The results of a new survey by The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggest that obesity, as well as being a global health crisis of epidemic proportions, is also partly responsible for the crisis in the world food supply and in climate change.
Whilst it may seem from recent media coverage that people who are obese are being given a particularly unsympathetic time of it at the moment, the report does contain statistics that suggests that a person’s weight affects the environment as well as their health.
The report found that obese people have a calorific intake which is 18 per cent higher than the average person. These people also use more fuel which, in turn, affects both the environment and causes food prices to rise as agriculture needs oil to run machinery and transport produce.
As a result, the price of food is rising at a steady rate, as are the emissions of greenhouse gasses which are believed to have an influence on climate change and global warming.
A disturbing prediction by the World Health Organisation forecasts that by the year 2015, which is after all a mere 7 years away, the number of clinically obese people in the World will have doubled to a staggering 700 million.
The research also found that as obese people find it more difficult to get around by foot or bike they are far more likely to rely on methods of transport which produce green house gasses and cause oil, and consequently, food prices to rise.
Phil Edward, who is one of the authors of the study, puts forward a possible solution in the report. He suggests that governments should introduce policies that promote walking and cycling.These measures, he says, could save essential fuel and encourage people to maintain a healthy weight. Interesting but not exactly novel! We are not sure exactly how he expects people to change their lifestyle at the behest of some government diktat?
Dr David Hallam of the National Obesity Forum thinks that the report is a little farfetched and that it is unfair to blame overweight people for the ills of the world. He thinks the reasons for climate change and the food crisis are far more complex than the report suggests and that it is yet another example of obese people being negatively targeted.