I recently filled out a health assessment through my health plan because I am being proactive about my health--OK, they were offering a $50 gift card to Amazon and my wife threatened me. I'm 6'3", 210lbs. I can bench press my body weight--I'm told that's a good thing, and I'm fairly active. My health assessment came back telling me I am 'overweight: BMI-26.2.' As everyone knows, I'm not alone.
The CDC web-site states "Results from the 1999–2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), using measured heights and weights, indicate that an estimated 65 percent of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese."
Why? Well, I'm glad I asked.
Here's the CDC's list of possible causes:
- Overweight and obesity result from an energy imbalance. This involves eating too many calories and not getting enough physical activity.
- Body weight is the result of genes, metabolism, behavior, environment, culture, and socioeconomic status.
- Behavior and environment play a large role causing people to be overweight and obese. These are the greatest areas for prevention and treatment actions.
I think this list is missing the main cause of the upward trend in weight in the U.S...FOOD IS CHEAP and getting cheaper. I present as exhibit A the graph on the right.
The graph maps the relative price of food (as measured by the BLS Consumer Price Index for all food realtive to the overall CPI for all goods) from 1980-2005. As you can see, food prices have fallen dramatically since 1980 relative to other goods. The economist in me says "Hmmmm...food is getting cheap relative to other goods, maybe people are eating more." But the story gets better.
If we look at the price of 'fats and oils', 'sugar and sweets' and 'fruits and vegetables' relative to 'All foods', again we see a not so surprising result (see the other graph to the right).
The prices of fats and sweets have fallen since 1980 relative to all foods while the prices of fruits and vegetables have risen dramatically.
So why are people gaining weight? Sure part of it might be genetic or social or environmental, but I think it's equally plausible that the reason is economic. If the price of food falls relative to other goods, and the price of fatty and sweet food falls relative to other foods, what would you expect? People will substitute eating fat and sweet foods for more expensive alternatives like eating fruits and vegetables and exercising.**
Why do we care? The CDC estimates that Medicaid and Medicare expenditures for overweight and obese people were between $25 and $50 billion in 1998. Can anyone say 'Fat Tax'? I'm now ducking.
*Health economists and environmental economists use a lot of the same techniques, so it is not uncommon for overlap between the two. Hopefully that's enough justification for me to take this diversion into a health related topic. If not, I'm co-owner of this blog and I'll write what I want.
**This is a very incomplete analysis. I picked and chose from a large number of categories. Yet, I think the results are telling.
