(CNN) — If you’ve been paying attention to health news recently, you may have noticed a subtle but real shift in the way society discusses body weight. Beyond health care dollarsDespite changing attitudes about larger bodies, excess weight does carry a price. From a health care standpoint, it costs the country a lot of money. According to a study published in the journal The Lancet in 2020, 27% of total health care expenditures in 2016 — about $730.4 billion — could be attributed to “modifiable risk factors” for preventable health conditions like cardiovascular disease. That was eight years ago, when our total health care expenditure was $2.7 trillion, according to the study.

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