MUDGE’S Musings
Fat Tuesday
This headline just popped out at me today:
Fat People Cheaper to Treat, Study Says
So I took a look, and after reading a couple of paragraphs, as I’ll suggest you do, I asked myself a question.
Fat People Cheaper to Treat, Study Says
By MARIA CHENG | AP Medical Writer | 4:00 PM CST, February 5, 2008
LONDON – Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn’t save money, researchers reported Monday. It costs more to care for healthy people who live years longer, according to a Dutch study that counters the common perception that preventing obesity would save governments millions of dollars.
“It was a small surprise,” said Pieter van Baal, an economist at the Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, who led the study. “But it also makes sense. If you live longer, then you cost the health system more.”
In a paper published online Monday in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal, Dutch researchers found that the health costs of thin and healthy people in adulthood are more expensive than those of either fat people or smokers.
I asked myself: “This is prime Sandy Szwarc territory; I wonder what she thinks of this research?”
Sure enough, her highly informed take was featured on her wonderful blog, Junkfood Science.
Posted by mudge 
Left-handed Complement 