Obesity runs Cali a $21B tab, and $24B for diabetes

Do you ever wonder where money that could be put to good use is going instead?

Rates of obesity and diabetes in California are well above the national targets and goals. In the state, costs related to obesity are reported to be $21 billion, and as the rate of diabetes jumped 26 percent from 2001 to 2007, direct costs related to the comorbidity have been reported to soak up $24 billion, according to the results of the most recent California Health Interview Survey.

According to researchers from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, two million Californians have been diagnosed with diabetes, and the majority are obese or overweight. In fact, a quarter of adolescents in the state—almost 970,000—are obsese and overweight making the state's rate twice as high as the national target that is set at 5 percent.

Additionally, the rate of diabetes in California is three times higher than the national goal of 2.5 percent of the population.

Kudos, fatsos.