If all Canadians were as slim, active and tobacco-free as British Columbians, the country would reduce its economic burden from bad health by 10 per cent, according to research from - of course - British Columbia.

A study today in the Canadian Journal of Public Health crunched nationwide numbers

to conclude that matching B.C.'s relatively low rates of obesity, inactivity and smoking would save Canadians $5.3 billion annually in both direct medical costs and indirect costs such as disability and shortened lives.

Author Hans Krueger is a health economist with the School of Population and Public Health at the University of B.C.

Since there is debate about the best way to calculate indirect costs, Krueger notes his figures could be off by 17 per cent one way or the other, but are significant nonetheless.

"Everyone recognizes that there are impacts that go beyond the health care system, it's just how you value those from an economic perspective that becomes the issue. Economist rarely agree on anything so we've tried to take a moderate course," said Krueger. "If I thought I was going to lose 10 years of my life (through unhealthy habits), that would mean something to me - it has a value."

Krueger estimates annual savings would be about $1.75 billion for Ontario, $1.5 billion for Quebec, $620 million for Alberta and $350 million for Saskatchewan.

His other key finding describes the leading role obesity plays in health costs. While cancers, heart disease and respiratory ailments from smoking once accounted for the biggest single chunk of avoidable costs, falling rates of tobacco use have changed that. Instead, the rising number of overweight Canadians has made diabetes and joint problems a greater burden.

"From an economic perspective, the impact of excess weight in Canada is now more substantial than that of tobacco smoking," says the report. "Our updated model suggests that in 2013, the annual economic burden attributable to excess weight in Canada was 25 per cent higher than that attributable to tobacco smoking ($23.3 billion versus $18.7 billion)."

Krueger predicts a public health battle similar to the one against tobacco awaits North America as it tries to lose weight. And the issue is much more complex. Food is a necessity and concentrating too much on body size can lead to disordered eating.

But there are also far too many high-calorie foods available, he says. "The food industry, in some ways, is behaving a little bit like the tobacco industry did. It's saying, 'Hey it's not our fault. You need to exercise more and you wouldn't have excess weight.' It's just not true."

And lest we be too smug in this province, Krueger notes that the three main health risk factors vary greatly across the province. Residents of Metro Vancouver and the southwestern part of B.C. tend to weigh less and be more active, likely because of the weather. That could also account for lower fitness levels in the snowy, colder North, he says.

"People in Vancouver are really quite healthy, but if you look up north and in the Interior, not so much. So the variability within B.C. is actually much higher than the variability across the country, but that's another study that hasn't come out yet."

eellis@vancouversun.com