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Budgets thin down as waistlines beef up
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photo courtesy of healthspablog.org
America’s wellness is being hit hard by the current economic climate, laying down the framework for a much larger problem. The “mortgage meltdown” may pale in comparison to what could be called the impending “health meltdown.”
As companies and consumers alike revise their spending, the line separating wants from needs can become incredibly focused. Usually the expenses cut first are those deemed as luxury, sometimes causing the line that divides cost from value to blur. Sadly, wellness plans, personal training sessions, outdoor activities and gym memberships often fall under this category. Compounding this problem is the increased consumption of inexpensive fast food. Such as evidenced by companies like McDonalds who are reporting substantial earnings during a time when most of corporate America is battling just to keep their heads above water.
Now take one or both of the above mentioned lifestyle shifts and add in the physical effects of stresses associated with a recession - layoffs, a reduction or complete absence of health benefits, an increasingly difficult mortgage payment - and one can begin to see what could be in the making. This monster that is seemingly being forged in the background while we are dealing with “life” won’t disappear when the lights come back on. It can’t be bought away and liquidated like bad securities. The bailout for this “health debt” is within the resolve and strength of ourselves and needs to start now.
Two out of every three Americans are overweight. Think about that for a second. Only one third of our population is a healthy weight and their numbers are rapidly declining. The increase of childhood obesity in the past few decades is a genuinely sobering statistic. Pre recession figures from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention report that over 16% of children are overweight or obese, a number that has tripled since 1980. This has coincided with a five-fold increase in fast food consumption. The direct medical cost of this trend is $127 million, a number that pales in comparison to the bill for adult obesity. The annual medical spending due to overweight and obese adults was estimated to be around $92.6 billion in 2002—9.1 percent of U.S. health expenditures. Once again, these numbers do not reflect the recent trends that the poor economy has helped to fuel.
Leading a healthy lifestyle doesn’t necessitate shopping at Whole Foods every week to ensure the word “organic” is stamped on everything from your bread to your table salt. Nor does it mean lavish weekend ski trips, paying $65 an hour for a personal trainer or dropping $5,000 on a new Pinarello Prince carbon bike frame. These days, wellness can be realized at a bargain - but, like most good deals, it requires a little searching and dedication on behalf of the consumer. This series of articles will focus on providing resources and information to wellness on a budget while hopefully crossing off “the economy” from our list of excuses as to why we’re not in better health.
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