global warming

Walking Improves Obesity And Global Warming
By Steve A Johnson

America's obesity epidemic and global warming might not seem to have too much in common. But public health experts suggest that people can attack them both by cutting calories and carbon dioxide at the same time.

The reality is that obese people not only do more damage to themselves than thinner people, but they also do more damage to the physical environment and to the climate - both through the nature of their diets and through their more sedentary lifestyles. With a growing reluctance to walk or cycle, the more obese people will become.

What people constantly forget in all this is that the food supply chain, in its entirety, contributes at least 20% of total greenhouse gas emissions, and probably more, depending on how you define it. Relatively speaking, obese people consume up to 40% more in terms of calories,

One suggested way is to walk a half hour a day instead of driving. It is accepted to us that if we do walk anywhere, even just that half hour a day, calories will be burned and thus a start to being healthier and cutting down on emissions. That is one way Americans can simultaneously save the planet and their health. Suggested by many doctors and climate scientists, one scientist calculated that if Americans between 10 and 74 walked just a half hour a day instead of driving, they would cut the annual U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, by 64 million tons. Although the effects of this would be great, it is very much likely to happen.

An estimated 6.5 billion gallons of gasoline would be saved and Americans would lose more than 3 billions pounds altogether. A simple intervention like walking to school is a climate change intervention, an obesity intervention and a diabetes intervention, making it an all in one change for the better.

Reducing car travel in favor of walking would not only cut obesity and greenhouse gases, they said, it would also mean less smog, fewer deaths from car crashes, less osteoporosis, fewer instances of diabetes and even less depression since exercise helps beat the blues.

It's not just walking more and driving less that's needed; a diet containing less red meat can also help curb greenhouse gas emissions as well as health risks. It takes much more land and energy to produce meat than vegetables and grains. Last year the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported that the meat sector of the global economy is responsible for 18 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change is a deadly and worsening public health issue. In the year 2000, and estimated 160,000 people have died from malaria, malnutrition, drowning from floods and diarrhea. The problems are what climate scientists contend to be worsened by global warming. The American Public Health Association, which will soon be highlighting the health problems with global warming in April of next year, is seeking to connect obesity with climate change solutions, therefore presenting possibly one of the greatest public health opportunities within the past century.

Steven Johnson is committed to helping people maintain healthy and effective lifestyles. For more information on any other health supplements please visit his website Alternative Health Supplements at http://alternative-health-supplements.com/weight-loss-supplements.html

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