Does your address predict your waistline, or is it your paycheck?
A new study says it may be the latter, finding that obesity is higher in less-populated communities, but that the causes do not appear to be due to the increased presence of drive-throughs.
You know, the kind that ask if you want fries with that?
The finding stems from a large new study on health and the so-called “built environment” published recently in the International Journal of Obesity .
For years, health experts have argued there is a connection between where you live and obesity.
According to this work, some communities are more obese than others because they are “obesogenic,” which is to say, high in fast food businesses and convenience stores, and low in parks, sidewalks and grocery stores.
These characteristics are said to lead people to drive more, walk less and eat high-calorie fast or grab-and-go food, growing more obese in the process.
