Description

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The estimated annual health care cost of obesity-related illness in the United States is $190 billion, with countless more costs in lost mobility, vigor, and life-years. Here, Jonathan Engel reviews the sources of the problem as they have developed over the past 70 years and offers a realistic plan for helping address obesity.

About the Author

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Jonathan Engel is professor of health policy and management at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College, CUNY. He has taught previously at Seton Hall University, the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, and at the School of Public Health at the University of Massachusetts. He served as a staff historian on the President's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, and as the lead author on multiple HIV needs assessments for the city of Newark. In addition, he has conducted strategic design projects for the Kings County Hospital Center, the United Neighborhood Houses of New York, the Edwin Gould Services for Children and Families, and Creative Cities International. His books include Doctors and Reformers, (2002); Poor People's Medicine, (2006); The Epidemic: A History of AIDS, (2006); American Therapy: The Rise of Psychotherapy in the United States, (2008); and Unaffordable: American Healthcare from Johnson to Trump (2018).