Economic insecurity increases obesity

The stress that causes having no money and / or being limited of resources, causes that the people who live in the countries of "free market", are more prone to become obese , revealed a study published in the magazine Economics and Human Biology.

In accordance with Avner Offer , professor of economic history and director of research, policies to reduce obesity levels tend to focus on encouraging people to take care of themselves, but this study suggests that obesity It has broader social causes:

"The economic benefits of flexible and open markets have a cost in terms of public and personal health that is rarely taken into account," says the expert.

The Offer team compared four English speaking countries with liberal market forms (United States, Great Britain, Canada and Australia) with seven relatively wealthy nations in Europe that traditionally have greater social protection (Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden) and found that the first four presented on average one third more than obesity , linked by economic insecurity.

According to Offer, the emergence and increase of obesity Large-scale began during the 1980s, which coincides with the rise of market liberalism in English-speaking countries.

To rule out other factors, the research team measured the impact of the availability of high-calorie foods, as well as fast-food chains and supermarkets. Their findings indicate that "the availability of fast food has half the effect of economic insecurity on the prevalence of obesity ".


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