Let’s drink (and eat) to our obese economic heroes

Egger, Garry J

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb03340.x

Topics

Although it is imperative to keep trying, the fight against obesity is unlikely to be successful until economists, politicians and health scientists agree on similar goals

Consider this: the world has just been through one of the worst economic crises since the Great Depression, yet Australia seems to have come through it swimmingly — at least for the moment.

1 Centre for Health Promotion Research, Sydney, NSW.
2 Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW.

Correspondence: eggergj@ozemail.com.au

1. Roget PM. Thesaurus of English words and phrases. Burnt Mill, Essex: Longman, 1987.
2. House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing. Weighing it up: obesity in Australia. Canberra: Parliament of Australia, 2009. http://www.aph.gov.au/House/committee/haa/obesity/report.htm (accessed Oct 2009).
3. Kersh R, Morone J. The politics of obesity: seven steps to government action. Health Aff (Millwood) 2002; 21: 142-153.
4. Trogdon JG, Hylands T. Nationally representative medical costs of diabetes by time since diagnosis. Diabetes Care 2008; 31: 2307-2312.
5. AusDiab Study. Diabesity and associated disorders in Australia 2000: the accelerating epidemic. Melbourne: International Diabetes Institute, 2000.
6. Riley JC. Rising life expectancy: a global history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
7. Bartlett AA. What part of arithmetic does not hold in Boulder? (Printed in the Boulder Daily Camera, 3 Feb 2008). http://www.albartlett.org/articles/art2008jan29.html (accessed Oct 2009).
8. Mill JS. Principles of political economy with some of their applications to social philosophy (first published 1848). Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2004.
9. Tapia Granados JA, Ionides EL. The reversal of the relation between economic growth and health progress: Sweden in the 19th and 20th centuries. J Health Econ 2008; 27: 544-563.
10. Egger G. Dousing our inflammatory environment(s): is personal carbon trading an option for reducing obesity — and climate change? Obes Rev 2008; 9: 456-463.
11. Wilkinson R, Pickett K. The spirit level: why more equal societies almost always do better. London: Penguin, 2009.

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.