Who Pays for Self-Inflicted Illnesses?

For the last decade or so, health experts have been warning about the "epidemic" of obesity in America and its troubling implications for the health and wellness of our population. Clearly the message is not getting through the fog of lies and deception perpetrated upon us by those who make, market and sell our food. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2017 Americans of all ages just kept getting fatter.

As of last year 4 in 10 Americans were obese and another 3 in 10 were overweight, the highest percentages ever recorded. Being either is proven to increase your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and more than a dozen types of cancer. But the biggest danger is diabetes.

According to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine the 10 year risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes is 8 times higher in overweight women and 18 times higher in obese women, compared to women of normal weight. The numbers are similar for men. As of 2017, roughly 46% of adult Americans are diabetic or pre-diabetic.

It is comforting to blame food producers for the problem, but companies simply provide products that people want to buy. The real problem is that we refuse to stop stuffing ourselves with crappy food. According to a famous and widely ignored Tulane University study, only 4% of obesity can be attributed to genetic factors. The rest of it is all due to the lifestyle people choose to live. The amount and type of food they choose to eat and the exercise the choose not to get.

This is everyone's problem now. How, as a society, do we afford to care for a population where 50% plus of us are diabetic? How should we afford it when the disease is nearly always the result of the bad choices that people make for themselves? Should the shrinking portion of people who make the effort to tend to their own wellness pay the cost of the ever increasing portion that does not?

I don't know the answers to these questions, but it is a discussion we as a society need to start having.