Leading a Healthy Lifestyle Supports the Country’s Growth

You may not be aware of it but failure to lead a healthy lifestyle is not only costly in terms of health, but also from the economic point of view.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that obesity accounts for 2 and 6 percent of total health care cost in developed countries.
Can you say then that the health care cost in developing countries like the Philippines is minimal and tolerable? Not at all. The burgeoning number of idle people takes its toll in the citizenry’s health and productivity.
The Filipinos love to eat. But even idle people tend to eat more despite prevalent job inadequacies. This accounts for the increasing number of plump and pudgy Pinoys.
Obesity also has a severe impact in terms of lost productivity. Studies have reported a strong relationship between obesity, decreased physical functioning and a reduction in overall productivity. Obesity affects productivity not only by an increase in mortality, but also through an increase in morbidity, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) notes.
A FAO report compiled by Daniel J. Hoffman, Research Fellow at the New York Obesity Research Center of Columbia University discloses: “Increased morbidity (aberrant behavior) removes individuals from the workforce but leaves them in a society where they are still able to place demands in terms of food and health care needs.”
Well, overeating appears to be seemingly unacceptable from a moral point of view in a country in which more Pinoys are still chronically hungry.
While experts concede that genes play an important factor in determining a person’s susceptibility to weight gain, they stress that a person’s energy balance is determined by calorie intake and physical activity.
In short, obesity or being over-weight, call it what you will, is mostly the result of a bad lifestyle that courts unproductiveness and morbidity. On the contrary, common sense would tell us that – in a way – leading a healthy lifestyle supports the country’s growth and development.

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