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The Fuel Cost of Obesity

Posted by samzenpus on from the 20-miles-per-cheeseburger dept.

thecarchik writes "America loves to complain about gas mileage and the cost of gasoline. As it turns out, part of the problem is us. How much does it really matter? A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a 1.1 percent increase in self-reported obesity, which translates into extra weight that your vehicle has to haul around. The study estimates that 1 billion extra gallons of fuel were needed to compensate for passenger weight gained between 1960 and 2002."

6 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Less than one percent... by BobMcD · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One key finding was that almost 1 billion gallons of gasoline per year can be attributed to passenger weight gain in non-commercial vehicles between 1960 and 2002--this translates to .7 percent of the total fuel used by passenger vehicles annually.

    So they found it had nearly nothing to do with it. Spiffy.

    1. Re:Less than one percent... by hamburger+lady · · Score: 4, Insightful

      methinks the fuel that went into the growing, processing and shipping of all the extra food obese americans stuff down their pieholes is gonna account for a more substantive share than this.

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      Is this the MPAA? Is this the RIAA? Is this the DMCA? I thought it was the USA!
  2. How about by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    offsetting this by the fuel savings coming from reduced family size. People simply have fewer children on average than they used to.

    Wow you really can make numbers say anything you want. Remember that thanks to all the SUV's, the weight of the average car has increased since the 60's, not decreased as you would expect from losing the chassis and moving to a monocoque design.

    But hey, let's bash fat people. How about that fat tax?

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    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  3. I'm sequestering carbon by Linux_ho · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Do you have any idea how much carbon I've sequestered in fat? Get off my roly poly back.

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  4. The Cost of Cheap Gasoline by handy_vandal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The cost of (relatively) cheap gasoline? War, war, and more war. That cheap gasoline is only cheap because we're willing to bankrupt ourselves to get it.

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    -kgj
  5. Here is a modest proposal! by lupinstel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We can melt down all the fatties and use them as bio-diesel.

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    Don't blame me, I voted for Cthulhu.