Chapter 15 Health and Welfare

What is Good Health Anyway?

Local and States governments also need to try to define what is healthy. Not an easy answer.

Take obesity. Over the past 2 decades, The number of children that are considered obese has tripled. Today 18% of children are obese compared to just 4% in the 1970’s.

Obesity contributes to things like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, arthritis, breathing problems, and depression, among others.

Research has attributes 112,000 death per years to obesity. In 2003, the cost to deal with the medical issues of obese people was estimated at $92 billion.

With restaurants like McDonalds, Taco Bell, KFC, that are popular and convenient, that has added to the problem

The state of New York passed a law that required restaurants in that city to not serve trans fats, which has been shown to cause many health issues.

States have also considered taxing soft drinks pointing to the success of taxing cigarettes, but strong lobbying groups have fought against it and so far, it has not been successful.

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