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Obese Cities: How Our Environment Shapes Overweight
Author(s) -
Smith Dianna M.,
Cummins Steven
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
geography compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.587
H-Index - 65
ISSN - 1749-8198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2008.00198.x
Subject(s) - blame , overweight , endowment , context (archaeology) , perspective (graphical) , scale (ratio) , politics , built environment , obesity , consumption (sociology) , economic geography , sociology , geography , political science , environmental health , psychology , social psychology , ecology , social science , biology , medicine , cartography , archaeology , artificial intelligence , computer science , law , endocrinology
The rapid rise in obesity rates over the last 30 years has profound implications for the health of populations. That this rise has occurred over a relatively short biological time scale suggests that changes in the environments to which we are exposed may be to blame, rather than individual genetic endowment. Focusing on developed world nations, this article briefly reviews this emerging ‘ecological’ perspective in the search for the causes of obesity. This article explores how aspects of our environment might disrupt ‘energy balance’ through influencing food consumption and physical activity. It focuses on three hypothesised pathways for environmental risk: the organisation of built physical space, the social environment and the political environment. The article demonstrates that a consideration of scale and context are also important in the search for the environmental drivers of weight gain.