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 06 July 2008 00:31 BST

Obese populations 'use 18 per cent more food energy'

Friday, 16 May 2008 08:32
Obese populations would use 18 per cent more food energy than a normal population

Health In Focus 

Obese populations would use 18 per cent more food energy than a normal population, scientists have calculated.

Dr Phil Edwards and Dr Ian Roberts from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine also argue that obese populations would use more transportation fuel energy to transport their increased mass.

As such this will increase fuel energy use further if people, because of their increased body mass, choose to walk less and drive more.

Increased demand on oil for transport, the doctors write in the Lancet journal, affects food supply as oil is a key agricultural input.

Dr Edwards and Dr Roberts argue therefore that promotion of healthy urban transport policies, such as encouraging walking and cycling, would help reduce both world oil demand and global food insecurity.

"Urban transport policies that promote walking and cycling would reduce food prices by reducing the global demand for oil, and promotion of a normal distribution of [body mass index] would reduce the global demand for, and thus the price of, food," the doctors write.

"Decreased car use would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus the need for biofuels, and increased physical activity levels would reduce injury risk and air pollution, improving population health."
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