"Economic impact of excess weight now exceeds $1.7 trillion, new Milken Institute report reveals"
I've mentioned the guy who pitched me on kidney dialysis company DaVita back in 2002; and some of the trades implied in Izabella Kaminska's 2016 - 2017 posts on sugar and even earlier: From our Oct. 2, 2012 post "Buffett Bets on the Boomers: End Stage Renal Disease (BRK.B; DVA)":
Around ten years ago a sharp young analyst gave me his five-minute kidneys and dialysis pitch. It made quite an impression on me, I remember it to this day. Unfortunately for him and his firm we were just coming off the Dotbomb crash and everything looked really cheap so I filed the idea under "stuff I'll get to".And last year:
Davita is up seven-fold since that day, $103.44 at the close. Fresenius, the largest in the industry is up ten-bagger in ten years, no lost decade there..
CDC Report: 100 Million Americans Either Diabetic or On Their Way
There's an opportunity in here, somewhere. The direct costs of healthcare for diabetics has to be five grand a year per. That gives us a half-trillion dollar market to address. Plus, who really wants a countryside full of blind amputees on dialysis?And the headline story from AgFunder, March 14:
In the face of obesity, diabetes, and
other health epidemics, food makers are looking for healthier
ingredients that won’t require consumers to compromise on taste.
Excessive sugar consumption is a pervasive health problem throughout the world. It leads to many life-threatening conditions including diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, which has now reached epidemic levels in some parts of the world.Nearly 40% of American adults are obese, according to CDC data, putting them at risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer, while over 100 million Americans have diabetes or prediabetes.How did we get to this staggering, epidemic level of obesity and diabetes?On average, Americans consume 126.4 grams of sugar per day, out-consuming any other country in the world according to The Diabetes Council. Germany and the Netherlands trail behind at roughly 102 grams per person on average, followed by Ireland, Australia, and Belgium and roughly 95 grams per person on average.Despite these health risks and growing public awareness about overconsumption, many consumers can’t seem to swap out their favorite sugary snacks or drinks with healthier alternatives, driving many food product companies to look for solutions that cut caloric impact without sacrificing flavor.
...In 2016 the Financial Times had some of their writers and opinionators weigh in, so to speak, on the Government's proposed sugar tax.Sugar is typically highly-refined and stripped of beneficial antioxidants and minerals, leaving it with a high glycemic index. Despite these downsides, food manufacturers have found it difficult to replace refined sugar with alternatives that pose fewer problems or that have lower caloric impacts. The natural sugar alternatives and replacements that are available can be expensive and may not mix well with existing product formulations.
Singapore’s Nutrition Innovation Raises $5m
Singapore startup Nutrition Innovation is hoping to tap what they estimate to be a $100 billion sugar market with a low-glycemic natural cane sugar product.Nutrition Innovation’s patent-protected process retains the antioxidants and minerals that are naturally occurring in cane sugar, such as magnesium and calcium in a patented process that the company says produces Nucane as a fraction of the cost of refined sugar....MUCH MORE
To my eternal shame I decided the FT needed a little graphical jazzing up and perhaps went too far:
Michelangelo's David Comes Out Against Taxing Sugary Drinks
Drink more sugar!
HT that the big guy was out there, Incidental Economist.Last seen in September 2017's "If You Want To Be Happy, Listen Up. Now! alternative title: The FT's Izabella Kaminska Is...":
I was thinking of calling our tipster the Coincidental Economist because the same day they posted (Mar. 19) the Financial Times' Comment section was having some of their journos weigh in on:...
...trying to destroy one of my upcoming "set it and forget it" trades.
