Discussion of the problem of obesity usually focuses on food and harm to health, but obesity has not only physiological, but also economic consequences: overweight people are less successful in the labor market and earn less slender people. This problem is especially acute for full women, who are much less likely to get an education in college, writes The New York Times.

Based on data from a study of more than 10,000 graduates of the Wisconsin high schools in 1957, scientists concluded that overweight men did not encounter problems in hiring and progressing through the career ladder. But full women performed work with lower salaries and social status than their slender girls, according to the Internet edition for girls and women from 14 to 35 years old Pannochka. Net The true reason, according to the authors of the study, is that for women who are overweight, the probability of obtaining a college diploma is lower, regardless of their abilities, goals or socioeconomic status. Thus, scientists came to the conclusion that a lower level of education is the main reason for low career achievements in overweight women, and this is true for those who subsequently lost weight. In men, such a pattern is not observed, the authors emphasize..

The reason, according to scientists, may be that girls with overweight are more likely to be mocked and isolated at school than boys. Adolescents who are in poor contact with peers and teachers are less likely to go to college. The authors believe that to solve the problem it is necessary not only to promote a healthy lifestyle, but also to change attitudes.

Since obese children are sick of an ever younger age, preventive work should begin in primary school, and public health programs should consider the problem of obesity not a private failure of overweight people, but a matter of national importance. "The economic damage to overweight women is not just a series of personal misfortunes, it can contribute to increasing inequality between the rich and the poor, undermining human capital and the economic productivity of our nation," the authors of the study.

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