Fat People Cause Global Warming, Higher Food Prices

Stating the obvious: "Two scientists write that obese people are disproportionately responsible for high food prices and greenhouse gas emissions because they consume 18% more food energy due to their greater body mass -- and require increased quantities of fuel to transport themselves and the food they eat. 'Promotion of a normal distribution of BMI would reduce the global demand for, and thus the price of, food,' write the authors, Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts of the evocatively named London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine."

And on the plus side. of plus-size..

Weighing more makes us harder for the aliens to suck out of our cars, the reserves mean we'll last longer in the coming famine years, and if any skinny little vegans give us any lip, all we gotta do is sit on 'em to quash the noise...
Seriously, extreme obesity is a darwin rule in action, usually - nobody wants to breed with us, and heart disease/stroke usually kill us "early" - rather like gay marriage, if you don't like 'em, don't join 'em, otherwise, back off: It's hard enough living in a world that wasn't built for us without having some smug, self-righteous ass-hat making comments because, while normal, we don't fit average... only made the worse when it's people who want their particular outside-of-average needs respected who fail the tolerance test...

Re:And on the plus side. of plus-size..

I agree. Plus, when we run out of oil, we can burn them for heat, and they'll burn far longer than skinny people. Plus, when we have to resort to cannibalism, they'll taste better than their skinny and athletic counterparts, who will be tough and gamy. And, they will be far easier to hunt, as they will move slowly and tire quickly.

In conclusion, we should not be trying to eliminate obesity. Rather, we should establish "fat farms" where we can increase their numbers for our future needs.

Re:And on the plus side. of plus-size..

"In conclusion, we should not be trying to eliminate obesity. Rather, we should establish "fat farms" where we can increase their numbers for our future needs."

Welcome to America. What would you like to eat?

Re:And on the plus side. of plus-size..

unlikely, due to their shape skinny people stack better therefore we can farm them at a higher density and store them better. our vegan buddies will also tire faster and become easy pickings since they avoid high energy foods.

Re:And on the plus side. of plus-size..

I agree! It's those damn breeders and their children that really consume resources. ;)

Re:And on the plus side. of plus-size..

Seriously, extreme obesity is a darwin rule in action, usually

That's an interesting take on it, since we've basically evolved to eat when we can (when food is available) so that we can survive during leaner times.

nobody wants to breed with us

People tend to get obese later in life, but this might apply to a small number of people in prime breeding age.

heart disease/stroke usually kill us "early"

Oh, so you don't really understand Darwinism. Unless you get heart disease or have a stroke before you hit sexual maturity, this is irrelevant. For almost everyone--even the obese--health complications don't get extreme enough to kill you with a high statistical probability until you're well past your sexual prime, and getting there is all that Darwinism cares about.

[everything else]

Well, the point isn't that people are making smug comments. The point is that if you're eating more because you require more energy to carry an extra 50 or so pounds, then you're consuming more of a limited resource than everyone else. It's not like he's saying, "Man you fat people are ugly!"

And full disclosure--I'm about 50 pounds overweight. I've been working on this for a number of reasons--health, comfort, and the ability to bike to work instead of having to drive my car (those fill ups at the gas tank are starting to hurt.)

Re:Hey...

He's skinny... better mobility...

Corn

Corn? Yes, Corn!

Michael Pollan will convince you, [michaelpollan.com] that this is no accident. You are eating nothing but corn - with a four-carbon configuration that is destroying your healt and nutrition, as it wrecks ecosystems in its cultivation.

Thanks, Cargill! Thanks, Mosanto! If Chevron-Texaco is Emperor Palpatine, these two are Darth Vader and Tarkin.

Re:Corn

I read "In Defense of Food" recently; it was very interesting. Since reading that, I see High Fructose Corn Syrup EVERYWHERE.

Also, we're not eating just corn - there is an awful lot of soy in there too. But yeah, we eat way too much corn.

Mixed Causes

Although it was quite funny, it's a straw man and the study itself has some serious flaws. Some people really do have serious glandular problems or diseases causing obesity. My cousin was a beautiful young woman until she developed lupus... she went from somewhere around 120 pounds to, well, I'm not going to speculate. I'm not sure what exactly caused the obesity, it could have been anything from hormonal changes to medications she had to take, but I know her house isn't exactly filled with twinkies. I feel terrible walking around with her in public. Not because I'm embarrassed to be with an obese woman, but because I get so upset at the looks people give us. People look at her like she just killed and ate their favorite pet, then they look at me with a slightly different look of disgust.

In addition, I feel that while this may be accurate, we'd be pushing the environmentalism too far to cite it as a reason for people to lose weight. Even if it would save some energy, fuel, and materials, all of the savings are overshadowed by the significant social and medical advantages. If we could waste just a little more food and fuel to ensure a longer life expectancy, we would.

Of course, this study isn't really very good. While the global demand for food would likely drop, you'd have a significant jump in energy and oil prices. All of the formerly obese Americans, spending hundreds less on food every month, would be ready to hit the beaches, ski slopes, etc. with their extra money and less embarrassing bodies.

Finally, BMI is a shoddy system that I'm sick of seeing. BMI was developed at a time when leeching was an accepted medical practice, and hasn't changed significantly since then. BMI can not differentiate between lean mass and lard. This means that a society of body builders would have the same average BMI as a society of, well, lazy Americans.

Getting back to serious topics, it's very important to note that global food shortages (and corresponding rises in prices) are not caused by increased demand. They're caused by reduced supply, which has been, in part, caused by food aid programs [inthesetimes.com]. When people become dependent on food aid programs, a small series of events can raise food prices enough that food aid programs can't afford to send food [cnn.com]. You can imagine how well this works out for impoverished areas that have lost their indigenous food production capability.

Re:Mixed Causes

Some people really do have serious glandular problems or diseases causing obesity

...and some people just like pies.

Re:Mixed Causes

Some people really do have serious glandular problems or diseases causing obesity

...and some people just like pies.

...and most people just like pies

Re:Mixed Causes

I agree with you. I've got a large build with a low body fat. Viking build I guess, anyways I fit into 36 inch pants comfortably. I'm 6 foot 2 and my weight is still down 25 lbs from high school body building days leaving me at 245 lbs. I'm considered obese in the eyes of the insurance companies even though I have a six pack for muscle. I have to go through this long ass appeal process and physical in order to prove how lean I am every year.

Re:Mixed Causes

BMI needs to be replaced by RWI or residual wobble index. In this, the doctor attaches accelerometers to your body and then rocks you from side to side and then measures how long your flabby belly continues to jiggle after he stops.

One word: Ethanol

It's truly frightening that you could write five paragraphs and still overlook the reason for the recent food shortages.

Or, maybe, they should worry about themselves

I wonder how many greenhouse gasses were released in the creation of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the webhosting of the LA Times (let alone creation and physical distribution of the papers), or why they accepted 2 million dollars [wikipedia.org] from the Rockefeller foundation [wikipedia.org]. We all know that John D Rockefeller [wikipedia.org] was very green while he was revolutionizing the petroleum industry and founding Standard Oil. Maybe while the school looks...

To contribute to the improvement of health worldwide through the pursuit of excellence in research, postgraduate teaching and advanced training in national and international public health and tropical medicine, and through informing policy and practice in these areas.

...they should remember where they came from and why they have the buildings they do. Instead of spouting nonsense that will make less people want to visit, they should actually work on something that matters.

Ooooh!

Does this mean I'm finally in a class that the government is going to throw money at?

Oh, and I plan to live 20% fewer years than average, so it's really a 2% gain for the planet.

-Peter

Why are peopel tip toeing around this story?

Seems logical that obese people are disproportionately using up some resources. In the same way that professional racers are disproportionately using up carbon based fuels. I have seen really fat person it, and as a fatty myself, some scare me. But back to the story, seems like a logical corolation to me, very few obese people are fat and not eating much food.

On the Flip Side

But back to the story, seems like a logical corolation to me, very few obese people are fat and not eating much food.

Yeah, but think about all the resources they're not:

• Not buying new clothing every year to stay in fashion?
  
• Not hotrodding on a Jet Ski at the lake?
  
• Taking up and paying for two seats on the plane but only getting one skimpy rubbery meal?
  
• Keeping the heat at 60 in the winter?
  
• Not burning fuel to go to the movies because HBO is so much more comfortable?
  
• Not flying in grapes from Chile to feed a winter-time vegetarian ethos when fried wheat do just fine?

Hey, I'm not advocating it, but let's have a full accounting here. Oh, right, that's really hard and there's less opportunity to be priggish. Sort of like me not reading TFA.

Not all fat people eat more.

A skinny person with a really high metabolism can eat far more in a day than a fat person with a slow one. Plus, you only need to eat a lot to *get* fat - maintaining your weight doesn't require eating extra. Not to mention tall people, teenaged boys, people with very physical jobs, and many others who would all eat more than an average person.

I'm not all pro-obesity or anything, but it's just silly to think that ALL obese people eat more than ALL average-weight people.

Re:Not all fat people eat more.

Not quite.

Muscle uses a lot of energy. People with a muscular build NEED a lot more food than fat people, because fat doesn't consume energy, muscles do.

Add to this the fact that muscular people probably got that muscle through regular exercise, which burns lots of energy too.

Obesity is very often a case of bad diet (eating the wrong stuff) and non-balanced lifestyle (no exercise to match the food), and not simply eating too much. Athletes eat FAR more than your average fatty.

OK, I'm going to weigh in here

I am a fat man. I weight 370 pounds. (However, I am 6" 6' tall, but I'm still fat.) Now, this article does state that there are other factors. It names the skinny guy with the high metabolism on the 100 mile bike ride, but there is one factor (among many) that it doesn't consider. I live in a small apartment and drive a Honda Civic that gets 25MPG or better, even around town. (It gets 33 - 35MPG on the highway. All these fuel consumption figures are real measured figures that I've taken.) Lets look at my overall carbon output compared to the little 90 pound skinny woman driving her Chevy Suburban aggressively on her way home to her massive suburban McMansion, while talking on her cell phone no less. What's her carbon impact versus mine? How much more oil does it take to propel her massive SUV, especially when she's stomping on the gas with that big V8, then it does to propel my little 4 cylinder Civic? How much more oil does it take to heat and cool her massive house than my little apartment? I'd bet that we come out about the same, or that she might even end up producing more carbon than I do. There are so many factors that this article doesn't consider. All it really seems to do is give people an escape goat for global warming. Yes its all OK now, we can blame it on the fat people!

I normally don't respond to crap like this.

"It's a glandular problem!" Yeah, sure

But as a "large" person, bite my flabby ass.

not speaking for every fatass. But since I started working nights 10 years ago i've gained 150lbs.
Funny thing is I'm still as active and eat basically the same amount that I always have.

I've been big since puberty set in.
In HS i was 5'9" and weighed 240lbs. As i was playing football at the time I don't think it was a lack of exercise. I don't know what my calorie intake was at the time but it couldn't have been that much since we weren't very well off but my dad made enough to keep us off welfare. Never any huge amount of junk food or fatty food. Mostly carbs though. beans, rice, pasta and chicken.

In my 20's i reached my present height of 6ft. I was working construction and living in Brooklyn. I ate and drank pretty much whatever I wanted then but never got above 190.

FF to my 40's and 10 years of night work, sleep apnea and other nonsense I weigh 340. I eat maybe 2 times a day. I don't really eat sweets. My diet is mostly the same it was when I was a kid though I drink a lot more.
spent about 3 months writing down my food intake for the doctor I'm working with.
He didn't see anything abnormal. I average about 1900 calories a day.
I should be losing weight but I'm not. Possibilities include sleep deprivation, thyroid problem or diabetes (which i still test negative for even though both parents have adult onset)

Sure there are people that don't control what they eat, don't exercise and are seriously fat in the way you describe.
But I think there a lot of folks that due to different circumstances just can't maintain weight the way you or other people think they should.

FWIW, my family of 6 has a food budget of 540 a month not including 160 budgeted for eating out. this is pretty low for our area. most people i know that make the same amount of money as i do spend twice as much with less people in the house.

I don't have any figures about the amount of fuel we use. We have to have a minivan for all of us to go somewhere in one vehicle. And my personal vehicle is no gas miser. But I may only drive it 3000 miles a year. The minivan we've averaged about 9000mi/year since we bought it.
Until hydrogen powered cars become more widespread though we won't be buying any new vehicles.
I'm not wild about hybrids because i don't think batteries are any better for the environment than burning fuel.
Converting Gas engines to run hydrogen I think is the best bet.

I don't think our transportation impact is that great since we aren't running kids back and forth to activities every night and we have always made an effort to consolidate trips.

and last but not least. I view people that hold stock with BMI calculations with the same derision as those that in the past believed in phrenology.

Just to play devil's advocate here ...

... what about all the trim, muscular, athletic people? Think about it. If some guy runs, bikes, or goes to the gym a hour per day and lifts weights, isn't he eating more food, burning a lot more calories, and exhaling a lot more CO2 than a lazy s.o.b. sitting on his couch in a semi-vegetative state?

When you see a really obese person, don't think of them as 'fat'. Think of them as mobile carbon sequestration units.

Comfort Food

In most cases, obesity results from emotional distress. People who are poorly adjusted sometimes turn to food as a coping mechanism. Almost all obese people use food to meet their emotional needs in this way.

If we want to end obesity, we need to educate parents about the link between associating food with nurturing behavior and obesity. This way people will learn to cope with their stress in healthier ways, such as feigning illness, attempting suicide or picking fights to get attention.