Additives and Advertising

In discussing the causes of childhood obesity, we can start with the alphabet, and two very similar words that begin (in English, anyway) with the same sound: additives and advertising. They are fatefully connected. Probably, many substances that get into food ought to be outright banned — in which case, those particular products would either be discontinued or have their recipes changed, so in either case we would not need to worry about how they were advertised.

Similarly, if the advertising of any food containing suspicious additives were to be forbidden, that would also help a lot. However, for better or worse, we live in a society proud of its freedom, although good arguments might be made to the effect that maybe, in some cases, freedom is worse than the alternative.

Over the years, at least 1,000 chemicals found in food (or in the packaging that embraces it) have been identified as obesity-inducing, while in very few of those cases has the worrisome substance been banned from inclusion. Because obesity is notoriously multi-factorial, once these substances get inside the body it is not easy to definitively pin down which chemical does what. But there are some very shady suspects.

Salt of the earth

“The salt of the earth” has, since Biblical times, been a colloquial description for someone who is trustworthy, honest, genuine, and reliable. To be identified as having saline qualities is a great compliment. But then, during a few recent decades, things changed, and salt itself came under suspicion for apparently somehow aiding and abetting obesity.

Then, about a decade ago, a series of experiments on the body chemistry of a group of Russian cosmonauts took place, which threw all the previously assumed knowledge about salt into doubt. The more diligently the scientists investigated, the more their comfortable certainty evaporated. One of them, Dr. Melanie Hoenig, told The New York Times,

I suspect that when it comes to the adverse effects of high sodium intake, we are right for all the wrong reasons.

Around that time, a page no longer available quoted Associate Consumer Analyst Ryan Whittaker as saying,

Emulating the UK’s salt reduction program is a strong strategy. Without being overly prescriptive, this strategy brought manufacturers, action groups, and other interested parties together and achieved an 11% reduction in salt consumption. Achieving similar results with sugar, without complex legislation, would be a success for both public health bodies and the food and drink industry.

So, that would be good news — if indeed it turns out that salt reduction actually is a factor in obesity prevention. A very current article aimed at the average weight-conscious American presents an overview of current thinking on the subject, as expressed by Lauren Manaker, M.S. The author says,

While eating salt doesn’t directly cause weight gain in the form of body fat, there is evidence to suggest that consuming it in excess may not be best if you are focused on weight management.

If people were taking their water straight, that would be one thing. But the main contemporary problem is the very strong tendency, especially among the young, to drink sugar-sweetened beverages. The salty food leads directly to the sugary drinks, and oops, somebody just chugged a few hundred thirst-slaking calories. A bit further down the road, there are knock-on effects:

Ultra-processed foods and meats are linked to higher levels of inflammation, and inflammation is associated with weight gain.

As always, we are urged to bear in mind that sodium is necessary for health. But it causes fluid retention, which is not fat per se, but which does add bulk to the figure. Also, its link with ultra-processed foods is regarded with great suspicion.

The recommended fix is home cooking, where the consumer retains at least a semblance of control over the proceedings. Concerning the quest for flavor, the most highly recommended suggestion is to explore the vast availability of genuine herbs. Of course, when buying groceries or eating in restaurants and other venues, be informed about the meaning and consequences of eating ultra-processed foods, and remain vigilant.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Why Everything We Know About Salt May Be Wrong,” NYTimes.com, 05/08/17
Source: “Does Salt Make You Gain Weight?,” EatingWell.com, 03/10/26
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Cost Covers a Lot of Territory

Aside from prices that everyone ultimately shares, like super-size airplane seats (or better yet, heavy-duty hospital beds), other obesity-related costs are apt to be distributed amongst various members of society. Some of the people who pay in one way or another are teachers; some are medical professionals, others are parents, and many are children.

Often, the expense borne by the public due to the existence of obesity is a formal tax, of the sort that buys scales for schools. On other occasions, there seems to be an informal, unlegislated sort of a tax, which nevertheless involves expense and hassle.

At the edge of awareness

What could be called the obesity tax shows up in many guises. It needs to be further explored, starting with some of the ways by which the price of obesity is collected from members of the public on a depressingly regular basis. We probably all do need to be reminded, now and then, that there are other options besides eternally paying.

Obesity has been allowed to take over and affect every American indirectly, even if the individuals themselves are not overweight. But fate does not have to land this way, nor does changing the general consciousness need to be cruel or divisive.

There is no need for society to be sucked down into the quicksand of cruelty and blame. There are ways up, and ways out; and just to see this clearly, and acknowledge the truth of it, is a dynamic starting move.

The dark side

Society has accepted that people with reduced mobility need allowances made for them, like the occasional wheelchair ramp, and on a normal day, it’s no big deal. The fate of an obese person is slightly different. Some fellow humans apparently simply cannot help feeling insulted by the existence of the overweight. From their point of view, it appears that obese people know good and well how offensive their corpulence is, and savor their awareness of being so annoying.

Even without access to overweight people’s confidential medical records, many folks on this continent still find it very easy to assume that some of our fellow Americans are using their large frames to express hostility. Their bulk is a weapon they purposely acquired and enjoy brandishing in a way that implies peremptory hostility toward society.

Just kidding!

Of course none of that is true. But some folks act as if it were a proven, immutable, and universally accepted fact that fat is not just uncomfortable and inconvenient and unattractive, but actually a subcategory of evil itself, which must be fought vigorously and without compassion.

Childhood Obesity News has explored a number of ways, in addition to physical and psychological tolls, in which the public pays the price of obesity. But why such incessant harping on crass old dollars? Shouldn’t this be a more elevated conversation?

No, not entirely, not exclusively, and here is why: Because everything that costs parents money has the indirect consequence of depriving their children of some other thing they could have had instead. New shoes, a professional clown at the birthday party, dental braces, a pet, a trip to Disney World, an adequate college fund. It’s even the difference between a summer at fat camp or at music camp. Which one is a child going to feel better about admitting to, come autumn?

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

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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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