We've stopped smoking, but we're getting fat. Net loss: eight months of life [View All]

We've stopped smoking, but we're getting fat. Net loss: eight months of life



Anyone who's ever quit (or tried to quit) smoking knows that once the puffing stops, the eating begins. And as individual smokers go, so goes the nation: The U.S. has seen smoking rates fall and obesity rates rise in recent decades, and the combination has cut the U.S. life expectancy.

A recent New England Journal of Medicine study of trends in rising obesity and falling smoking rates found that the rising obesity rate has "overwhelmed the positive effects of declines in smoking in multiple scenarios." The study predicts: "If past obesity trends continue unchecked, the negative effects on the health of the U.S. population will increasingly outweigh the positive effects gained from declining smoking rates."

Life Expectancy Down by Eight Months

The study examined health trends collected from national health surveys to forecast life expectancy and quality of life, assuming a 15-year trend of a 20% decline in smoking would continue. That alone should boost life expectancy: Between 2005 and 2020, a typical 18-year-old American's life expectancy should increase by nearly four months based on the decline in smoking.

But over the past 15 years, body-mass index rates shot up 48%. And assuming this trend also continues, the study predicts that 45% of Americans will be obese by 2020. That reduces the typical 18-year-old's life expectancy by just over a year. With less smoking and more obesity, the net loss to the U.S. life expectancy is more than eight months.

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