Raise your hand if you are overweight. Wow. That’s a lot of hands out there.
Today, two-thirds of adults are overweight and, of these, nearly 50 percent are obese.
We all know the toll obesity takes on individuals. But there is also a significant toll on our economy as well. The annual health care cost of obesity in the U.S. has doubled in less than a decade and now approaches $147 billion a year. American businesses incur more than $13 billion every year in health insurance claims, paid sick leave and disability and life insurance.
As a former Atlanta CEO, I know that businesses’ bottom lines cannot continue to absorb such deep costs.
A 1,000-employee company will incur $285,000 per year in obesity-related costs. Overweight and obese individuals have more chronic health problems, resulting in increased disability costs due to tens of millions of lost workdays annually. Indirect costs of employee absenteeism include the increased burden on other workers, cost of training replacement employees, and/or overtime pay to other employees.
Many companies have taken positive steps to address the obesity problem at the workplace — encouraging healthy eating habits and exercise.
But, from a business perspective, we need a long-term strategy. If we want to ensure a healthy future work force, we have to address obesity at an early age.
Our schools are a great place to start. Many children get up to half of their daily calories from school meals. But the vast majority of our public schools serve meals that fail to meet nutrition standards, largely because of insufficient funding.
Studies have shown that starting with our youngest children can significantly change eating and exercise habits. One study worked with Head Start children who were also eligible for USDA-funded school meals. It randomly assigned 12 Head Start programs to either receive lessons on healthy eating or not.
Children in the intervention classroom received lessons about healthy eating from puppets, and they increased their activity levels while their parents received newsletters and “homework” assignments, such as tracking their child’s vegetable and fruit consumption for a week. Parents who completed the homework assignments received a $5 grocery coupon for each assignment completed.
The children not in the intervention received health education on different issues, but nothing targeting eating habits. Those children gained 16 percent more weight over the following two years than children in the healthy eating program.
This summer, Congress can take another important step to combat child obesity by supporting the U.S. Department of Agriculture in updating outdated school meals standards and improving the quality of meals served to millions of children each day. It is critical to children’s health — and our economic future — that children are getting the healthiest meals we can provide.
Any business person is sensitive to the difficult budget choices our nation is facing, and I support getting our financial house in order. But I also support spending our limited revenues on what we know works and what can help protect America’s long-term economic growth and security.
Current trends in child obesity will only increase the already exorbitant costs our economy and businesses are paying for health care. That is why additional support to help our schools meet new nutritional guidelines must be a national priority.
Ron Terwilliger, former CEO and chairman of Trammel Crow Residential and a former owner of the Atlanta Dream basketball team, is a member of the national business group America’s Edge.
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