Although people may assert that health is their top priority, when it comes to everyday life it would appear that concern is for medical interventions rather than personal responsibility . The 60% of the population that are either overweight or obese are testament that health although an important consideration when it comes to treatment, isn’t translating to action on an individual level. Conversely the assertion that people are taking home the environmental message and reducing their energy, water, food waste and rejecting plastic bags is also an unsubstantiated assertion. People are getting fatter the environment degraded and natural resources exhausted, clear evidence our insatiable appetites aren’t just confined to making us fat. Petroleum and food calories are inexorably linked from production on the farm to transportation to our tables there is a plausible correlation between rising sea levels and increasing waist lines.
A research paper published in the International journal of epidemiology has asserted that a lean population such as Vietnam consumes up to 20% less food than a US population, where over 40% are obese. The London school of hygiene have stated that a lean population of 1 billion would emit I billion tonnes less Co2 annually than a fatter one. Obesity is on the rise in almost every country and being overweight is metaphorically like driving around in a gas guzzler.
It would seem that the only energy being conserved by our society is through lack of physical activity, although we all want better health and a sustainable environment it won’t happen until we acknowledge obesity and environmental degradation are inextricably linked.
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