Energy and Obesity

For my project I discussed how obesity levels and current trends relate to levels of energy consumed. Food production and its contribution to obesity were discussed including where energy use is most prevalent. Some of obesity’s other causes were discussed and how these causes contribute to the energy crisis. While the relationship between obesity and energy consumption, in that the more that people weigh, the more food they consume and the more energy it takes to move them around, is clear, the far-reaching consequences are not as clear. Energy is used in food production at every step of the food cycle. Fossil fuels are used to fertilize the crops, power the machines that harvest them, transport the food around, and prepare the food at the users home. When food is eaten in excess of what is needed to maintain a healthy weight or when food is wasted, all the energy mentioned above is lost. Other contributions to obesity such as television watching and exercise use are discussed. With regard to televisions, the type of televisions is changing to a more energy intensive type and the size of televisions is growing. The more time spent watching television, the more likely someone is to be overweight. As people exercise less, obesity rates also increase. As sedentary lifestyles become more common we can expect this trend to continue. At the end of the paper, an analysis is presented which details how much gasoline can be saved with a slight decrease in the weight of the average American. The conclusion was that if the average American can manage to lose 25 pounds, the United States would use 1.3 billion gallons less of gasoline.