Maintaining a healthy weight during the holiday season, or aiming to complete a healthy New Year’s resolution, can be achieved by avoiding classic holiday sweets such as cookies or candy, and also long car rides, suggests new research in the journal Preventive Medicine.
As the holiday season commences, weight is a common issue. In fact, over-indulging during the holiday season can literally take hours off of your life.
The study, led by professor Sheldon H. Jacobson of the University of Illinois, points out that daily car rides and calories ingested are directly linked to body weight, and by decreasing either just slightly can lead to a decrease in body mass index (BMI).
Graduate student Banafsheh Behzad, a co-author of the study, said: “We’re saying that making small changes in travel or diet choices may lead to comparable obesity reduction, which implies that travel-based interventions may be as effective as dietary interventions.”
Obesity is a worldwide epidemic with multiple medical and social factors. Basically, keeping a healthy body weight is an outcome of energy intake and energy released.
Previous research has looked at contributors individually or at a local level, while the current study wanted to look at both sides through a national lens. As a continuation of earlier studies looking at driving and obesity, researchers decided to use driving as a representation for physical activity.
Jacobson explains:
“An easy way to be more physically active is to spend less time in an automobile. Any time a person sits behind the wheel of a car, it’s one of the most docile activities they can do in a day. The automobile is the quickest mode of transportation we have. But a consequence of this need for speed in getting things done may be the obesity epidemic.”
The investigators used data available to the public on caloric consumption, national average BMI, and driving practices. They created a multivariable model, capable of exploring how caloric intake and miles driven link with BMI, to take into account the complicated relationship of these three variables.
Results showed that if all adults in the United States drove one mile less than they do now per day, there would be an associated reduction in the national average BMI by 0.21 kg/m2 six years later. Decreasing diet by 100 calories, on the other hand, was linked with a reduced national BMI by 0.16 kg/m2 three years later.
Behzad said, “One mile is really not much. If they would just consider even taking the bus, walking the distance to the bus stop could have an impact like eating 100 calories less per day. The main thing is paying attention to caloric intake and moving more, together, can help reduce BMI.”
Even a slight reduction in BMI, such as the one suggested by the model, could imply significant saved expenses. If drivers throughout the United States drove one less mile per day, fuel intake would drop as well as yearly health care expenses because less people would be categorized as overweight or obese, the authors declare.
Jacobson concludes:
“The most important thing for people to learn from this study is that they have a choice. One has to be just as careful about when you choose to drive as when you choose to eat. These small changes in our driving and dietary habits can lead to long-term significant changes in obesity issues. Those are the kind of changes we advocate.”
Written by Kelly Fitzgerald