U.S. Capitalism’s Contributions to the Obesity Epidemic and the Resulting Economic Damage

The obesity epidemic is largely ignored by politicians, yet its horrible impact can be seen across every economic and social sphere in the United States. While obesity rates rise worldwide, the U.S. is leading the trend according the World Obesity Database. What causes the United States to lead countries like Finland and Sweden by a margin of over twenty percent in obesity? Why have these 2 countries obesity rates halted since 1996 and 2002, respectively, while the majority of the world continues to become more obese? I propose the economic inequality created by U.S. capitalism has exacerbated the obesity rates, while the Nordic model economies of these nations helped halt the trend. Not only is the United States’ economic system contributing to the issue, but it is also being hampered by the issue it helped create. The economic impact is covered by Ludwig and Rogoff in an opinion piece detailing the damages obesity has caused and will cause to our economy. There are various proposed solutions to this problem, but I advocate for a solution at the policy level. While some may suggest a pathological solution to obesity, research like that of Dr. Beshel shows not only the temporal distance, but also the difficulties associated with a pathological solution.


In Dr. Beshel’s research, upd1, a ligand present in Drosophila is found to be analogous to mammalian leptin. Leptin deficiency is found in obese individuals and leads to “increased “liking” for foods (Domingos et al., 2013), greater sensitivity to food cues (Thanos et al., 2013), hyperphagia (Halaas et al., 1995), and markedly increased body mass due to increased fat stores (Halaas et al., 1995)”(Beshel et al., 2017). The weight gain found from upd1 inhibition was not indicative of an obese phenotype though, and the weight gain was “modest” (Beshel et al., 2017). This modest weight gain was then exacerbated by a changing of environmental conditions. Specifically, this change introduced a high-fat diet, just as high-fat diets have become more common in the U.S. with the rise of fast food. Another ligand known to have connections to food intake and desire is npf. Npf is an analog to mammalian neuropeptide Y, and knockdown of Domeless on npf resulted in again “weight gain on standard media (Figure 3F), and increased fat deposition (Figure 3G)” (Beshel et al., 2017). The weight gain was also again “exacerbated by exposure to an obesogenic environment” (Beshel et al., 2017). From these findings we can conclude a high-fat diet is at least partially responsible for creating obesity. Despite being upd1 deficient, weight gain in the flies was not nearly as damning until the presentation of an obesogenic environment. From this, we can understand that environmental factors play a key role in obesity. Unfortunately, while Beshel’s work was extremely compelling and promising in developing a pathological solution for leptin deficiency (and as a result obesity), we do not understand “the basic mechanisms regulating upd1(& leptin) synthesis and signaling” (Beshel et al., 2017). This lack of understanding is a scary conclusion to a study that seems to finally be unveiling the physiological causes of obesity. While I believe research like this is and always will be extremely important, the rise of obesity is too fast to avoid immediate action.


The growth of obesity in the United States is progressing at an absurd rate, more than doubling from 1975-2015 (World Obesity Database). This shocking growth has had a grave impact on our economy, and without intervention will continue to hurt the entire country. Complications of obesity are known to cause diabetes, and “the annual cost of diabetes in 2017 was $327 billion” (The Toll of America's Obesity). This figure is staggering as it is slightly more than half of our defense budget, which is the highest in the world by a considerable margin, a four-hundred million dollar margin to be exact. Therefore, the U.S. spends more on diabetes, in which “90%” (The Toll of America's Obesity) of cases are Type 2 meaning they are linked to obesity, than the second highest nation’s defense spending. As I suggested earlier, “The economic burden hits low-income … populations the hardest”. Obesity can ruin a low-income individual’s salary and livelihood purely because of costs, which inhibits the ability to eat healthy, creating a “vicious cycle of poverty and diet-related disease.” Obesity is creating fiscal pressure at the top of the ladder as well, as budgeting becomes all the more difficult with more necessary spending on medical programs. Unfortunately, the government has decided to prioritize individual gain over the health of the population. Regardless of party, many politicians have corporate influences, and the policies recently passed show this corporate influence on a pedestal. Current food policy rewards corporations who use “low nutritional commodities”, “mostly refined grains and added sugars”. These policies reflect a shift toward the fast food kingdom we live in today, with nutritional food becoming a gentrified luxury found at a marked up price. From this New York Times article and Beshel’s research, I have deduced the cause of obesity to be from a high-fat food environment that disproportionately affects the lower class. What if I told you the same system responsible for the wealth inequality resulting in a large lower class also is responsible for recent food policies?


In his study, “Obesity as malnutrition: The role of capitalism in the obesity global epidemic”, Jonathan C.K. Wells agrees with my argument, saying “In the modern world, it is primarily global economic forces that perturb nutritional status within and across generations.” In this study, Wells details the “obesogenic niche” which is an abstract concept that describes multiple factors that predispose one to weight gain. He then explains the historical impact of capitalism on nutrition, specifically how it perpetuated under-nutrition in the past and now shifts towards over-nutrition for the middle classes and continued under-nutrition for the lower class. For Wells, under and over-nutrition is not referring to the nutritional value of foods, rather the amount of food consumed by a population as a whole. Capitalism will always demand cheap labor as a founding characteristic, and this cheap labor leads to the previously mentioned under-nutrition. Lately though, with the prevalence of cheap, non-nutritional food rising, and the wealth becoming more divided, capitalism has also introduced over-nutrition to the wealthy population.


From this analysis, I’ve concluded that environmental, and as a result, economic factors are key contributors to the obesity epidemic in the United States. While pathological research is extremely important, and the progress made by Dr. Beshel is promising, the complications found from the results of the study also show a pathological fix is far from close. While other factors definitely influence lower obesity rates in Nordic nations, such as better nutrition education and smaller portion sizes, the largest influence is the economy. In Nordic countries, wealth is much more evenly distributed and healthy food is much more accessible. The United States’ form of capitalism does the exact opposite, as shown by the New York Times article. The current food policy in the U.S. creates an “obesogenic environment” where fast food and high fat diets are promoted. In conclusion, I believe we need to change policies to better value nutritional food, and stop allowing fast food to take advantage of low income individuals.


Works cited:


Ludwig, David S., and Kenneth S. Rogoff. “The Toll of America's Obesity.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Aug. 2018,.


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/opinion/cost-diabetes-obesity-budget.html





Beshel, J. “A Leptin Analog Locally Produced in the Brain Acts via a Conserved Neural Circuit to Modulate Obesity-Linked Behaviors in Drosophila.” Cell Metabolism, Cell Press, 10 Jan. 2017,


https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(16)30646-5?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1550413116306465%3Fshowall%





Wells, J C. “Obesity as Malnutrition: the Role of Capitalism in the Obesity Global Epidemic.” American Journal of Human Biology : the Official Journal of the Human Biology Council., U.S. National Library of Medicine, May 2012,


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22383142/


Full text : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajhb.22253





World Obesity Database





https://www.worldobesity.org/data/