It doesn’t come as an earth-shattering surprise that the landscape around us plays a large part in our society’s rate of obesity. As the population grows — particularly in the areas that are commutable to large metropolitan areas — the government and land developers are faced with dilemmas on where everybody should live. We tend to grow outward, taking over forests, marshland, and farmland, raising the soil and building huge subdivisions. Though this might seem like an economical or business story, it is not. Our urban environment has huge implications on our health.
Our communities are composed of rows upon rows of houses, streets after streets, with our driveways full of cars. Our well-populated subdivisions and large housing complexes force people to drive everywhere. The way our communities are built these days, it’s too far to take a quick walk to the grocery store, the coffee shop, the corner store, or to visit friends. So we hop into our cars and fall into the rhythmic nature of driving to our destinations day in and day out.
We don’t walk or bike around as much as we used to — things are too far away and we have less time to do so. We have less time to go to a gym and we find it hard to squeeze in a half-hour of mild exercise a day. We have lapsed into a driving-oriented lifestyle that is defined by where we live.
And for the first time ever, researchers have decided to look closely at how our urban environment contributes to the cause or origins of obesity. Until now, research has always focused on how individuals and their behavior — such as smoking, unhealthy eating, drinking, and lack of exercise — are making the obesity rates skyrocket in North America.
Though this remains certainly true, if we break it down farther to see how our man-made environment affects body size, people could start rooting out a major underlying cause of illness. And make no mistake about it — obesity is an illness.
So researchers in the U.S. are gathering data on features of neighborhoods, including land use, subway and bus stops, availability of healthy food, the location of parks and recreational areas, the number of trees on a street, and the number of buildings equipped with elevators. These factors, among others, significantly affect our diet and how active we are. The researchers understand that simply having a corner store within walking distance of everyone’s home can have a huge beneficial effect on overall public health.
On an individual level, it’s time for people to think carefully about how their environment may be expanding their waistline. Once the understanding is there, people can take healthier steps and add exercise into their daily routine. Don’t let your environment dictate your health — get active and realize when and if you have slipped into a driving-oriented lifestyle.
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Tags: exercise, obesity
