Consuming just under 10 percent of gross domestic product of most developed nations, health care can form an enormous part of a country's economy. In 2003, health care costs paid to hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, diagnostic laboratories, pharmacies, medical device manufacturers and other components of the health care system, consumed 16.3 percent of the GDP of the United States, the largest of any country in the world. For the United States, the health care share of gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to hold steady in 2006 before resuming its historical upward trend, reaching 19.5 percent of GDP by 2016. In 2001, for the OECD countries the average was 8.4 percent with the United States (13.9%), Switzerland (10.9%), and Germany (10.7%) being the top three.

As obesity is one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide and with rates of adult and childhood obesity increasing, authorities view it as one of the most serious public health problem of the 21st century. Obesity is often stigmatized in the modern Western world. However, it has been perceived as a symbol of wealth and fertility at other times in history and still is in many parts of Africa.