Overweight people produce more greenhouse gases, researchers say. Therefore, watching your weight does more than protect your health. It also may help fight climate change.
Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine say that because food production is a major source of greenhouse gases, a population with normal weight, such as in Vietnam, consumes about 20 percent less food and produces fewer greenhouse gases than a population in which 40 percent of people are too heavy and fat, a rate close to that of the United States.
Also, less energy is required to transport slim people. say Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts, the lead researchers of the study.
They found that a physically fit population of a billion people would give off 1,000 million tons less transportationrelated wastes a year than an overweight population would give off. "When it comes to food consumption (消耗), moving about in a heavy body is like driving around in a car that burns a lot of gas, " the researchers said. "The heavier our bodies become, the harder and more unpleasant it is to move about in them, and the more dependent we become on our cars. Staying slim is good for health and for the environment."
"We need to do a lot more to stop the global trend toward fatness and recognize it as a key factor in the battle to reduce greenhouse gases and control climate change, " they said.
However, they noted that the trend is in the opposite direction. The number of overweight people is increasing in nearly every country. The male who were overweight in England, for example, increased from 20 percent to 27.3 percent between 1999 and 2009, while the female increased from 25.8 percent to 29.6 percent.
