It sounds ridiculous, but the link between obesity and global warming is the newest theory out there, according to an Oct. 30 article in the New York Times. The latest obesity debate was discussed in an article by Sheldon H. Jacobson of the University of Illinois, and his doctoral student, Laura McLay. Their paper calculates how much extra gas is used to transport obese Americans and how it is affecting our economy. They are not the only ones who believe this new theory.
A letter was published last year in the American Journal of Public Health. Its authors, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, calculated how much extra fuel airlines spend hauling around obese Americans. The answer, based on the extra 10 pounds the average American gained in the ’90s, is 350 million gallons. That is an extra 3.8 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Of course some disagree, like Kelly Brownell, for instance, who is the director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale. He said, “People are out scouring the landscape for things that make obese people look bad.”
Whatever the case may be, one thing is for sure: Overweight people are everywhere in this country. Maybe using economic incentives will help obese Americans shed those hefty pounds. Martin B. Schmidt, an economist at the College of William and Mary suggests a tax on food purchased at drive-through windows. “We tax cigarettes in part because of their health cost,” he wrote. “Similarly, the individual’s decision to lead a sedentary lifestyle will end up costing taxpayers.”
This seems like a logical idea, but many people are skeptical like Eric Oliver, a political scientist at the University of Chicago. Oliver’s first instinct was to laugh at the gas and drive-through arguments. But such claims often get wide attention, he says, and take on a life of their own. “This is like, let’s find another reason to scapegoat fat people,” Oliver said.
According to the article, “One problem with blaming people for being fat, obesity researchers say, is that getting thin is not like quitting smoking. People struggle to stop smoking, but many, in the end, succeed. Obesity is different. It’s not that the obese don’t care. Instead, as science has shown over and over, they have limited personal control over their weight.”
A perfect example of this is a paper published on Oct. 10 on obesity. Dr. Brownell (of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale) and his colleagues studied more than 3,000 overweight people. They asked them about their experiences of stigmatization and discrimination and how they responded. As expected, almost everyone said they ate more.
It seems that being obese is a vicious cycle, and even with such blatant claims, blaming global warming and other socioeconomic problems on the obese does nothing to help the situation. It is far more detrimental to blame fat Americans for everything that’s gone wrong in our country.
Instead, our government should focus on helping obese people fight the disease. With time and patience, obese Americans could be a stigma of the past.