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Obese blamed for the world's ills
BBC News ^ | May 16, 2008 | BBC News

Posted on 05/16/2008 9:29:21 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Obese people are contributing to the world food crisis and climate change, experts say.

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine calculated the obese consume 18% more calories than average.

They are also responsible for using more fuel, which has an environmental impact and drives up food prices as transport and agriculture both use oil.

The result is that the poor struggle to afford food and greenhouse gas emissions rise, the Lancet reported.

It comes as the World Health Organization predicts the obese population will double by 2015 to 700m.

In the UK, nearly a quarter of adults are classed obese, twice as many as there were in the 1980s.

The team found that obese people require 1,680 daily calories to sustain normal energy and another 1,280 to maintain daily activities - a fifth more than normal.

The higher consumption of food has a two-fold effect, researchers said.

First of all the increasing demand for food, drives up production.

This means that agricultural processes are using more oil to meet demand, which contributes to the rising cost of fuel.

The cost of fuel is then passed on in the cost of food, making it more difficult for poorer areas to afford it.

Prices

What is more, the researchers said obese people are likely to rely on transport more and put more strain on that transport because of their mass, which again drives up prices and usage.

But the researchers said there was a solution.

Phil Edwards, who co-authored the article, said: "Urban transport policies that promote walking and cycling would reduce food prices by reducing the global demand for oil and promotion of a normal weight.

And they added: "Decreased car use would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"Transport and food policy and the importance of sustainable transport must not be overlooked."

But Dr David Haslam, of the National Obesity Forum, said it was "stretching it a bit" to blame the obese in the way.

"Really, it is discriminatory towards obese people. They are an easy target at the moment, but I think the causes of climate change and rising food prices is much more complex."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: agriculture; calories; carboncult; climatechange; davidhaslam; demand; environment; foodcrisis; foodprices; globalwarming; globalwarminghoax; greatbritain; lancet; nof; obesity; overweight; supply; thelancet; transportation; uk; who
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1 posted on 05/16/2008 9:29:22 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: 3D-JOY; abner; Abundy; AGreatPer; Albion Wilde; AliVeritas; alisasny; ALlRightAllTheTime; ...

PING!

I’m overweight, so sue me.


2 posted on 05/16/2008 9:30:26 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (To the liberal, there's no sacrifice too big for somebody else to make. --FReeper popdonnelly)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

The second biggest culprit: HUNGER!


3 posted on 05/16/2008 9:30:34 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (This tagline has been banned or suspended.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Raise food prices !


4 posted on 05/16/2008 9:31:22 AM PDT by traumer
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Let’s sacrifice algore to the global warming gods........


5 posted on 05/16/2008 9:31:44 AM PDT by tioga
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To: Jeff Chandler

Methane gas....OMG, what other money making scams can people come up with? I’m sure this research group got paid millions to research this junk!!!!


6 posted on 05/16/2008 9:32:20 AM PDT by mikelets456
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
LOL!!!

free dixie,sw

7 posted on 05/16/2008 9:33:23 AM PDT by stand watie (Resistance to TYRANTS is OBEDIENCE to God. T. Jefferson, 1804)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

This was reported in the “journal” Lancet - you know, the one that reported (fraudulently) that 600,000 Iraqis are dead because of our actions in OIF/OEF.


8 posted on 05/16/2008 9:35:37 AM PDT by sauropod (I'd rather be waterboarded than vote for Juan McCain)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Ted Kennedy comes to mind.


9 posted on 05/16/2008 9:36:46 AM PDT by Proud2BeRight
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

They could say the same thing about immigrants. If the immigrants didn’t migrate they’d be stuck in their home country consuming less food, less fuel and they wouldn’t be obese.


10 posted on 05/16/2008 9:37:16 AM PDT by VeniVidiVici (Ted Kennedy - Codename -> "Bobber")
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Noblesse obese.


11 posted on 05/16/2008 9:37:52 AM PDT by Vaquero (" an armed society is a polite society" Heinlein "MOLON LABE!" Leonidas of Sparta)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Obese people are contributing to the world food crisis and climate change, experts say.

Anything published in the UK can be considered the death rattle of a lost society, and dismissed with contempt.

But in the spirit of good sportsmanship, I will help their article, by summarizing the thought:

"Put fat people on the trains to the Smokers' Camps", is that it? Do I win?

12 posted on 05/16/2008 9:38:57 AM PDT by Gorzaloon
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I thought it was the smokers!?! /sarc


13 posted on 05/16/2008 9:40:14 AM PDT by MortMan (Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. - Alexander Hamilton)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks; Eric Blair 2084
Ping-a-roo Eric. I suspect this will come in handy for you and your excellent nanny state ping list.


14 posted on 05/16/2008 9:43:02 AM PDT by ProfoundMan ( See my profile for hundreds of little freeper pics!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

“Obese people are contributing to the world food crisis and climate change, experts say.”

I thought everybody, and particularly the United States, was responsible for global warming.


15 posted on 05/16/2008 9:44:13 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Concerned about the price of arugula)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

One wonders what the ideal citizen might look like to these folks. Let’s see - skinny, doesn’t move around, doesn’t eat anything, doesn’t use any fossil fuel for entertainment, doesn’t heat his or her house, doesn’t exhale deadly carbon dioxide - I know! A corpse.


16 posted on 05/16/2008 9:45:35 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Wait. I thought that poor people and minorities were more likely to be obese.

So poor people and minorities cause climate change?
17 posted on 05/16/2008 9:46:41 AM PDT by Question Liberal Authority (NOW can we drill for oil?)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

If obese people want to see the future, look at what has been done to smokers for 20 years. The machine created to torture smokers will now be used on you.


18 posted on 05/16/2008 9:46:47 AM PDT by mysterio
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Marxism on the march!


19 posted on 05/16/2008 9:47:12 AM PDT by ChiMark
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
prepared foods, HFCS, junk fed to kids in school lunches, etc, contribute to obesity -

first, go after the chemical companies that load our foods with poisons -

I ‘do’ organic as much as possible, eat NOTHING with HFCS -or things I can't pronounce in them.

I grow veggies and buy from local farmers and otherwise try to eat foods like I grew up with on a little farm in the forests of Maine -

Food manufacturers are intent on one thing: MONEY (and the FDA is in bed with them) - and that includes lots of chemicals to prolong shelf-life = which reduces the consumers “shelf-life”...

Bottom line: we need to take charge of our life/health. We are the only ones, ultimately, who give a rats rump about us.

20 posted on 05/16/2008 9:48:37 AM PDT by maine-iac7 (Typical Gun-Toting, Jesus-Loving Gramma)
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