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In "Are Americans Getting Healthier?" the
Wall Street Journal's
Real Time Economics blog notes an interesting turn of events:
Americans might
be getting healthier, a development that — if true — could have
economic causes and consequences.
Obesity may be
on the decline.The percentage of Americans who are
obese declined from 2010 to 2011, according to a Gallup report released this
week. In every quarter of the past year, there were fewer obese Americans
than in the same period of 2010, the polling firm said. All told, 26.1% of
American adults were obese in 2011, compared with 26.6% in 2010.
The
year-over-year decrease is “statistically significant,” said
Gallup’s Elizabeth Mendes, calling the trend “a really positive
sign.” She said Gallup is studying the quarterly survey data and
hasn’t yet drawn any conclusions about why obesity may have waned in
the past year. (In 2009, 26.5% of American adults were obese.)
Some have
theories, however.
According to
Jennifer Robinson, a professor in epidemiology and medicine at the University
of Iowa‘s College of Public Health, “economics is driving
this.” Dr. Robinson, who has studied weight in the U.S. over the past
50 years, said obesity rates were flat until about the mid-1970s. While the
obesity rate among lower-income individuals was always greater than for
higher earners, rates across the entire income spectrum rose between the
1970s and 2001, she said, with obesity “skyrocketing” among the
top quartile of earners.
Dr. Robinson,
who based her research on data collected by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, pegs
economics as the reason behind the increase among higher earners. A number of
factors came into play, she said: longer commuting times, more sedentary lives,
larger portion sizes in restaurants and the coffee-shop phenomenon of
indulging in “1,000-calorie grande lattes and
that kind of thing.”
Of course,
circumstances have changed quite a bit since the bubble burst, and
current economic conditions may well be be having the opposite effect. In fact, according
to Dr. Robinson,
the
recession and the slow recovery is “especially affecting...blue-collar
male workers,” she said, “and I think a lot of discretionary food
expenditures are declining.”
With that in mind,
perhaps the following report should be taken as exceptionally good
news?
"Further Rise in Poverty Seen with Slow Recovery" (Reuters)
Nearly 10 million
more Americans have fallen into poverty since the 2007-2009 U.S. recession
began, and the number is expected to increase due to the slow pace of the
economic recovery, a study released on Wednesday by Indiana University
showed.
Michael J. Panzner
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