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Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

nytimes.com

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Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#51

Post by ars »

anigbrowl wrote: post #46
joe_the_user wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the minimum, a lack of physical activity has to be included as a factor in this along side diet.

Haven't you heard? The new wisdom is that exercise makes you even fatter. Well, I exaggerate, but I'm referring to a recent Time story saying 'exercise won't make you thin' (the idea being that you still need to eat less or you'll just get hungrier and never lose weight). You are quite right, but 'pin the tail on the donkey' seems to sell better :-/

It's not actually new wisdom.

We are just going back to what we knew 40 years ago.

Basically, between 1960 and 2009 we thought exercise will make you thinner.

Outside those times exercise was thought to increase appetite.

Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#52

Post by mhb »

hughprime wrote: post #32
dasil003 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If so, isn't the question what diseases take the longest time to cause death, and thus require the most medical expenditure Not exactly. You're missing two variables. The rate of infection in the population as a whole, and the rate of expenditure to treat the disease.

How so? The argument is that eventually everybody dies of something, so avoiding one fatal disease only shifts your death to another disease at some point in the future. I really think it's quite likely that fat people, on average, cost less in health care over their lives than thin people. I don't have any numbers to back this up, but every person who dies suddenly of a heart attack saves an awful lot of money by no…

Diabetes - blindness, circulation problems, infections, amputations. It's not at all clear that health care for fat people would be less than for thin people.

Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#53

Post by scrollinondubs »

thesecret wrote: post #13

I work in healthcare and this is my understanding from the responses of patients that I encounter - fast food is cheap. One of the families I work with, both parents are diabetic and the children are all overweight. I asked them about their eating habit and the answer was : McDonalds for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Why? Because it's cheap to eat at McDonalds for a family of 4 than it is to buy vegetables at the mar…

exactly. The true costs of each burger are deferred from the McDonald's counter and amortized over a lifetime and a population in the form of Medicare deductions on your paycheck. This article is timely as I had written this blog post last week suggesting a fast food tax: http://www.scrollinondubs.com/2009/09/01/fast-food-tax/

It wasn't an optimal solution but it at least attempted to redirect the costs of poor eating choices to the people who make the bad decisions. The proposal from the NYT article is way simpler and more effective:

yank the "preexisting condition" defense from insurance companies and they become instantly incented to encourage healthy eating. Current advocates of proper eating habits gain a powerful ally at that point.

sean

Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#54

Post by gcheong »

potatolicious wrote: post #9
ankeshk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comparing Canada vs USA obesity rates shows that YES indeed eating habits seem to be very different: http://eaves.ca/2008/07/08/fatness-index-canada-vs-united-st...

As a Canadian living in the USA I have to say, we don't eat that differently in Canada, the big difference is we eat less . Canada is just as full of greasy, nutrtionless, processed-to-hell food as America is, but we simply do not consume as much of it, from my observations. When I moved to the USA I immediately (over 4 months) gained a buttload of weight (both figuratively and literally...). This is due to my bad ha…

This reminds me of the story a Japanese girl once told me of her visit to Disneyland. At one of the restaurants she ordered the steak and salad. The salad came first and by the end of it she was so full she couldn't even think about eating the steak.

Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#55

Post by dejb »

lionhearted wrote: post #23
thesecret wrote: post #13

I work in healthcare and this is my understanding from the responses of patients that I encounter - fast food is cheap. One of the families I work with, both parents are diabetic and the children are all overweight. I asked them about their eating habit and the answer was : McDonalds for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Why? Because it's cheap to eat at McDonalds for a family of 4 than it is to buy vegetables at the mar…

I've heard this before, but it isn't true. I make one cup of Quaker oatmeal most mornings - cost is around 11 cents. I buy tea and coffee in bulk - another 11 to 25 cents or so. My entire breakfast costs less than 50 cents, and all it requires is boiling water or 3 minutes in the microwave. It's faster than a drivethrough. Rice and beans are practically free they're so cheap. I buy turkey or chicken cold cuts, again…

You probably should add some more vegetables by the sounds of it.

Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#57

Post by Retric »

edw519 wrote: post #17

There’s lots of money to be made selling fast food and then treating the diseases that fast food causes. All the more reason for each of us to take more personal responsibility for our food and our health. I wouldn't count on anyone else helping me much with either any time soon.

Most health care spending in the US is caused by aging. Most heath care spending is paid for by the state, local, or federal government (50%+). Most heath care spending is caused by people living longer. Most heath care spending is caused by better and more expensive treatments that we did not have 100 years ago. Smokers have shorter lives and spend less on heath care over their lifetime. Smokers cause a huge short term spike in heath care costs.

PS: There are plenty of ways of slicing it, but excluding sudden death we are all going to spend a lot of money on heath care and we are all going to die.

Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#58

Post by nitrogen »

coderdude wrote: post #25
lionhearted wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard this before, but it isn't true. I make one cup of Quaker oatmeal most mornings - cost is around 11 cents. I buy tea and coffee in bulk - another 11 to 25 cents or so. My entire breakfast costs less than 50 cents, and all it requires is boiling water or 3 minutes in the microwave. It's faster than a drivethrough. Rice and beans are practically free they're so cheap. I buy turkey or chicken cold cuts, again…

I agree, I find that going to the grocery store and paying upfront for my meals to come is more cost effective than constantly buying fast food. Fast food is not very cheap at all actually. Unless you're buying from the dollar menu, in which case it's $3... for your kids. It's hard to get full on 99c fries and a mini burger.

To provide a single anecdote, I am able to get full on two dollar menu items. You don't have to stick to what they define as a "meal" (i.e. burger, fries, soda). If I'm short on time or cash, I can get two double cheeseburgers, or a chicken sandwich plus a salad, for less than $3, drink a glass and a half of water with it, and be full until the next meal. Whether just anyone can do that is another question.

Re: Majority of US Healthcare Costs Are Caused by Bad Eating Habits

#59

Post by ZeroGravitas »

ars wrote: post #51
anigbrowl wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't you heard? The new wisdom is that exercise makes you even fatter. Well, I exaggerate, but I'm referring to a recent Time story saying 'exercise won't make you thin' (the idea being that you still need to eat less or you'll just get hungrier and never lose weight). You are quite right, but 'pin the tail on the donkey' seems to sell better :-/

It's not actually new wisdom. We are just going back to what we knew 40 years ago. Basically, between 1960 and 2009 we thought exercise will make you thinner. Outside those times exercise was thought to increase appetite.

The somewhat confusing thing is that people focus so much on "losing weight". Even if exercise makes you hungrier, it's been shown quite conclusively to make you healthier.

If you really want to lose weight without regard to any other factors then take up smoking as it reduces your appetite. Or just cut off your legs. Certainly don't build up any muscle mass as that will only make you heavier.

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