Now, obesity is bad for the environment?

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A report posted today on CNN established that researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine published a study showing that heavier people in the world contributes more to the global warming than thin people (supposedly because transporting heavier people and producing food to feed them costs more).

According to the study

...the lean population has a much smaller carbon footprint. The population with 40 percent obese people requires 19 percent more food energy for its total energy expenditure than the population with 3.5 percent obese people

I'm not against people being healthy and thin, in fact I think it's better to be healthy and if this makes you thiner, it's great, but I found that this kind of reports may put pressure in people who is overweight or obese, and in people who feels that being thin is the only way to be accepted.

My daughter, who is in her right weight and height, is starting to be worried about not being fat, and she's only 5 years old! And if studies like this begin to be more and more prevalent, how can I explain her that being healthy is good, but it's not healthy to exaggerate and feel bad just because people say the only acceptable choice is being thin?

Maybe we should re educate ourselves to do more exercise and be healthy, and also government should be more coherent with their public policies like providing cheaper and healthier food for everyone and greener alternatives to transport.

In Mexico, for example, a government office gives milk to the poor that has high contain of fat and little nutritional value, also, the streets aren't safe for people wanting to use their bicycles to go from one way to another, distances are impossible to do in this kind of vehicle and public transportation doesn't have space for carrying them.

But I think the effort to do our world better can't be reduced to one factor, it has to be a comprehensive effort.

Should health campaigns focus on health or on obesity?

I listen to radio often, mainly because local news are updated faster than in television. But what I hate is the new ads of the Health Department in Mexico, particularly the ones that belong to one of the subdivisions of this department, IMSS (or Mexican Social Security Institute).

I don't hate this campaign because I don't agree that Mexicans are not taking care of their health. In fact, I completely agree and there should be some way to avoid sickness that comes when obesity rates are higher, like diabetes.

I am against the way they try to promote a healthy way of living. Firs of all, the words they use. The dialog goes (more or less) like this.

Man: I was fat before, but my girlfriend convinced me that I should do something about it, so, I came to the IMSS and now I feel better.
Woman: And he looks more handsome.

What? I mean, I can see the Health Department is trying to use vanity to make people do something about their health, but, what are they going to cause?

I have the same feeling as with the other campaing I wrote about. If they focus in the way you look and not in the way you feel they are causing people to have more prejudice than they already have against people who is overweight or obese. Also, they are sending some kind of message that being like this is REALLY bad, without saying why, just that is bad and you should be thin no matter what. Is this what we need in a world full with people wanting to be thin no matter what? In a world with teens that doesn't know how to be healthy and eat well, people in general who doesn't know how to avoid falling in things like anorexia or bulimia?

Well, it's just an opinion, anyway.