Obese People to Blame for Accelerating Global Warming? August 30, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in Alternative, Diet and Nutrition, Diseases, Global Warming, Wellness, environment, medicine.Tags: environment, fat, Global Warming, health, Life, medicine, news, Obese, obesity, Wellness
trackback
Obese People to Blame for Accelerating Global Warming?
by David Gutierrez
(NaturalNews) The weight and consumption habits of the overweight and obese are worsening the pace of global warming, said two researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in a letter to the medical journal Lancet.
It takes more fuel to transport people who are obese and therefore heavier, Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts wrote. In addition, heavier people do not just tend to eat more food: they actually require it. The researchers calculated that it takes an obese person 1,680 calories per day just to maintain their body functioning and another 1,280 to sustain their daily activities. This is 18 percent higher than the caloric intake required for a person with a normal body mass index (BMI).
BMI is a measure of weight relative to height that is used to calculate healthy body weight. A BMI of 18 to 25 is considered normal, while a BMI above 25 is considered overweight and one of 30 or more obese.
But according to Edwards and Roberts, 40 percent of the global population has a BMI in the neighborhood of 30 or more.
“We are all becoming heavier and it is a global responsibility,” Edwards said. “Obesity is a key part of the big picture.”
The production and transportation of food is a major source of greenhouse gases, the researchers noted, with agriculture responsible for a whopping 20 percent of global emissions. They also faulted the overweight for contributing to global food shortages.
“Promotion of a normal distribution of BMI would reduce the global demand for, and thus the price of, food,” the researchers wrote.
Tim Church of Louisiana State University questioned Edwards and Roberts’ focus on obesity, noting that 25 percent of the food produced in the United States is thrown away.
“We throw away far more food than the extra 460 calories per day [that Edwards and Roberts] point out,” Church said. “In other words, most of our food overproduction is due to waste, not overeating.”
Sources for this story include: www.reuters.com, telegraph.co.uk
Actually, it is our government that is MAKING people obese due to all the toxic chemicals in our environment. Most people judge obese people for overeating or eating the wrong foods when alot of obesity has been shown to be caused by toxicity and also by the standard american diet, which can often even be foods that are thought to be healthy for us but are really not.
Feel free to read my blog on eating the right healthy foods, which discusses my long term health challenges, including obesity, despite eating healthy foods.
http://www.chronicillnessfrontiers.com
Well it is more that many people actually are obese, because there are two many added ingrediances to become addicted to the foods. So yes, in a way obese people are making it worse, but that is becuase the production made them addicted to the junk food first. So obese people are not to blame. How come it use to be that only those with hormonal problems were obese, that is because we ate natural food and did not depend on the car for transportation as today.
I think it is splitting hairs to say obesity is what is making global warming worse. I think that obesity, like g.w. is a symtom of a bigger problem facing the world–the unhealthiness of our culture in general.
jh
bodanutrition
What a ridiculous and insulting statement – I am overweight, have been all my life yet I walk 4 – 8k’s a day, live off low fat or no fat food just to keep my weight stabilized, I can’t lose the weight but I am fit and well and work on being healthy but because I am overweight I have to put up with stupid statements made by Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts and feel a freak and not want to be seen, I don’t think Mr Edwards and Mr Roberts would have any idea how statements like that hurt people. They should spend their time trying to alleviate bad foods sold in supermarkets etc. There are plenty of thin people who eat huge amounts of food but don’t put on weight – and don’t exercise but they don’t get ridiculed.
This is intriguing. This is the first time that I’ve heard that a correlation has been made between obesity and global warming. I know they are heavy and will take more time and energy to transport them, but I don’t think this facts will eventually, significantly affect the earth. Well, how many are the obese people in the world compared to the millions who just throw their garbage anywhere?