Topic for Oct. 12. ( Thur )

[Alex !]

The economics of barbarism and inequality read through obesity

The themes that heated up the U.S. stock market this year were artificial intelligence and obesity. In the background are Nvidia and pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.

Eli Lilly's opponent, which has become the 10th largest company in the world by market capitalization, is surprisingly the Danish company Novo Nordisk.

Lilly is fiercely pursuing Novo Nordisk, which is ahead in obesity. Novo Nordisk's injectable obesity treatment, Wygobi Syndrome, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2021, caused a stir. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also introduced this drug as his secret to losing weight.

There has been a shortage of medicines around the world, making it difficult to obtain them even with a prescription. Although it is not available in Korea, its popularity is skyrocketing among those with money to spare.

Humanity is currently fighting a difficult war against hunger and obesity. That's another form of inequality. Due to high inflation, the price of hamburgers has also risen, making it a burden for ordinary people to even have a meal for lunch.

Meanwhile, modern people's medical expenses related to obesity are increasing. The government is sighing over the increasing financial burden of health insurance due to obesity.

If your body mass index (BMI), which is your weight (kg) divided by the square of your height (m), is 30 or more, you are usually called obese.

BMI has the disadvantage of not reflecting muscle mass, genetic causes, and individual differences. We looked at the world history of obesity through three factors that cause obesity.

First of all, it's genes. Who is the main character in history who provided the obesity genes in our bodies? Swedish geneticist Svante Pebo, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, helped unlock the key.

He discovered the process of human evolution by studying the connection between the genomes of ancient humans and modern humans.

Scientists like him discovered more than 400 genes involved in obesity. A representative example is the fat accumulation control gene (FTO), which has a significant impact on increasing body fat.

As Febo claims, the origin of the obesity gene dates back to Neanderthals 350,000 years ago. They obtained food intermittently through hunting and hunting. In order to survive the cold, you had to store fat in your body and survive.

More than 98% of Homo sapiens' genes and less than 2% of Neanderthal genes combine to make up the DNA of modern humans. Neanderthal genes indicate that our human body was genetically designed to be unfavorable to absorbing sugar.

The influence of genes varies from person to person. Data from Harvard University Medical School shows that as little as 25% and as much as 70-80% of obesity is caused by genes.

The second is the issue of the eating environment. Modern people consume more calories than they need. The fast food available on the streets is high in calories but not good for health and nutrition.

Sugar is a type of carbohydrate and is an important energy source for the body. Excessive consumption of sugar increases the risk of obesity by 1.39 times due to fat accumulation.

During the Renaissance, sugar was an effective medicine for treating colds and tuberculosis. In the 16th century, Europe consumed sugar as a luxury good to show off its wealth and power.

Due to the aristocracy's tendency to show off, sugar finally meets black tea. It was intended to symbolize power as an ‘aristocratic food’, a measure of wealth and power.

Sugar is all too common in the 21st century. Sugar first appeared on Korea's public tables in the mid-1950s, when sugar mills were established.

Everyone can now enjoy the sweet taste of pure white, which was enjoyed only by a few upper class people. We now live in a society where we have excessive access to sugar.

The third cause of obesity is modern people’s chronic lack of exercise. This is a problem that has arisen as sitting work has become more common.

Common examples of adult metabolic diseases include high blood pressure, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and abdominal obesity.

The world's obese population (adults) is estimated to be 1 billion in 2030. It is double the 500 million people in 2010.

Obesity genes, which were necessary for survival, have now become the source of all diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined obesity as a treatable disease since 1996.

Obesity has been called a global epidemic. In the world, far more people are dying from obesity than from hunger.

In 2011, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) announced that the number of obese people around the world exceeded the number of hungry people suffering from malnutrition.

In 2010, approximately 20% of the global population was obese. The number of starving people suffering from malnutrition exceeds 15%. Although it was the result of the interaction of free market forces, the federation commented, “Something is going wrong.”

The number one cause of death worldwide is cardiovascular disease. A representative example is arteriosclerosis, in which cholesterol or neutral fat accumulates in blood vessels, narrowing them, hardening them, and eventually clogging them.

Smoking cessation and obesity prevention are the most important ways to prevent cardiovascular disease. If you have diabetes, you must properly control your blood sugar through lifestyle and drug treatment.

In Korea, the first cause of death is cancer and the second is cardiovascular disease.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a report titled ‘Alternative Futures for Global Food and Agriculture’ in 2016. It was recommended to impose taxes on harmful foods such as high-fat foods and junk foods.