Peter, these sort of studies are as selective as they are cynical. To quote from the same Telegraph article:
However, Professor Klim McPherson, from Oxford University, who co-authored a report warning obesity could cost the NHS £6.5 billion by 2050, said the report did not take into account the social and economic costs of ill-health in younger people.
Writing in PLoS, he warned: “It would be wrong to interpret the findings as meaning that public-health prevention, for example to prevent obesity, has no benefits.
“Quite apart from health-care costs, the other costs to society from obesity are also greater because of absences from work due to illness and employment difficulties; these costs amount to considerably more than health-care costs.”
Even the Dutch academics who authored the study question admitted that "their research did not look at the total costs of obesity and smoking, just the narrowly-prescribed health costs."
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