File this one in the ‘well that makes sense’ category.  A new study was released today which showed that 9.1% of ALL healthcare spending is related to obesity.  This is up from 6.5% in 1998.  Click here to read the article.

If more people ate the kinds of foods we are serving up at modmarket, our country could save billions of dollars in health care costs.  More importantly, I think all the people who were no longer obese would feel a lot better too!

It is shocking to me that food is not regulated they way other products are that cause dramatic increases in health care costs are (cigarettes).  Why not place a tax on really unhealthy foods so they cost the same as healthier options?  If burgers at McDonalds were $5.00 instead of $.99, a lot of people would stop eating them.  People always complain about how expensive it is to eat healthy, yet, it is another classic case of hidden versus visible costs.  The visible costs of eating bad food are quite low, but the hidden ones are all the costs listed in the aforementioned article.  That cheeseburger is costing you $.99 and society is paying the other $4.00 in rising health care costs!  While I think it is unlikely we will see taxes placed on unhealthy foods anytime soon, hopefully more companies like modmarket will emerge that at least give people who are paying attention to all this info, a more reasonably priced, healthy eating alternative!

Tags: boulder, fast food, healthcare, obesity