Fat Bodies Make a Lean Planet

“Obesity, especially the visceral as opposed to the subcutaneous variety, leads to metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome—e.g., hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, heart disease—soaks up most of our health dollars. Absent the scourge of metabolic syndrome, Medicare would not face bankruptcy.”—Sanford Rose

Dolors & Sense

By Sanford Rose

KISSIMMEE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—3/3/2014—The more we eat now, the less we will have to eat tomorrow.

There is an inter-temporal link between obesity and declining agricultural yields.

Obesity is fast becoming our, and the world’s, biggest health problem.

There are currently more over-nourished than undernourished people in the world.

Obesity, especially the visceral as opposed to the subcutaneous variety, leads to metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome—e.g., hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, heart disease—soaks up most of our health dollars.

Absent the scourge of metabolic syndrome, Medicare would not face bankruptcy.

The country’s fiscal deficit would be materially lower, perhaps even non-existent.

Absent the specter of the deficit, we could afford many more social goods.

We could afford to bear the burden of the kind of carbon tax needed to curb emissions.

Perhaps we could even afford to spend enough to turn renewables into viable sources of energy, although subsidies are a second-best strategy.

Unless we do something dramatic in the climate area, the amount of carbon in the atmosphere could raise temperatures to dangerous levels.

Some carbon-induced rise in temperatures stimulates growth and agricultural productivity.

But the rise in temperatures we face is very likely to be great enough to depress that productivity.

Of course, lowering health costs by reducing the incidence of obesity is not easy.

Obesity is not a behavioral, but rather a biochemical, disorder.

Yet the unfavorable biochemistry is not genetic, but epigenetic.

Many, perhaps most, of the changes that predispose people to obesity occur after conception but before birth.

Thus, greater attention to matters such as prenatal maternal nutrition can pay enormous social dividends.

Whatever is done, unless our children consume less food, the country will continue spending too much on healthcare and too little on the climate-damage mitigation that may be needed to guarantee enough food for our children’s children.

Note: For more on “epigenesis,” and/or “epigenetics”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics.