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Technology Spending Cause Obesity? About 1.4 billion adults worldwide are overweight and at risk of becoming obese, in addition to the existing some 200 million men and 300 million women who are already obese. Obesity can lead to many chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and certain types of cancer. In fact, it is also the fifth leading cause of death. While technologies have no doubt improved living standards and supported economic growth, they are also responsible for the obesity epidemic that the world is facing now. A report published in August 2012 by Milken Institute indicated that there is a 1.4 percent rise in obesity rate for every 10 percent increase in spending on information and communications technology. Independent factors that could lead to obesity were controlled in the study. These include inadequate physical activity, excessive caloric intake and unhealthy diet, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, growth of urban population, carbon-dioxide emissions, and women in the labor force. The report explained that technology not only keeps people sitting in their chairs and sofas but also changes the way people eat, making them putting on more weight especially if they have already been lack of exercise.
By studying the economies and obesity rates for 1988 to 2009 in 27 countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States, researchers from Milken Institute found that for every 10 percentage point rise in information communications technology investment as a share of gross capital formation, the obesity rate increases by 1.4 percentage point on average. In a nation like United Stats, this would be translated to roughly 4.2 million people. Researchers looked at the 14 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which focus on boosting economies. All of them have high obesity rate over the past 2 decades. Among them, 33.8 percent of Americans are obese, followed by Mexico (30 percent), New Zealand (26.5 percent), Australia (24.6 percent) and Canada (24.2 percent). In United States, more than two-thirds of people are either overweight or obese.
Obesity epidemic is not just a problem for
developed nations. It is also hurting emerging nations like China and India who
have the largest population in the world. For instance, China’s obesity rate was
2.5 percent in 2002 but increased to 5.7 percent in 2008. The percentage of
Chinese who are overweight has also doubled, from 13.5 percent in 1991 to 26.7
percent in 2006. Does this mean that all nations should stop investing in technologies and telecommunications to stop obesity epidemic, which seems very unlikely? Fortunately, there is good news! According to researchers, a 1-percentage point increase in the number of physically active people could actually prevent a 0.2 percentage point rise in obesity. In other words, there are many programs that are run by employers and by state and local governments can help curb the rise in obesity rate. These include installing bike lanes to providing free and healthy snacks at the office. There are companies providing weight loss counseling for workers and their families or fitness facilities. In Netherlands, bicyclists have their own separated lanes with their own traffic signals to encourage more people to make use of bicycles to increase physical activities. But more importantly, people should also be better educated about their health.
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