The Future's Fat

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Wednesday, 09 October 2002

Scientists have seen the future, and it is fat. So fat, indeed, that today’s generation of young people, raised on fast food and inactivity, may well die before their own parents.

Andrew Prentice, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, believes that mankind is at a turning point.

Behind lie generations of evolution that have given the human race a “thrifty gene” able to make the best of hard times. Ahead lies superabundance: all the food you can eat, and in a form that makes it attractive and full of energy, he says. That goes with a lifestyle that involves lots of sitting about and not much exercise.

The combination of genes, food and physical idleness mean that a pandemic of obesity is inevitable.

Source: Nigel Hawkes The Times 10 Sep 02. For full story visit www.thetimesonline.co.uk