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There was a study I read about in Barrons that was noting that places a western diet goes the health care costs then start going up. Other studies have found that a western diet leads to more unhealthy outcomes (increased disease and earlier death).

I state this to point out that there are other variables at plan than just changes in record keeping.

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Healthcare spending goes up. As you’d expect from a country starting to become richer.

Also, please show reliable studies that show that western diets lead to more unhealthy outcomes.

Compared to what, third world diets with their insufficient nutrition and starvation?!

Furthermore food studies are notoriously badly done.

I think the more likely causation here is that higher incomes drive increase in western diets, and higher incomes lead to higher healthcare spending.

Could there be third correlated variable namely income that correlate with both western diet and health care costs? Or even better records of disease and deaths?

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