Does Sprawl Make Us Fat?

Ant writes "A Science News article talks about the relationship between city design and health. New cross-disciplinary research is exploring whether urban sprawl makes us soft, or whether people who don't like to exercise move to the sprawling suburbs, or some combination of both." From the article: "So far, the dozen strong studies that have probed the relationships among the urban environment, people's activity, and obesity have all agreed, says Ewing. 'Sprawling places have heavier people... There is evidence of an association between the built environment and obesity.' ... However, University of Toronto economist Matthew Turner charges that 'a lot of people out there don't like urban sprawl, and those people are trying to hijack the obesity epidemic to further the smart-growth agenda [and] change how cities look.' ... 'We're the only ones that have tried to distinguish between causation and sorting... and we find that it's sorting,' [says Turner]. 'The available facts do not support the conclusion that sprawling neighborhoods cause weight gain.'"

Comments

Exactly...

[plasmacutter]

I love how today's conservatives (and many liberals) will argue that the government should not "expand" to fund mass transit..

yet their beloved highways were built with public funding by a republican ; )

oh the hypocrisy.

it all comes back to 2 very real problems in the US..

hatred of the poor and the connected issue of racism (since centuries of discrimination have left those who are "not white" at a disadvantage).

Re:Sprawl DOES makes you fatter

[PopeRatzo]

Additionally, research earlier this year shows teenagers living in sprawling suburbs were more than twice as likely to be overweight as teens in more compact urban areas

Dodging bullets and running from cops does tend to keep you slim. Although, I'd say that by the looks of some of teens I've seen in the suburbia and exurbia, the Crystal Meth Powdered Protein Diet works pretty well, too.