Money and Obesity
It’s easy to see the connection between money and obesity. You get richer; you drive to work and everywhere else; you gore yourself on tasty but unhealthy food and voila! You’re obese! Actually, you don’t even need to be rich to get obese. Even getting to middle class will do the trick. Ironically, today you need to be better off to be able to fight obesity! As Matt Ridley points out : “The ultra-rich have already solved it. Most of them are very thin these days, quite unlike in ancient times. That's because they can afford the solutions that work for them, from low-carb diets to personal trainers.” When he read that, Eugene Wei mused over how times have changed : “In places of food scarcity, obesity can be a sign of wealth. However, in the U.S. today, it's the reverse: the wealthy can afford to hack the diet and lifestyle issues that lead to obesity in poorer socioeconomic groups.” So yes, money is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for obesity. Some...