1. Your Bottom Line and Your
Waistline
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2. How are you feeling? The answer may depend not just
on your physical health but also your financial health.
The wealthy have always lived longer than the poor,
and, according to a 2008 Congressional Budget Office
study, that gap has actually widened in the past few
decades. Possible reasons include the fact that the rich
get better health care and less dangerous jobs. Another
key reason, research suggests, may be obesity.
It's not just that being poorer means you have access to
lower-quality food. It's that economic stress seems to
actually make people hungry.
From the standpoint of evolution, this makes some
sense, says Trenton Smith, an economics professor at
the University of Otago in New Zealand. Fear of
starvation in mice triggers biological reactions that spur
them to overeat. The same occurs in humans, even if
people don't actually believe they're going to starve. "It
happens at a much deeper level than that," Smith says.
Worries about money change brain chemistry, and, "as
a result, you just feel hungry." Smith showed how spikes
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3. in local unemployment rates caused increases in obesity
-- every 1 percent drop in annual income resulted in a
weight increase of about 5.5 pounds.
His results echo other studies: An Oxford University
study last year found the availability of fast food and pre-
processed food had only half the impact on obesity that
economic insecurity did. The study said this explains
why there are more obese people in more capitalistic
countries with weaker social safety nets, like the United
States and the United Kingdom, compared to places like
Norway and Sweden.
People fighting obesity often say that stress causes
them to over-eat. Maybe, Smith says, the best treatment
shouldn't just include diets and exercise, but also some
effective career or financial planning.
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