What, More Costs?

A decade ago, we noted that not a single country on earth had been known to experience a declining rate of obesity during its most recent year. In the United States, that signified an enormous win for the food industry, which was selling an additional $20 billion worth of food per annum, thanks to the extra $400 worth of their products being consumed annually by the average American kid, as compared to the previous year.

Of course, the math varies from one country to the next, which in a sinister sense doesn’t even matter, since the overlords who rake in the profits have dominion over the whole planet anyway. While snacking or dining in jets or yachts, they regard themselves as the only genuine world citizens. In each port of call, they know how to obtain the most health-inducing vegetables, fruits, meats, seafood, and beverages to buy with the dimes and dollars of chubby little children far away.

Fun fact: Despite their busy lives, CEOs in the food industry (and every other business) tend to consult medical experts in the fitness field, and are quite likely to spend part of their colossal earnings on a staff member dedicated to helping them stay in admirable physical condition.

Inexorable math

Back in the day, it was Dr. Tim Lobstein, spokesperson for the World Obesity Foundation, who said it best: “Fat children are an investment in future sales.” Here at home, just like everywhere, obviously, every seller’s profit comes at some buyer’s expense. In our case, it was American parents and institutions — everybody who ever bought a doughnut or a burger for a child — who have paid the price.

Of course, by now, many of those overweight young people have taken over the responsibility for paying their own food bills, while in the meantime, all the dire predictions have come true.

Another dimension

In world news, massive attention has been paid lately to both the known and suspected illegal and shameful interference with children, carried out by wealthy and well-known international Important People. Meanwhile, all this time, right in front of our noses, it is totally true and inescapably obvious that children have been perfectly trained and impeccably groomed in another dimension of human behavior. Exactly as intended and predicted, the chunky cherubs of yesteryear have grown into a nation of obedient consumers of empty calories, flashy colors, and harmful, revolting additives.

The cost of obesity to society as a whole is a topic not easy to let go of. For most Americans, every dollar counts, whoever it is spent by and whatever it is spent on. We may disagree on the specifics, but ultimately, a very great majority of people agree on one basic principle: A lot of money is being spent on certain things, which they believe should be spent on something else instead.

Footnote

Incidentally, is there something perversely unmagical about the number 5? As a recent post pointed out,

The total number of babies born in the USA in a year is around 3.6 million. Since about one in five will be obese, that means around 720,000 unhappy fat kids.

In other words, each year, more than half a million young Americans mature into the ranks of the obese youth. In a strange, historically unprecedented twist of fate, a large percentage of young people are physically unfit and, in case the country might need to be defended, ineligible to join the armed forces.

Another unfortunate appearance of the numeral was spotted recently and will be explored further: “Obese Children Face Nearly 5-Fold Higher Risk of Fractures, Study Finds.”

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

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What Is Childhood Obesity’s Price Tag?

No regular visitor to this blog is surprised to learn that there is still more to be said about the cost of obesity to our society as a whole. We all end up paying for it in some way, shape, or form. It is important to keep making this point — but not to ignite in people the sort of anger that hangs in the atmosphere, all too ready to descend upon those who are considered unacceptable in some way, by those who are too ready to judge.

Childhood Obesity News was created because of a deeply felt need to help prevent any child from experiencing extreme unhappiness in her or his early years. Of course — and this fact is indisputable — obesity is not the most glaringly obvious potential cause of childhood misery — certainly not as noticeable as a cleft palate, for instance. And in the United States, that problem is usually repaired so early that the child does not even retain a memory of it.

But for the sake of a thought experiment, we pretend for a moment that the birth defect is left unrepaired, and pick some arbitrary numbers just to make a point. Let’s propose that the emotional cost of going through childhood with such a visible deformity is a whopping 72 Misery Units. During a year in America, around 2,500 children are born with a cleft lip and/or palate. So that would be 180,000 Misery Units collectively apportioned to all of them.

Another factor enters the picture

In that same year, about one in five of all babies born will spend their childhoods being obese. But compared to facial disfigurement, that is a relatively mild level of unhappiness — call it 8 Misery Units.

For an individual child, a cleft palate left unrepaired would undoubtedly cause a ton of misery, compared to the unhappiness experienced by one of the obese kids. That would add up to an extreme amount of grief, which society as a whole should definitely put its best efforts toward fixing. But, to add another factor into the reckoning, for every facially disfigured child born in any given year, nearly 300 are born who will join the childhood obesity ranks.

The total number of babies born in the USA in a year is around 3.6 million. Since about one in five will be obese, that means around 720,000 unhappy fat kids. In other words, approximately 300 obese children for each facially disfigured child.

And even at the relatively low number of only 8 Misery Units apiece, the childhood obesity grand total would still multiply out to a truly impressive 5,760,000 Misery Units… against a measly 180,000 Misery Units among the kids who need plastic surgery. By that standard, childhood obesity is by far the more devastating problem.

The point

Most obese children will at some point — hopefully not too often — experience unpleasant (though relatively civilized) reactions from grownups. Probably, the average overweight young teenager will be on the receiving end of heedlessly uninhibited reactions from, and interactions with, their fellow juvenile acquaintances. And strangers.

Then, most of these youngsters will probably go on to become obese older teenagers, who might seek to assuage their unhappiness by adopting or substituting new bad alcohol or drug habits for the old bad eating habits. If their obesity is beyond what the average American is willing to overlook, finding a job might be difficult. When an obese young adult decides to marry and settle down, there is a strong likelihood that the partner will also be obese, and then, an even stronger probability that the offspring of that union will also be obese.

Point being, even if the average case of obesity is nowhere near as harrowing as an amputated limb or visible burn scar or tragically ineradicable birthmark; even though an individual case of obesity might imaginatively be called a mere 8 Misery Unit problem, there are so many of them that society as a whole is weighed down by the cost of all those amassed, accumulated Misery Units. And incidentally, a lot of the cases involve monetary costs which, we pointedly mention again, are paid by society as a whole.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

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Distribution of Debt

A recent post raised the subject of how the expenses of obesity tend to be distributed throughout the entire society. A glaring example is the very noticeable cost of medical facilities, which need enormous buildings to house them, and quite a lot of space for parking lots, and huge amounts of power to keep the lights on 24/7, as well as to run all the complicated machinery.

Whether on its own premises or outsourced, a hospital must have an infallible laundry service. Even when administered by a charitable organization, this institution has to operate as a business, taking into consideration such needs as insurance and adequate staffing in every department.

It has to maintain a fleet of ambulances and other vehicles. It must stock significant amounts of supplies, from pencils and rolls of tape to bottles of vital infusions, to food for the patients, staff, and visitors. For obvious safety reasons, many items used in hospitals, like the business end of a hypodermic needle, are single-use, requiring efficient and infallible means of disposal. This is especially true of hazardous waste like used dressings (aka bandages), which, if not properly segregated from regular garbage and conscientiously destroyed, could spread the very diseases which hospitals are supposed to defeat.

A bigger size means a higher price

With large numbers of large patients, more money is necessary to keep the place functioning. The needed equipment, whether bought or rented, has to be on the premises. If not, it will need to be obtained quickly, which usually means extra expense. Or maybe because of that lack, the patient must be transferred and transported to a different facility, for a hefty price.

Because the hospital needs a piece of industrial-strength equipment designed to lift a morbidly obese patient from one surface and set that patient down undamaged on another surface, the bills of everyone in the institution must rise incrementally. The same inflexible economic rule applies to every other item added to the inventory to accommodate overweight patients, and for each obesity specialist who needs to be hired, and so on.

An awe-inspiring example

Depending on attachments and degree of customization, a hospital “bariatric bed” designed to hold someone weighing up to 600 pounds can be had for around $1,300 to $3,300 (and north of that figure). A decade ago, such a specialized item might, like some other commodities, have been proudly, truthfully, and crudely described as “a fat investment opportunity.”

From here and there

A typical paper in the field summarizes the cost of treating childhood obesity in Brazil over the decade ending in August of 2022, noting that such expenses encompass several categories including direct medical costs, procedures, inpatient hospital stays of whatever length, outpatient doctor visits, medications, preparations (like normal saline) that are not prescription drugs but nevertheless must be paid for, and miscellaneous.

Analysts then attempt to grasp the implications their statistics present, and apply the new knowledge to not only gain a more accurate understanding of the overall situation, but to update official policy according to the results of their calculations. Some of the pertinent answers they seek include an understanding of what causes regional differences in prices, how hospitalization costs are calculated, and what this says about the overall policies.

Elsewhere

A more recent report, this one from Greece, encompassed the total burden imposed by obesity on that country’s economy in the year 2024. Both direct and indirect costs were calculated, in what the author characterizes as “a societal perspective.” The amount attributable to obesity was found to be 4.92 billion euros (almost 5 billion dollars), which was equivalent to 2.07% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product for that year. The author summarized,

Obesity imposes a considerable economic burden on Greece, threatening the sustainability of the healthcare system and broader social well-being. Immediate and drastic coordinated, multisectoral, and multidisciplinary strategies are needed to curb the prevalence and fiscal impact of obesity.

At approximately the same time, this was going on in the USA, as told by Newsweek. About one out of every five children (almost 15 million altogether) fell into the obese category, most of them being from racial minorities and low-income families. This came as no surprise to anyone who had been paying attention to their unequal access to healthful foods, safe recreational spaces, or adequate medical care. Of course, COVID-19 played a role, as children experienced a rate of annual weight gain nearly double that of the pre-pandemic years.

Naturally, all of this costs the American healthcare system a lot more than would have been the case if childhood obesity were not so widespread.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “A fat investment opportunity,” Moneyweb.co.za, 04/16/15
Source: “Amount Spent Per Hospitalization For Childhood Obesity In The Years 2012 To August 2022 In Brazil — Epidemiological Review,” Typeset.io, 03/02/23
Source: “The Economic Cost of Obesity: A Cost-of-Illness Study in Greece,” Springer.com/ 08/27/25
Source: “’Extremely Severe’ Obesity on the Rise in US Children—Study,” Newsweek.com, 07/20/25
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As the Twig Is Bent

In childhood obesity, mental and emotional health issues play a very large role because of the inherently reciprocal nature of the relationship. Often, those very same mental and emotional health issues can be partly of physical origin. We occupy flesh and blood bodies that produce vital signs, so it could hardly be otherwise.

There are all sorts of possibilities. If a problem originates and is situated in a physical location on the body, it might grow another side and manifest more seriously in the mind. Or, something going on in the mind could show up as a physical result, like obesity.

There are people who consciously choose physical habits that aren’t “good for them,” knowing full well that whatever the consequences may be, they are not as frightening as the potentially alternative conditions like nightmares, a tendency to weep spontaneously, or a socially embarrassing tic. Compared to a lot of potentially miserable situations, getting fat is not a steep price to pay for sanity.

Depending on current circumstances, a person might be very grateful to have two possibilities. Sometimes, choosing the lesser of two evils is the only way out. Remember the impossibly trite but infinitely wise saying “It is what it is”?

It is what it is

One way or another, thinking about these matters too much can be inconvenient, or even dangerous. A mental/emotional roadblock can exist, then morph into a different class of problem… like one with a physical result… like obesity.

It is unfortunate, but even someone whose head is in pretty good shape can self-sabotage by just habitually, unthinkingly eating too much unconsidered food. Then, the resulting obesity can adversely affect that person’s mental and/or emotional health. Then, the resulting stress can lead this individual to eat more… and so on, back and forth… for 50, 60, or 70 years.

Something different

The National University of Singapore recently presented the public art exhibition titled VOICE, short for “Visualising Obesity’s Impact from Childhood Experiences.” Created by researchers, artists, and college students, the event’s basic idea originated with research from highly respected institutions. The show attracted a great deal of favorable attention, and not just in academic circles. The impetus behind it was research that examined…

[…] how childhood obesity is experienced as a complex social and psychological phenomenon, and shaped by family dynamics, school environments and broader societal norms.

Not surprisingly, this ambitious goal turned out to be a tall order. It has never been easy to overcome the twisted societal expectations that impose a burden on any class of people. Such deep-seated prejudices have dimensions and aspects that are easily and often overlooked when they become a seamlessly integrated feature of the culture.

The creators told the press that the informal format “allows audiences to engage with these stories at their own pace, creating space for reflection, empathy and deeper understanding.” Interactive exhibits included one that offered the visitor an opportunity to write down a slur that might be used against an overweight person, and display it on a wire sculpture:

[T]he exhibition presents an immersive collection of photographs, 3D-printed artifacts and personal narratives. Together, these works invite reflection on how everyday language, social attitudes and intervention approaches around weight can leave lasting impressions on children as they grow up.

In other words, to bend the twig will influence the shape of the tree, just as it always has done and will continue to do.

Other layers

One aim of the free-admission art show was “to open up conversations beyond physical health.” Another was to guide viewers toward looking “beyond physical health outcomes to consider how early experiences can shape wellbeing into adulthood.”

Many participants recounted how seemingly casual remarks about weight, repeated pressure to lose weight without guidance, or public scrutiny of their bodies contributed to feelings of shame, isolation, and low self-worth. They disliked the sensation of being labeled, observed as if they were lab animals, or otherwise stigmatized.

For some reason, Singapore is perceived as a particularly dicey part of the world for obese people to live in. Dr. Jumana Hashim told the press,

While ample research has been done to uncover the risk to physical health, there is a gap in the understanding of how living with obesity can impact mental health…

This is why we dive in to understand the people, places and processes that shape these experiences so that we can inform future weight management interventions, ensuring we don’t perpetuate the risk of any unintended mental health consequences.

Attendees were invited to consider and create art about such aspects as the labels that society is all too eager to bestow upon its overweight members. Among outcomes and results that are to be hoped for and worked toward are “positive, empathetic communication by parents, teachers and others, and to avoid language and practices that reinforce stigma or shame.”

Prof. Leonard Lee noted “the importance of empathy-focused, multi-level interventions that involve families, educators and healthcare practitioners, rather than placing responsibility solely on children.” Prof. Lee also emphasized that weight management efforts need to be presented “in ways that are sensitive to children’s mental and emotional wellbeing.”

Meanwhile, afflicted humans will continue to cultivate mental and emotional resilience, formulate coping strategies, and find sources of support.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Shining the spotlight on the hidden mental health impact of childhood obesity,” ews.nus.edu.sg, 01/30/26
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