New book links obesity, climate change to common causes

Foods, physical inactivity key

Steve Hawley, Jun 24, 09.

A new book entitled Globesity: A Planet out of Control draws links between the causes of climate change and obesity, according to Grist. The book was written by four public health researchers.

Among the causes the researchers cite are car cultures, carbon-intensive foods, and physical inactivity resulting from a switch away from manual labor and toward desk jobs.

The article notes:

[Obesity and climate change] spread across the planet in similar ways. Those paying attention to climate change know the planet can’t afford for the developing world to emit carbon dioxide at the same levels as the industrialized world. Public-health workers, too, foresee enormous trouble if developing countries adopt the worst dietary and lifestyle habits of rich countries. That shift is well underway, according to Michelle Holdsworth, Globesity’s lead author and a nutritionist with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Montpellier, France.

The book notes that obesity is skyrocketing even in Mediterranean countries that pride themselves on their healthy diets, largely as a result of physical inactivity. At the same time, climate change and obesity are increasingly affecting developing countries that do not have the resources to cope with either problem.

The article states:

Blaming overweight people isn’t helpful, said Holdsworth, because it masks the bigger story of why more people are gaining weight. She describes “obesidemic environments,” in which schools and workplace cafeterias offer only high-calorie foods; in which urban design discourages walking; in which government subsidies make fresh produce more expensive than potato chips.

...

So here’s some good news: The problems of obesity and climate change may be connected, but so are many solutions. Rethinking neighborhoods to encourage bicycling and walking (and walking school buses), for example, would help on both fronts. Junk food requires more energy to produce than healthy food, so “junk food taxes,” limits on advertising to children, and clear labeling standards would also help both problems. Simply cutting subsidies that give a cost advantage to junk-food staples like corn syrup could do a great deal. But that requires political courage.

“We’re finding a lot of governments are taking the safe option of saying, ‘We need to educate people so they know what they should do.’ That completely ignores the causes of why people eat what they eat and why they aren’t very active,” said Holdsworth.

(Photo credit: Tom Twigg/Grist)