Demographia

SMART GROWTH, NEW URBANISM AND URBAN CONTAINMENT
Land Use and Obesity: The Deceptive Campaign

In recent months, an expensive public relations campaign has been underway to demonstrate a significant connection between low-density, suburban (sprawling) development and the U.S. obesity epidemic. This blatant effort has taken modest (and debatable) research findings and exaggerated them into justification for seeking strong new land use controls in federal, state and local land use policy.

In fact, however, Americans today live little differently than they have for forty years. Household population densities are virtually unchanged since 1960. Urban population density has actually increased since 1980. Yet, the obesity explosion has occurred in the last decade or so --- a doubling in the 1990s. At the same time, there has been a significant increase in food consumption (caloric consumption). This led Ronald D. Utt, PhD. to suggest that it was the "hamburger" not the "house" that explains the nation's rising weight.

America's 10 to 15 year obesity crisis cannot be the result of urban development trends that have changed little since 1960.

Meanwhile, rising obesity is not a problem limited to the United States. It is rising rapidly in Canada, France, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

RESEARCH

Sprawl and Obesity: A Flawed Connection by Wendell Cox and Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Obesity and Land Use

COMMENTARY

Needles in the Obesity Haystack
Double Secret Probation: The University of British Columbia Atlanta Driving and Obesity Study
Sprawl and Obesity in Chicago: Why All the Fuss?
Sprawl and Obesity in Ohio: Why All the Fuss?
Obesity and Life Styles: Is it the Hamburger or your House?-Link

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Demographia is "pro-choice" with respect to urban development.
People should have the freedom to live and work where and how they like.

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