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Fed by Broken Food System, Health Plummets as Costs Soar

Thu, 05/03/2012 - 18:33 — Dave Culver
Section(s): 
Business
Health & Environment

  • As America's waistline expands, costs soar as health plummets
  • Big Food Must Go: Why We Need to Radically Change the Way We Eat
  • Whole Foods Accused of Accepting Genetically Modified Foods

Common Dreams staff, Common Dreams

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Joe Culpepper has his waist measured in a scene from the documentary 'The Weight of the Nation.' (Jessica Dimmock, HBO)

An over-weight individual is not necessarily more unhealthy than one who is slimmer, but the epidemic of obesity in the US and the dire health consequences of a 'fast food nation', supported by an industrial farm system are putting enormous strains on the lives of millions and helping to explode costs in an already inefficient health care system. The trend towards increased obesity occurs throughout the society, but is perhaps most troubling perhaps for the impact its having on school children.

"Today, two-thirds of U.S. adults and nearly one in three children struggle because they are overweight or have obesity," says the Campaign to Prevent Obesity, who recently released a new report <>tracking the relationship between the obesity epidemic and rising healthcare costs.  "The effects of the nation’s obesity epidemic are immense:  taxpayers, businesses, communities and individuals spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year due to obesity, including an estimated $168 billion in medical costs.  Obesity is the reason that the current generation of youth is predicted to live a shorter life than their parents."

Full story...

Related:

Big Food Must Go: Why We Need to Radically Change the Way We Eat, Christopher D. Cook,  AlterNet

  • It is time -- now, not next year -- to de-occupy Walmart. And Archer Daniels Midland. And Tyson Foods. And Monsanto. And Cargill. And Kraft Foods. And the other large corporations that decide what ends up on our plates.
  • This is not a problem we can solve by going vegetarian or vegan, or buying organic and fair trade.

Whole Foods Accused of Accepting Genetically Modified Foods, AllGov

  • “[Whole Foods] and their colleagues are willing to go along with the massive planting of a chemical and energy-intensive GE perennial crop, alfalfa." --Ronnie Cummins, executive director of the Organic Consumers Association
  • Protesters Disrupt Workday at Monsanto in Davis, CA
     

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