Ironic Study: Not owning a car can make you fatter. Sorta.
Can not owning a car make you fatter? Iteems conventional wisdom would have it that people who don't own cars might tend to get more exercise having to walk everywhere they go, no? No. Well not completely, at least according to a new study that appears in the September issue of the Journal of Urban Health. While the study doesn't imply that walking isn't good exercise, it does take a closer look at where those people without cars are walking to. And if you happen to live in a poorer neighborhood, you're probably walking to a fast food restaurant, which is bad.
It's not a novel idea to think that you might be heavier if you live in an area with a lot of fast food options, but this study also takes into account that people with cars might be able to drive to find healthier dining options. And they were right. After studying 2,156 adults from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Study database, the researchers found that car owners weighed about 8.5 pounds more than those who didn't own cars on average.
That makes sense, but they also found that in neighborhoods with lots of fast food joints, non-car owners whose data they reviewed weighed 12 pounds more than car-less folks in areas without fast food restaurants, and 2.7 pounds more than their neighbors who owned cars. The dichotomy is that the skinniest people proved to be those who didn't have cars, but lived in areas with fewer fast-food restaurants. Which, as one might suspect, tends to be upscale neighborhoods. So if you live in an area with a lot of Mickey D's and KFC's, you might want to get yourself some wheels. Car ownership... it's the new Atkins!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Auari 4:42PM (9/20/2009)
They need to do a study showing how many children are scared of the clown.
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Vizel 6:43PM (9/20/2009)
I would like to quote good sir Mark Twain to answer this article:
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."
And in case some people don't get the first quote, I would like to quote Debito:
"Breaking news: poor people eat a lot of crappy food!"
Brian 4:49PM (9/20/2009)
This makes sense. Also if you don't have a car I imagine grocery shopping is a B**ch unless you happen to live in Manhattan or something where they all deliver.
Not owning a car makes sense in Manhattan and Tokyo. Everywhere else you better have a set of wheels or be inconvenienced (and fat from all that McD's!)
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artandcolour 5:57PM (9/20/2009)
it's not that bad. i use a backpack and ride my bike. i go to the local grocery store almost every day and get enough for that night or a few days. if it rains and i'm out of everything and can't wait i take the car. cheaper than the Peapod delivery service.
Paul 7:21PM (9/20/2009)
Yeah, I think the sample they used was definitely inner-city poor. When I moved from San Francisco (walking to get everywhere during the week) to LA (driving to get anywhere) I gained 20 pounds from the loss of exercise alone.
In this case, the car is economic freedom they don't have rather than something they don't need.
jonwil2002 10:24PM (9/20/2009)
I walk nearly a kilometer to the nearest shopping center every week to buy food.
I dont own a car at all and yet I can still carry home enough food to last me the week.
fixitfixitstop 11:17AM (9/21/2009)
I frequently walk to the grocery store if I only need a bag or two or stuff, and I *do* have a car.
Kitten 7:31AM (9/22/2009)
I was thinking along the same line as you. "Real" grocery shopping must be hard but more than half the time there is a gas staion near by where you can walk to and go in and get snacks...lots and lots of snacks...and a hot dog.
Rob 5:15PM (9/20/2009)
I wonder if that car runs on used fry oil?
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Jei 8:01AM (9/21/2009)
Funny....but did the passenger take his drink and make Ronald McDonald hold the bag in his teeth?
James 5:20PM (9/20/2009)
The troll apparently took a hike...Thanks Autoblog!
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Debito 5:23PM (9/20/2009)
Breaking news: poor people eat a lot of crappy food!
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Polly Prissy Pants 5:43PM (9/20/2009)
That's what I'm thinking - they're mistaking correlation with causation. Poor people eat a lot of fast food because it's way cheaper to get a $1 double cheeseburger than it is to drive to the grocery store, get some skinless chicken breasts and all that goes into cooking them, some asparagus, etc etc. Guess what? Poor people tend to not own cars too. I can give you a similar study showing how shopping at Neiman Marcus makes you thinner too.
artandcolour 5:48PM (9/20/2009)
probably a reasonable article. i won a car, but only use it for 'special' occasions-less than 500 miles in almost 3 years now. i ride my bike everywhere, and there isn't a single fast food place within 10 miles of my house, so i'm pretty thin. i can't imagine riding a bike to go get a cheeseburger anyway-i always feel healthier after exercise so i couldn't imagine eating fatty crap and riding home.
off topic: what is up with this comments section? i can type my entire comment and then sit back and watch my cursor spit out one letter at a time for the next 5 minutes. it's the only 'net forum i write to that does this. anyone else suffer cursor delay like this? i'm on a mac using Safari 4.
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artandcolour 5:52PM (9/20/2009)
i meant OWN a car, not WON a car. i wish i hadn't had to pay for it...
Judy Zik 11:05PM (9/20/2009)
You are not alone in the cursor delay. It is a well known issue around here that Autoblog has the worst commenting section on the net. "Iteems conventional wisdom would have" them invest a bit of effort in improving the system. A spell checker might not be a bad idea either.
Bill 9:31PM (9/20/2009)
Gotta remember this study was done in Los Angeles, which arguably has among the poorest mass transit of any major city in the world. Poor people who don't own a car in LA have a very small travel radius. And they probably can't ride bikes because they'd get stolen (not to mention LA's not exactly bike friendly, either).
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Ypoknons 8:45AM (9/21/2009)
Given high costs of cars, the car-owning population is going to be richer in most places. I agree, though, that poor public transportation system in LA and most of the US (New York being an obvious exception) means few in the middle class will travel by public transport. Also, the huge diets of poorer people seems to be a developed world thing, exacerbated in the States by a culture of fries and sugary soft drinks.
I agree therefore, that the survey is really geared to LA-types and might be relevant in many places in the United States, maybe even others worldwide, but a lot of the world faces different problems.
Durwood 9:33PM (9/20/2009)
I was in Micky Ds yesterday with my two oldest grand daughters when Ronald McDonald shows up. You would have thought it was Santa claus the way all the little kids were carrying on. lol Priceless, i'm tellin' ya.
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Avinash machado 12:02AM (9/21/2009)
I wouldn't say that Los Angeles is representative of the United States as a whole.
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