We see the headlines all the time: half of us are overweight; 15 per cent severely so. And all those extra pounds are costing us $1.8 billion a year in additional health-care services to treat ballooning rates of heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis and breast cancer. It's even gotten to the point where just moving to Canada is bad for you: a recent Statistics Canada report discovered that immigrants to Canada arrive healthier than the average Canadian but get fatter and sicker the longer they live here.
Just how did we become a fat nation? While we tend to blame our own laziness, or the siren song of fudge brownie ice cream, the answer lies in the world we inhabit.
From our genes to our homes, stores and workplaces, there's a legion of conspirators out to make us obese. And while we can't do much about our hard wiring, we can take a serious look at the fat-promoting world around us and launch our own counter-revolution, because there are lots of ways to fight our fat world order.
Vive la résistance. • Our genes
• Our homes
• Our work
• Our supermarkets
• Our restaurants
• Big fat lies
• Big ideas | |
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