Is it the couch or the potato (chips)? How much of the rampant
obesity in our culture is due to lack of exercise (and an
abundance of couch time) versus excess food consumption? This
debate has raged in public health circles for years. So, is it
more effective to focus weight-management programs on eating
less or exercising more? As it turns out, eating too much is
what’s responsible for the rise in obesity in the U.S. since the
1970s, says new research. An Australian study presented in May
this year at the European Congress on Obesity aimed to predict
how much weight Americans will gain over a 30-year period if the
amount of food eaten was the only factor in weight gain. The
Deakin University researchers were the first to use a
sophisticated analysis that takes into account individual
metabolic levels, food consumption estimates, epidemiological
data, and food production information. They tested over 1,300
U.S. adults and more than 900 children to determine their
metabolic levels and calorie-burning rate, an