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Weighing the Costs / 97
According to Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker: "Talk in the nation
recently has been gun violence. But what's killing folks in America, one of the
leading causes of death, is obesity-related diseases." The National Heart,
Lung, and Blood Institute reports that out of the children diagnosed with
type 2 diabetes, 58 percent of them are obese and 16 percent of children have
pre-diabetes.
Protecting Our
Most Precious
“Commodity”
Being overweight or obese costs. Whether our size
limits our lifestyle, the number of friends we have, or
the kinds of jobs we can obtain, or it simply impacts
our most precious commodity—our health—excess
Research Project
This chapter briefly mentioned different costs
of obesity. Choose one of the costs, either for
health care or dieting, and do some more
research online. Find out how often someone
who is overweight or obese has to go to the doctor or hos-
pital, compared to someone who is a healthy weight. Or
see how much money people spend on weight-loss diets,
and how often these diets do not help the person lose the
extra weight. Write down all of dangers that you see con-
nected with spending so much money on health care or
diets.