Obesity: How Politics Makes Us Fat

Abstract

We start with an overview of our first neoliberal epidemic—obesity. Over the last 30 years, obesity rates have doubled in countries such as the UK and the US, with over 20 and 30 per cent (respectively) of adults now considered as obese. We outline the contours of the epidemic, the serious health effects of obesity and the influence of neoliberal economic policies in shaping the development and spread of the disease, and use international comparisons to show how things are — or could be — different in countries that have made different political choices.