Hidden costs to U.S. obesity epidemic

With passengers on some United Airlines flights poised to get more seating room, health experts caution against shaming people for their size, as obesity continues to be a chronic health condition for much of the U.S. population.

“While we’re ... working on solving this crisis, we need to accommodate the people that are living with it every day and not discriminate and marginalize them,” said Wendy Scinta, president of the Obesity Medicine Association, based in Denver.

Scinta, who leads the organization of physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other health care providers, praised United Airlines for its announcement last week that the company will buy 29 new regional aircraft, most of which will offer seats an inch wider, with economy seats also getting more legroom.

“It saddens me that we haven’t gotten our arms around this (obesity) epidemic yet,” Scinta said. “But on the other hand, it delights me that we are trying to avoid the fat shaming and bias that we see.”

The U.S. had the world’s highest obesity rate in 2017, according to Michele Cecchini, head of public health for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Develop- ment, a global nonprofit that’s compiled reports on worldwide obesity since the ’70s.

Cecchini said larger seats demonstrate how varied the costs are of obesity.

Not only is being over- weight a risk to a person’s well-being and a strain on the health care system, it trickles down to private businesses, such as airlines, which invest in new equipment and pass along the expense to consumers, Cecchini said.