(The following article is from the September 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Health Reporter

An "epidemic of fatness" is hitting North America. A new study getting lots of attention in the corporate media and the blogosphere says the real problem is your fat friends. But maybe this finding tells us more about the new business of "fat profiteering" and the rising poverty levels than anything else.

     Published in the New England Journal of Medicine in early August, the study analyzed data from an amazingly large social network - 12,067 people - who had been closely followed for just over thirty years. The finding? When a friend becomes obese your odds to get fat go up by 57 percent!

     Of course, there are many other fatness factors. The International Obesity Task Force (a group of NGOs linked to the World Health Organization) for example, points to almost twenty causes of obesity on several levels.

     The Task Force starts with international factors, like globalization of markets and media advertising, as well as national/regional factors, such as access to social security, and manufactured/imported foods. There are also community factors - public transport and public safety - and work/home/school factors such as worksite food and activity, and the accessibility of leisure activity and facilities.

     But wait - NGOs focused on fatness? Why so much interest in obesity? For starters, obesity is on the rise across North America, having doubled in the in the past two decades, and is leading to rising health care costs. (Obesity is a risk factor for heart disease, strokes, cancer, kidney failure, asthma, arthritis, and even blindness, mental health problems, and falls.)

     In the US (where working people are still fighting for single-tier public healthcare) corporations are worried about obesity - especially the lost profits it causes. According to the American National Business Group on Health, obesity is costing "$13B annually in direct health costs combined with the costs of disability, absenteeism and lost productivity."

     They needn't worry too much, though, since as Michael Moore's new film points out, being slightly overweight is the way many US HMOs disqualify eligible people from health insurance coverage.

     In fact, there is far more interest in obesity by business as an investment opportunity. Merrill Lynch, which released a report on the topic in June 2007, says fat profiteering is booming in the areas of weight loss, exercise, medication and surgical procedures aimed at treating high blood-pressure or related problems.

     According to the Canadian Rx Atlas, cardiovascular and cholesterol drugs account for about 40 per cent of total Canadian prescription drug spending. Biovail Corp. of Mississauga evaluates the U.S. market for drugs to control blood pressure at $19.5 billion Canadian. At home, Biovail says, the market is valued at $4.1 billion.

     Plus there is the fatty fast food industry. "Gaining weight is good for business," a recent editorial in Science Magazine commented. "Food is so overproduced that [rich countries] have far more than they need."

     One corporate attempt to solve that crisis is advertising. Six of the top 20 US advertisers are food companies, according to Dr. David Dunne, a marketing professor at the University of Toronto. Dunne points out that marketing is one of the top reasons for child obesity, not the least because of advertising pop, candy, and fast food in public schools.

     Junk foods are also often cheaper than healthier alternatives while a fruit and vegetable diet is more expensive. "The Paradox," says Dr. Adam Drewnowski, Professor of Medicine at University of Washington, "[is that] saving on food costs will lead to more energy dense diets, with greater potential for overeating. Obesity [is] an economic phenomenon. People are fat because they are poor."

     Back in Canada, studies by initiatives of various Canadian Health Institutes have all shown that child poverty is linked with child obesity. Lisa Oliver, a doctoral student at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, even found socio-economic statistics can be used to predict child obesity rates.

     Oliver's study found that kids from neighbourhoods with more unemployment, less income and less education were more likely to be overweight or obese. Those same children are less likely to participate in organized sports and their parents are more likely to say there aren't safe spaces, like parks, for kids to play in nearby.

     Housing and transportation costs also typically take precedence over food and exercise costs. More than half of children who live in Canada's poorest neighbourhoods, according to Oliver, were either overweight or obese. That compares to about a third of kids from the richest neighbourhoods.

     In Hamilton, for example, a city with 16 neighbourhoods that rate as poor (where over 40 per cent of residents have a low income), 34 per cent of residents are overweight and 18 per cent are obese. A recent article in the Hamilton Spectator pointed out that some of these poor neighbourhoods don't even have a grocery store.

     These are very class-biased facts. With about 45% of Canadian adults overweight or obese (according to the 2001 Canadian Community Health Survey), obesity is a clearly social problem, and part of the growing gap between rich and poor.

     Maybe Weight Watchers should start advocating for a 32-hour work week with no loss in pay, a guaranteed minimum income, and raising the minimum wage to $15/hour. But right now it looks like the food and drug companies are going to keep getting richer, while we just heavier. Did somebody say protesting was a good way to lose weight?