Obesity, at what price?

In the United States, one out of three adults is obese (BMI>30) and another third of the adult population is overweight (BMI>25). In Belgium, almost half of the adult population is either overweight or obese, compared to one out of five children. The healthcare costs for obesity are rising spectacularly. Obesity represents 10% of the American healthcare expenses or 1,6% of GDP. Budgetary obesity is more important than ageing, and until 2022 that will not change. Obesity is a difficult issue for policy makers. Given that obesity is mainly the consequence of technological developments; a policy that focuses on the food component only is doomed to fail. Experiments with local communities show that programs that intensively promote a healthy lifestyle (healthy food, a lot of physical exercise) can yield encouraging results. The cost of these campaigns could be financed by typical obesity taxes, such as a soft drink tax.