• Education has a positive impact on health and well-being. Those with more years of schooling are less likely to smoke, drink a lot, be obese, or use illegal drugs. Those who were obese in childhood completed fewer years of school.

• Policies aimed at counteracting the negative effects of obesity through the education system can be of two main types:

First, are policies focused on the educational environment, aimed at promoting healthier lifestyles by exposing children to healthier environments and by providing health education, and second, policies aimed at encouraging higher levels of general education.

• The strength of the correlation between education and obesity is approximately constant throughout the education spectrum. Increasing education at any point along that spectrum would be expected to reduce obesity.  Over longer periods of time, more educated individuals have been less likely to become obese than their less educated counterparts, suggesting that education produces its influence on obesity only in the long term.

• The positive effect of education on obesity is likely to be determined by at least 3 factors:

First, the individual has greater access to health-related information and an improved ability to handle such information; second, the individual has a clearer perception of the risks associated with lifestyle choices; third, the individual has improved self control and consistency of preferences over time.

• Education has been widely documented by researchers as the single variable tied most directly to improved health and longevity. When people are intensely engaged in doing and learning new things, their well-being and happiness can blossom. People with more education get better jobs that pay more money, are less physically demanding, and provide more enjoyment. They live in safer neighborhoods, practice healthier lifestyles, and have less stress. The life-expectancy gap between those with come college education and high school graduates is at least seven years.