Obesity sends health costs soaring

That is the headline of today's article by Amanda Gardner of HealthDay on the Forbes.com site, which was also featured prominently on the Huffington Post and the Diet Blog:

MONDAY, June 27 (HealthDay News) -- Americans' widening waistlines are the main force behind rising U.S. health care costs, a new study shows. Between 1987 and 2002, the proportion of private health spending attributable to obesity increased more than tenfold, researchers report, from $3.6 billion to $36.5 billion. In the year 2002, obesity-related medical care spending accounted for 11.6 percent of all private health care spending compared to just 2 percent in 1987, concludes an article published today in Health Affairs.