Burdens

[flexibeast]

Let's see how much media coverage this study gets:

Dutch researchers have confirmed what fat smokers have waited years to hear - that healthy people are actually a greater burden on the state, because they live longer and oblige the taxpayer to deal with the cost of "lingering diseases of old age like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s".

That's according to the Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and Environment, which found that while "a person of normal weight costs on average £210,000 over their lifetime", a smoker clocks up just £165,000 and the obese run up an average £187,000 bill.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/05/healthy_tax_burden/

[ Cross-posted to transfats and fat_feminist. ]