Health News - Professor warns of the effects of inactivity as he urges collective action to solve big problem
Published: 19 January, 2011
by TOM FOOT
PROFESSOR Ian Roberts was working as a trauma specialist in the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel when a rogue statistic began to puzzle him.
Despite the speed and volume of traffic being on the rise, the number of road accidents was going down.
Prof Roberts – now a public health consultant at the London School of Tropical Disease and Hygiene – began working on the theory that the soaring obesity rate was causing fewer people to walk and in turn be hit by cars.
“We are walking less than ever before,” he said. “We have, as a country, got very fat. Kids don’t come out and play anymore – they come home and stay in. They are rarely moving. There is certainly a link between fatness and road safety.”
In his book –Energy Glut: the Politics of Fatness in an Overheating Road – Prof Roberts takes the theory one step further, arguing that the widespread use of cars and environmentally damaging fossil fuels is not only causing climate change but also sending obesity levels through the roof.
Addressing climate change, he argues, would not only save the planet but help stabilise public health. “We move more than ever before, without moving,” said Prof Roberts.
“It has had a tremendous effect on our energy output. If you look at the body mass index (BMI) of everyone in London, you will see that there are few very skinny people, and a few really fat people. But most people are in the middle. What has happened is that the whole distribution of BMI has shifted. Even the thin people are now comparatively fat.”
The book investigates the way the food industry uses marketing techniques to sell “energy-dense” food to a population that has become “functionally paralysed” and also “miserable”.
Prof Roberts, 48, said: “When I was young I’d say there was one obese kid at school, now 20 per cent of our children obese.
“What is important is that we should not be thinking about these people as individuals. When we see an obese boy we should not be thinking, ‘sort yourself out what’s wrong with you?’ – we should be thinking that we are all part of the same problem. It is no fun being fat. We are all in this together.
“Body fat is a political, not a personal, problem.”
Prof Roberts rides his bicycle 20 miles to and from work in Bloomsbury every day. While admitting roads in London can be dangerous, he said he had seen, while living in China, how cycling had emerged as a safe system of mass transport.
“There aren’t lots of little old ladies being knocked down over there in China,” said Prof Roberts. “The problem is that a change like this needs political support.
“People think that climate change is about death and destruction but in fact it is a good news story. It will lead to a healthier, happier, fitter and leaner population in a safe environment.
“The cost of not responding is huge.”
The obese are likely to get heart disease or diabetes in later life. Propelled by a university directive to be “more interesting”, Prof Roberts has developed his theory into a stand-up comedy routine.
“Walkers of the world unite, you’ve got nothing to lose but cellulite,” he told an audience at an event in Rosemary Avenue, a performance that can be seen on YouTube.
• Energy Glut is published by Camden-based Zed Books.