Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking

Re:Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking by learc83 on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @04:09PM (#18719651)

Because it has a direct negative impact on the health of other people.

Do you shame people from not getting enough vitamin d? Do you shame them for going into careers that are bad for their health? Do you shame sky divers because its bad for their knees? People who don't use treadmill desks?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking by matchbok on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @05:57PM (#18720741)

Being overweight is a choice that makes our healthcare system enormously more expensive. None of the things you mention are remotely comparable to it.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Being Fit May Be as Good for You as Not Smoking by learc83 on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @11:33PM (#18722534)

Sitting too much is at least in the same league as being overweight, but the extent to which being overweight increases healthcare costs is largely down to the number of people who are overweight. There are many choices that an individual can make that are just as costly that aren't ridiculed.

Furthermore, it's not clear that obese people actually consume more healthcare dollars.

"Although effective obesity prevention leads to a decrease in costs of obesity-related diseases, this decrease is offset by cost increases due to diseases unrelated to obesity in life-years gained."

https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/jo...

[ Parent | on HN ]