Investment Themes – Obesity

A 2009 U.S. Department of Defense study found that 75% of Americans aged between 17 – 24 years old are unable to join their military for one or more of the following reasons.

Either they are too heavy, haven’t graduated from high school, have criminal records or abuse drugs.

Although there are also other disqualifiers such as asthma, my initial response was – Wow!

Being overweight is the leading reason for being medically rejected, which I’ll focus on for this post.

The investment ideas that flow from this statistic can range from kidney dialysis providers, pharmaceutical companies, sweetener alternatives such as Stevia, bariatric “lap-banding” surgery, dietary supplements and fads, orthopaedic knee replacements, shorter life expectancy, funeral services or junk food manufacturers.