Geographies of Obesity

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. I: Introduction; 1: Bringing a Geographical Perspective to Understanding the ‘Obesity Epidemic'; 2: The Emerging Obesity Epidemic: An Introduction; 3: Contextual Determinants of Obesity: An Overview; II: Food Environment and Obesity (Energy In); 4: Changing Food Environment and Obesity: An Overview; 5: Understanding the Local Food Environment and Obesity; 6: Childhood Obesity and the Food Environment; III: Physical Activity, Environment and Obesity (Energy Out); 7: The Role of the Changing Built Environment in Shaping Our Shape; 8: Understanding the Local Physical Activity Environment and Obesity; 9: Childhood Obesity, Physical Activity and the Physical Environment; IV: Obesogenic Environments and Policy Responses; 10: Policy Responses and Obesogenic Food Environments; 11: Policy Responses and the Physical Environment; V: Future Research Challenges; 12: Residential Environments and Obesity – Estimating Causal Effects; 13: Measuring Obesogenic Environments – Representing Place in Studies of Obesity; 14: Recourse to Discourse: Talk and Text as Avenues to Understand Environments of Obesity; VI: Conclusions; 15: Conclusions: Common Themes and Emerging Questions