How the Obesity-Industrial Complex Keeps Americans Sick, Fat, and Sad
The United States spends more money per capita on healthcare than any other country on Earth – almost twice as much as Germany and triple Japan . To emphasize, this is the average spending on an individual level, so it’s triple the spending of Japan per person. Source: Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker And what do Americans get for all that spending? The US is the fattest and the sickest in terms of chronic disease rates in the world. Per Statista , “the CDC estimates that six in ten adults in the United States currently live with a chronic disease such as cancer, heart disease, or diabetes.” You probably know someone personally – in all likelihood, multiple people – who suffers from a chronic health condition. Much of that disease burden is due to obesity. “Adult obesity rates have more than doubled since the 1980s — in the U.S. today, obesity affects over 42% of adults and 18% of youth. Obesity and its related complications are major drivers of rising healthcare costs, d