It's interesting that at the same time well being is going down, obesity, diabetes and depression are increasing according to this study. I wonder how much negative well being is being driven by the obesity epidemic. We already know that obesity has a measurable impact on healthcare spending, does it not stand to reason that it could cause other society wide problems?
Even if you try to eat healthy, the way foods are built and marketed today makes it difficult. Stuff that looks like it should be healthy is sometimes the worst thing you could put in your mouth. Short of eating only meals produced yourself from directly purchased raw ingredients, you're almost guaranteed to fall into the trap.
I'm not advocating for gov't regulation to come save us, but on the other hand it's foolish not to recognize that there is a tremendous amount of manipulation going on in the grocery world. There is a lot less variety there than it looks like.
This chart shows dental care going up a lot. A lot of dental work is more or less discretionary spending. I'd say this shows people care about how they look (also probably why exercise is increasing), but aren't willing to cut back on unhealthy foods.
Further median income has been increasing in the U.S. If poverty causes obesity to increase, I'd expect that since the U.S. economy is rebounding that obesity would start decreasing.
The US real median income rate has only just now surpassed levels seen in 2007 and, before that, 1999; you can read that as, "median income is now higher than ever before", or you can read that as, "US working families lost two full decades worth of wage increases". Both statements would be true.
Furthermore, while median income has increased, the bulk of economic gains are still not making their way into the average household. This is so broadly accepted as true that there's an entire Wikipedia article about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_Unite...
