As the obesity epidemic becomes a global health care crisis, German economists and parliament members have tried to come up with a solution: let’s hold fat people financially responsible for the extra pounds they’re packing, they say.
One person not onboard with the proposed plan, however, is Walter Willett, professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, who says that along with lifestyle, genetics and urban environments also contribute to obesity.
As the obesity epidemic becomes a global health care crisis, German economists and parliament members have tried to come up with a solution: let’s hold fat people financially responsible for the extra pounds they’re packing, they say.
One person not onboard with the proposed plan, however, is Walter Willett, professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, who says that along with lifestyle, genetics and urban environments also contribute to obesity.
ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross agrees. “I think obesity is to some extent out of the control of the individual, and the concept of taxing obese people of any age ostensibly to combat obesity is in fact punitive and is not going to contribute to a solution.”
