TORONTO – British researchers are telling those of us worried about population overload to first take a look at our shopping carts while at the grocery store.
Rising population numbers aren’t what we should be concerned about, it’s how much we eat and how much we weigh, they say in a new report.
Researchers from the London School of Hygiene offered a different way of looking at food sustainability and the globe’s use of resources in a study published Monday in the journal BMC Health.
They say that if adult citizens of the world stepped on a scale – we’d collectively weigh a hefty 287 million tonnes. They estimate that 15 million tonnes of this mass is due to excess weight. Obesity is behind another 3.5 million tonnes.
Moreover, North Americans have been singled out as the worst culprits.
While North America is home to only six per cent of the population, it’s responsible for over a third of the world’s obesity.
Contrast that with Asia’s statistics. The gargantuan continent has more than 60 per cent of the world’s population but accounts for only 13 per cent of the globe’s obesity crisis.
It appears we could be eating our way to depleted food storages, the researchers warn.
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How much a person weighs is as important as population numbers because it helps to point to how much energy we’re consuming and what our ecological impact is, they suggest.
“Everyone accepts that population growth threatens global environmental sustainability – our study shows that population fatness is also a major threat. Unless we tackle both population and fatness our chances are slim,” Ian Roberts, a professor who led the research, said in a statement.
After sifting through World Health Organization data, the researchers say the world’s average weight is about 62 kilograms or 137 pounds. But society is marked by huge disparities in weight – in North America, the average is 80 kilograms or 178 pounds. That’s a third higher than Asia’s 127 pound average.
If countries shared the same body mass index as the U.S., the total human biomass would hit 63 million tonnes – that’s the weight of an extra billion people.
But Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, a University of Ottawa professor and former family medicine chair of the Canadian Obesity Network, warns the study’s readers to be cautious of its overall message.
He notes that potential food scarcity won’t likely affect what typically causes weight gain.
“I would certainly agree that if in fact people were eating markedly more, then theoretically that could impact food, but the foods that tend to increase weight are not exactly foods that are in short supply around the globe,” he said.
He points to processed foods made with simple sugars and simple oils as items that won’t be hurt by food shortages.
“We’re talking about fresh produce and grains.”
He says those dealing with obesity are often vilified.
“You can’t blame these shortages on people who struggle with their weight. It’s not that it’s nonsensical but it’s a very stigmatizing statement to suggest that people are going to eat the world out of house and home,” he said.
Still, the world is “getting bigger fast,” he admits, and it’s largely due to an adoption of Western-style eating habits that are now seeping into other nations.
“This is the modern day Western-style approach to food where we rely on meals purchased outside the home, we rely on boxes rather than cooking.”
He said Asia might have overall lower weight, but China is witnessing the highest growth in obesity rates anywhere in the world.
Top five worst offenders, according to the London School of Hygiene study:
1. United States: 111 million people are overweight; 23 million are obese
2. Russia: 22 million people are overweight; 8 million are obese
3. Egypt: 4 million people are overweight; 1 million are obese
4. Mexico: 4 million people are overweight; 1 million are obese
5. Germany: 4 million people are overweight and 0.7 million are obese
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