Geographies of Obesity

Environmental Understandings of the Obesity Epidemic

Karen Witten, Jamie Pearce

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780754676195
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317129097
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

Over the past two decades, rates of adult and childhood obesity in the developed world have risen sharply. By the year 2000, 65% of the United States population were overweight, 30% of these obese. Whilst medical treatment has tended to focus on individual habits of diet and exercise, this approach does little to account for globally increasing levels of obesity, and the external, environmental factors that may be responsible. This in-depth study assembles the evidence for a geographical explanation of current obesity trends, and is the first work to examine the ways in which environment and living conditions promote an imbalance of energy intake over energy expenditure. The book calls upon the expertise of geographers, nutritionists, epidemiologists, sociologists and public health researchers, resulting in a broad, multidisciplinary analysis of this important health issue. Cover graphic designed by Georgia Witten-Sage.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Contributors’ Biographies
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• PART I INTRODUCTION
• PART II FOOD ENVIRONMENT AND OBESITY (ENERGY IN)
• PART III PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, ENVIRONMENT AND OBESITY (ENERGY OUT)
• PART IV OBESOGENIC ENVIRONMENTS AND POLICY RESPONSES
• PART V FUTURE RESEARCH CHALLENGES
• PART VI CONCLUSIONS
• Index