Global obesity is becoming a major problem. And now we have evidence that it's linked to debt and the economy. As reported here, one in 2 adults is currently overweight and 1 in 6 is obese across OECD countries. It's not just the adults either, one in three kids is overweight.
According to the stats here, America is the fattest country, followed by Mexico, Britain, Slovakia, Greece and Australia.
And now a new study from the University of Mainz in Germany, reported here, has found that levels of obesity are linked to debt. The researchers found that obesity had a higher prevalence among over-indebted people compared to the general population. That's even adjusted for other factors like level of education, income, smoking, gender and age. In other words, indebtedness by itself contributed to obesity.
Why is this? The researchers say that people with financial difficulties are more likely to buy cheaper packaged and processed foods that are generally high in fat and sugar content. That easily leads to increased daily calorie consumption. They also suggested that financially stressed people are more likely to be stressed, and as a result they will eat more.
It's not coincidental that America is the fattest country where, according to these figures, the average credit card debt total per household is $15,788 and where US public debt now stands at 95% of GDP.
No wonder Americans are fat.
Yes Psychologically there a mental imbalance if a person is buried under high debt. I think one should keep the debt as low as possible to remove mental strain.