The conclusion of a study conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, isn’t an endorsement of disco tunes and bell-bottom slacks, rather it focuses on people’s weight. The study found that the United Kingdom uses nearly 20% more food today than it did during the 1970’s while the rate of obesity in the country has jumped from 3.5% of the population then, to nearly 40% (four out of every ten people) today.
The culprit is today’s diet with meals that feature much larger servings of meat and smaller servings of vegetables compared to average meals of the 1970’s, coupled with declining amounts of exercise among the general population. It’s a combination that has made people larger and heavier today compared with just 40 years ago.
That’s led to a spike in greenhouse gas emissions – both from growing and transporting the extra food people are eating, and then in transporting larger, heavier people around. When you add it all together, the study estimates that the high rate of obesity equates to and additional 60 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions per year in Great Britain alone. And the British are far from the only population that’s getting larger and heavier.
The report concludes: “staying slim is good for health and for the environment.”
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