Planet obesity : how we're eating ourselves and the planet to death / Garry Egger & Boyd Swinburn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Egger, Garry.

Contributor:

Swinburn, Boyd.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Obesity--Social aspects.

Obesity.

Food habits--Economic aspects.

Food habits.

Lifestyles--Health aspects.

Lifestyles.

Physical Description:

131 pages ; 20 cm

Place of Publication:

Crows Nest, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2010.

Summary:

There are a number of areas where humans have achieved a peak of success, a sweet spot, but now that very success is turning on us and threatening to unravel centuries of achievement. On the one hand, economic growth has over centuries led to a steadily improving standard of living, better levels of health and ever-increasing life spans.

On the other hand, this very affluence is the reason that both our bodies and the planet have gone into a downward spiral, manifested by an ever-growing epidemic of obesity in humans, and in a world clogged by greenhouse gases and waste.

Citing new evidence, Garry Egger and Boyd Swinburn bust some common myths about obesity. For example, that it's just a function of sloth and gluttony, that it's always unhealthy, and that it's purely an individual problem. The authors show how it's the relentless drive by governments (and the public) for more of everything that is now causing people to become fat and unhealthy-and significantly harming the environment.

Egger and Swinburn suggest that a fundamental change in thinking is needed for how we treat our bodies, how we now manage an outdated economic system, and how both these things affect our planet. Book jacket.

Contents:

To Begin 1

1 Hitting The Sweet Spot 3

2 Obesity: Its Part in Our Downfall 10

3 Good Fat versus Bad Fat 19

4 The Role of Inflammation 28

5 Health, 'Illth', Economic Growth and the Sweet Spot 41

6 Linking Obesity, Chronic Disease and the Environment 52

7 The Perfect Storm and the Sour Spot 65

8 Health Promotion for Economists 71

9 Making Corrections 84

10 Just Help Yourself 94.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 111-123) and index.

ISBN:

1742373623

9781742373621

OCLC:

640122835

Publisher Number:

99943943614