US obesity due to more calories, not less exercise: Study
By Caroline Scott-Thomas, 11-May-2009
From Food Navigator
Related topics: Science & Nutrition
Increased calorie intake – rather than lack of exercise – is nearly exclusively responsible for the obesity epidemic in the US, according to a new study presented at the European Congress on Obesity on Friday.
Although the World Health Organization (WHO) sees obesity as a global epidemic, the US still heads the list, with obesity affecting over a third of American adults.
The study is potentially important for the food and beverage industry, which has taken a dual approach to tackling obesity. It has focused its efforts not only on product reformulation to reduce trans fats, saturated fats and sugar, but also on encouraging increased physical activity.
But the study’s leader, Professor Boyd Swinburn, chair of population health and director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University in Australia, said: “There have been a lot of assumptions that both reduced physical activity and increased energy intake have been major drivers of the obesity epidemic…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.”
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