Big Cars, Big Asses

It seems that Americans are getting fatter...if that's possible. So, what is the cause? I remember hearing when I was younger that the reason French women weren't as fat as American women, despite the richness of French food, was because of something in their wine or how they chew their food etc. Maybe it's simply because Europeans drive alot less than we do. I recall one of my first trips to Europe. As we were getting ready to go out for the evening, my host wheeled an old, ladies bike in my direction, and said, "...let's go". At the time, of course I was mortified, and thought we would be ridiculed for riding those things through the streets of Copenhagen from pub to pub. To my surprise very few people drove cars, and everywhere we went, we saw hundreds of bicycles (and later in the evening many drunken people tumbling over the handlebars). But that's not all, I saw business men riding bikes, walking and taking the U-Bahn in Berlin, people riding home with the evening groceries in Helsinki, and families riding along like ducks in a row in Amsterdam. What I didn't see so often were people riding bikes for exercise. So taking what we would call alternate transportation was seen as a necessity in places where gasoline prices are about 2-3 times what gas prices are today.

So is there a link between gas prices and obesity? Maybe not directly. But for years we've had some of the lowest gas prices in the world. Even now at $3.50 a gallon, we don't even come close to the almost $6.50/gallon in Amsterdam. Alot of Americans live in places where walking to the store or the pub is not feasible (but I HAVE seen people drive their SUV two blocks to the grocery store). Therefore, suggestions of "drive less" fall on deaf ears.

Flight from the city to the suburbs (and now exurbs) into cookie-cutter homes with carports for Hummer sized vehicles has fueled the problem, since few places have reliable public transportation from residential areas to the business districts. This is even demonstrated by the increase in the number of cupholders and other amenities in new cars, since more people are spending time taking meals in their cars while commuting. Many of these are of the supersize, high fat variety. So now we have people spending 8-12 hours per day sitting in front of a computer screen only to spend 2-3 hours each day sitting in their car eating 1200 calories worth of fat while commuting home . Who wants to exercise after that kind of mindnumbing day?

I don't know if higher gas prices will cause people to walk more and use public transportation and thereby cause a net increase in exercise. There are too many factors. Maybe there are advantages to higher gas prices. Maybe we could get some of those obnoxious fuel inefficient vehicles off the road. Maybe people will drive less (and pollute less), and maybe get more people to use alternate transportation, maybe even walking or riding bicycles.

Just thoughts...