Comments (2)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Joe Holland 11-26-2007 @ 9:18PM

Seems like every person who wins big in a lottery ends up much worse off, broke and owing taxes. Still, the lure is there and none of us would turn down such an opportunity. Just let me have it long enough to 1. get a better girlfriend 2. get more Zildjian cymbals for my DW drum set 3. sell this place and get a really cool place and 4. replace my 2000 Mercedes E320 with a new one. Come on now, is that too much to ask? And I promise not to go crazy buying 1956 Chevies and Ford Thunderbirds. Joe in L.R.

Caterina Pryde 11-26-2007 @ 9:51PM

This is the stupidest thing I've read in a long time. Some of the best scientists out there have said the figures of obesity affecting us are greatly exagerrated. This article springs out a mile further, assuming that things like the costs of supersizing food and the increase in the price of milk are the fault of people who are overweight. What a foolish thing to think and what a ridiculous prejudicial insulting article.