A new study suggested that the growing obesity rate in the United States was because of the abundance of cheap food.
Roland Sturm from RAND Corp and Ruopeng An from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign analyzed the economic factors that contribute to obesity and found out that environmental factors affected all races from all locations.
According to the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 35 percent of adults were obese, and 69 percent of the general adult population were overweight. Kid obesity rate was at 12 percent as of 2010 while teen obesity rate was at 18 percent. Health experts attributed the increasing obesity rate to genes, behaviors, and the environment and advised people to switch to healthy lifestyle habits such as eating healthy and exercising.
The researchers reviewed available evidences for the causes of obesity including fast foods, automobile, television exposure, gadget uses, vending machines, residential housings, and food serving size.
After their extensive review, the researchers found the culprit of obesity-abundance of cheap food in the country. Almost 85 years ago, Americans spent 25 percent of their household income on food; it dropped to 20 percent 20 years later; and now less than 10 percent.
"Americans are spending a smaller share of their income (or corresponding amount of effort) on food than any other society in history or anywhere else in the world, yet get more for it," the researchers wrote in a news release.
The researchers clarified that other factors also contributed to obesity but they did not see strong association.
"Examining time trends for which there are data, what jumps out are changes in food availability, in particular the increase in caloric sweeteners and carbohydrates," they added.
Sturm and An believed that a campaign to reduce intake of sweetened beverages and salted snacks would be more effective that promoting exercise and fruit and vegetable consumption.
The paper was published in the May 22 issue of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
