Why More Debt Might Mean More Fat
Why More Debt Might Mean More Fat
By Matthew Denos
Obesity has been an increasing health problem around the globe. Today more than 400 million individuals worldwide suffer from obesity. This is so many people, that the World Health Organization now considers obesity a global epidemic. In order to understand how to effectively reduce the rates of obesity, it is first necessary to understand its causes.
Researchers at the University of Mainz have helped to uncover one surprising potential cause of obesity: indebtedness. According to Eva Münster’s research, being over-indebted can increase the chances a person is obese by 150%. This finding is particularly relevant given the economic troubles facing so many people even in wealthy nations.
Indebtedness: A Risk Factor For Obesity, Study Shows
German researchers sought to investigate whether over-indebtedness had a significant effect on being overweight. Health issues have been linked to various social and economic factors in the past. Those with lower socioeconomic status generally suffer from more health problems than those of higher socioeconomic level. However, studies into the relationship between obesity and over-indebtedness have not been studied. In this study, over-indebtedness was defined by researchers as the inability to redeem debt in due time as a result of the relation of income and cost of living after a remarkable cutback in standard of living.
Münster’s research was based on two surveys. The first survey was one that examined the health of 949 over-indebted subjects. The second, which served as a control, was an extensive health survey which examined a representative sample of 8,318 citizens of the general German population.
Both surveys examined a variety of socio-economic data. Subjects were asked questions on income, education level, age, sex, and Body Mass Index (BMI, a weight to height ratio used to calculate the level of obesity). In addition, they were asked whether they smoked or experienced depression.
Analysis of the data showed that a link between over-indebtedness and obesity did exist. What’s more, this relationship could not be explained by other socioeconomic variables that have been linked to poor health in other studies. Specifically, obesity had a higher prevalence among over-indebted people compared to the general population, even when this association was adjusted for confounding factors (level of education, income, smoking, gender and age) that could explain this association. This implied that over-indebtedness might actually be a stand-alone cause of obesity.
Why Would Indebtedness Cause Obesity?
Although it may seem unlikely at first that indebtedness could cause obesity, there are some likely explanations. Researchers point out that over-indebtedness would probably affect purchasing habits, and that a change in food choices may lead to increased weight.
Indeed, there is an inverse relationship between the cost of a food and its nutritional content. The majority of inexpensive foods are energy dense, while more expensive foods have lower energy content. For instance, vegetables cost much more per calorie than do common junk foods. Although inexpensive, packaged and processed foods are generally high in fat and sugar content, which can easily lead to increased daily calorie consumption.
Researchers also point out that psychological factors may play a role. A person faced with mounting bills, but no way to pay them, will likely feel stressed out and even depressed. Many people cope with stress by altering eating habits. People are known to eat more when feeling depressed, perhaps because food provides some compensation and positive feelings.
It is easy to see how obesity might result from difficult financial times. Not only do eating options become limited to unhealthy, calorie-laden foods, but depression and stress increase the amount of food eaten. This explanation for why over-indebtedness is linked to obesity seems likely for the German subjects in Münster’s study. But can these findings be generalized to other countries?
Indebtedness and the United States
Some may question whether these results are meaningful for those outside of Germany. This question is especially important with so many people falling into debt even in traditionally wealthy nations like the US. Dr Emanuela Taioli, New York physician, commented that the implications of indebtedness to diet are particularly applicable to the US.
As it turns out, a case can be made that if over-indebtedness leads to obesity in a European country, it might have a similar and even more pronounced effect here in the US where high calorie food is significantly less expensive than healthier alternatives. Indeed, the inverse relationship between energy dense food and food cost is higher in the US than in most other countries, which could imply that people in the US are at the highest risk for economic-related weight gain.
This is unfortunate news for the US, where an increasing number of individuals are out of work and becoming over-indebted, and where an already large proportion of people are overweight. The known links between obesity and other health problems mean that medical costs might go up, which could further increase economic strain.
Münster does give one glimmer of hope: public health measures aimed at lowering the cost of healthy foods could counteract increasing weight gain in the face of economic turmoil. But at the very least, Americans should pay attention to the potential implications of this new study.
The study shows that guiding and assisting over-indebted people in coping with the current financial crisis, not only helps them become debt-free, it also lowers their risk of becoming obese.
Concerned about the rising rate of obesity in the US and abroad, Matthew Denos, PhD, writes articles that keep the public up to date on important health-related research. In his website he provides a Medifast coupon and explains the advantages of clinically studied meal replacement programs.
