Select any country in the chart below (click “+add country”). You’ll see rates of overweight and obesity are increasing over time everywhere without exception. Disturbingly, as mentioned in Health in Flames, America has the highest rates of obesity (with the exception of small nations of less than 5million people).
Over half the world will have overweight, obesity by 2035 without significant action
A recent report found that “more than half of the world’s population will” be overweight or obesity “by 2035 without significant action.” In addition, the World Obesity Atlas 2023 “found that childhood obesity could more than double from 2020 levels by 2035.” The report from the World Obesity Federation showed “the cost to society is significant: more than $4 trillion annually by 2035, or 3% of global GDP.”
Why is this happening?
We’re on the Wrong Track
As I’ve explained before, it is due to mindless consumerism and we need to urgently change our spending habits. Sure we can continue to spend ever more mindlessly as our political leaders (on the left and right) urge us to do. They reason that by spending ever more, we’ll eventually innovate our way to being able to not just contain rates of obesity but to actually cure it. Indeed, with drugs like Ozempic we can see that this path is increasingly becoming a reality.
I fear that this will lead many to think that indeed this vindicates the direction our political leaders have laid out for us. It is their overarching societal goal for us to focus on growing GDP above all else. If by going along this path we have cured many infectious diseases (such as tuberculosis, malaria, small pox, and measles among others), and we are now on the cusp of reversing if not curing certain chronic diseases including diabetes, then we must be on the right path – right?
Here’s the problem. We have to differentiate between managing chronic diseases on the one hand and healthy living on the other hand. Yes, we can manage and possibly reverse chronic diseases by following our current trajectory but our goal is not just to treat chronic disease. Our goal is to improve our health, well-being and ultimately our happiness. The current model which pushes productivity and GPD growth leads to highly productive but too often unfulfilled and unhealthy living.
The Science of Happiness Teaches us Productivity is not the Answer
The science of happiness reveals to us that happiness and wellbeing are found in healthy living, spending time with others, spending time outdoors in nature, etc. Mostly these are free of cost and do not require any technological innovation to get us out of our current predicament. These are freely available to us today. Moreover, this sort of living is likely to prevent the development of many of the chronic diseases we experience today. We won’t need a cure for something we never develop.
The choice is yours. If you want to be able to just manage chronic diseases so that you can become increasingly productive like a cog in our economic engine, then continue to follow and do as our politicians would have us do. On the other hand, if you want to follow the science of happiness and actually live a better life, then follow my advice: learn how mindless spending leads to the rise of chronic disease and learn to spend mindfully. The result will be that you will find yourself to be happier, healthier, wealthier, more engaged, and simply better.
BOTTOM LINE: THERE IS A BETTER WAY!
- As John Maynard Keynes said a century ago, people of our time ought to be largely independent of our employers for our income – unfortunately, due to “mindless consumerism”, we are not.
- Mindless consumerism is the underlying reason leading to the rise of chronic disease for 3 major reasons:
- It ties us to dependence on our employers and modern day employment is a health hazard for most (in part due to the sedentary nature of most jobs).
- It has led to environmental changes toxic to our wellbeing:
- (a). We evolved in and are best suited to natural environments and instead we live in increasingly artificial environments.
- (b). Overconsumption has lead us to engineer out the need for meaningful use of our legs for ambulation.
- Finally, it transforms workers to work with blinders on – instead of working for the product or service and receiving money as a side effect, workers focus on making money and the product or service is instead the side effect. The results (with respect to health) is that “food” is no longer food but changed to maximize pleasure and extract profit in spite of the toxicity to our health.
- Based on the science of wellbeing one can derive the philosophy that once basic needs are met, “The best things in life are free” therefore —>
- Most people can live far below their means without sacrificing happiness AND by investing the rest, they can become financially independent of their employers enabling them to be —>
- Happier. Healthier. Wealthier. More engaged. Simply better.
