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Entries by Pennino Corp. CEO (48)

Obesity Costs US Employers $45 billion a Year

Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 03:18PM by Registered CommenterPennino Corp. CEO | CommentsPost a Comment

By Beth Jinks

April 9 (Bloomberg) -- Obesity costs U.S. businesses about $45 billion a year in medical expenses and lost work, according to a report today from The Conference Board.

Being severely overweight is associated with a 36 percent increase in spending for health-care services -- more than smoking or problem drinking, the New York-based business research group found. Medication spending is 77 percent higher for obese patients, the report said.

More than 30 percent of American adults are obese, up from 15 percent in 1980, and treating the condition consumes 5 to 7 percent of the U.S. national health-care budget, the report said. Obesity makes people more susceptible to diabetes, heart problems and other serious conditions.

``Employees' obesity-related health problems in the U.S. are costing companies billions of dollars each year in medical coverage and absenteeism,'' Linda Barrington, a report co-author and labor economist at The Conference Board said in a statement. ``Employers need to pay attention to their workers' weights.''

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=a3YqIFC2cE0Y&refer=home#

Weight-ism More Widespread Than Racism

Posted on Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 08:58AM by Registered CommenterPennino Corp. CEO | CommentsPost a Comment | References1 Reference

Yale Researchers Find Widespread Discrimination Against Overweight People

By LEE DYE

April 2, 2008 —

 

It's illegal to discriminate against someone because of race or gender, but our culture condones a bias against people who are overweight.

There are no federal laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of weight, and only Michigan has such a law, according to a new study from Yale University.

As a result, the researchers contend, weight discrimination is spiraling upward, and that's a dangerous trend that could add fuel to the obesity epidemic.

Weight discrimination "occurs in employment settings and daily interpersonal relationships virtually as often as race discrimination, and in some cases even more frequently than age or gender discrimination," the researchers report in the current issue of the International Journal of Obesity.

Overweight women are twice as vulnerable as men, and discrimination strikes much earlier in their lives, the report states.

"This is a form of bias that remains very socially acceptable in our culture," research scientist Rebecca Puhl, lead author of the study, said in a telephone interview.

Puhl, who was trained as a clinical psychologist, and co-author Tatiana Andreyeva, studied data collected from 3,437 adults as part of a national survey conducted in 1995-1996. They have just updated the work in a disturbing paper showing that weight discrimination has accelerated through 2006.

Puhl, who has been studying weight discrimination for nine years, said our culture has made it clear that it's wrong to discriminate against someone because of race, color, creed, gender, age and so forth, but that it's OK to show someone the door because he or she is fat.

"We send a message to citizens in our culture that this is something that is tolerated," she said. "We live in a culture where we obviously place a premium on fitness, and fitness has come to symbolize very important values in our culture, like hard work and discipline and ambition. Unfortunately, if a person is not thin, or is overweight or obese, then they must lack self-discipline, have poor willpower, etc., and as a result they get blamed and stigmatized."

The social current driving this is the obvious fact that no one is responsible for his or her race, or gender or even age. That's a given. But the traditional thinking goes that people should be able to control their weight, so if they're obese, it's their fault.

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http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4568813&page=1

Mexico 2nd fattest country, after US

Posted on Friday, March 28, 2008 at 11:57AM by Registered CommenterPennino Corp. CEO | CommentsPost a Comment | References9 References

Mexico now the 2nd fattest country, after U.S.

By Franco Ordonez, McClatchy NewspapersMon Mar 24, 6:00 AM ET

MEXICO CITY — Fueled by the rising popularity of soft drinks and fast-food restaurants, Mexico has become the second fattest nation in the world. Mexican health officials say it could surpass the U.S. as the most obese country within 10 years if trends continue.

More than 71 percent of Mexican women and 66 percent of Mexican men are overweight, according to the latest national surveys.

With diabetes now Mexico's leading cause of death, activists and leaders hope to renew efforts to crack down on junk food and other fatty-food consumption and encourage citizens to exercise more. But it will be a tough battle, as industry groups are expected to put up a fight.

No one knows better the country's affection for fattening foods than Lidia Garcia Garduno , who's run a fruit stand in central Mexico City for the past 10 years.

"People don't eat right anymore," said Garcia Garduno , mixing a drink of strawberries and pineapple. "Instead of coming here and purchasing a fruit drink, they prefer to walk across the street and buy fried pork chips. That's why so many Mexicans are obese."

In 1989, fewer than 10 percent of Mexican adults were overweight. No one in the country even talked about obesity back then, said Barry Popkin , a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill professor who studies global weight gain. Experts were too concerned with poverty and hunger.

"It certainly snuck up on them," said Popkin, who's working with the Mexican health ministry to develop strategies to address obesity throughout the country. " Mexico has probably had the most rapid increase of obesity in the last 15 years."

Mexican Health Secretary Jose Cordova , who launched a new health campaign Feb. 25 , agrees: "We have to put the brakes on this obesity problem."

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080324/wl_mcclatchy/2886854