Study finds more food is only cause of U.S. obesity

William Atkins
Friday, 08 May 2009 19:46

Science - Health

Australian-led study finds that increased intake of food, and not reduced exercise, is the sole reason why people are getting bigger in the United States. Previous thoughts were than more calories and less exercise were equally to blame. Guess not!


[Updated on 5-11-09: "finds" in the title]

The EurekAlert article “Increased food intake alone explains the increase in body weight in the United States” states that “… the rise in obesity in the United States since the 1970s was virtually all due to increased energy intake.”

The results of the study were presented on Friday, May 8, 2009, at the 17th European Congress on Obesity (ECO2009), held from May 6-9, 2009, in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Boyd Swinburn, the lead author in the study, states "There have been a lot of assumptions that both reduced physical activity and increased energy intake have been major drivers of the obesity epidemic. Until now, nobody has proposed how to quantify their relative contributions to the rise in obesity since the 1970s.” [EurekAlert]

Body adds, “This study demonstrates that the weight gain in the American population seems to be virtually all explained by eating more calories. It appears that changes in physical activity played a minimal role.” [EurekAlert]

Dr. Boyd, the chairperson of Population Health (School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences) at Deakin University (Geelong, Victoria, Australia), is also the director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention (CCOP).

Basically, the authors conclude that, based on their study, to reverse the obesity problem in the United States people with weight problems should reduce the number of calories that they take in each day.

To accomplish similar weight loss, they could exercise more each day.

Page two concludes.