Technology blamed for expanding waistlines

Last updated at 10:11 03 December 2004


Rapid advances in technology over the past century are causing people to gain weight and obesity levels to rise.

Professor Carol Propper will tell an audience at the Royal Economic Society, how agricultural advances have caused more food to be produced at a far cheaper cost.

But at the same time technology has made work far less strenuous, so people must pay for rather than be paid to exercise.

The professor will say that the combination of lower costs of consuming calories and higher costs of expending calories has led to the dramatic rise in obesity in the UK.

Just 10 years ago, 13% of men and 16% of women were too heavy for their height. But today, the figure is over 21% for both sexes - one in five of the adult population.

30,000 deaths a year

At least 30,000 deaths a year are caused by obesity in England alone, and the condition at an annual cost to the NHS of £500 million. The economy loses £2 billion a year through sickness and early deaths.

Carol Propper is Professor of Economics of Public Policy and Director of the Centre for Market and Public Organisation at the University of Bristol.

She said: "Over the last 100 years we have been steadily gaining weight. Technological change is a major factor of this.

"In the 1930s a typical American housewife would take anything up to two hours to prepare a meal. It was a time intensive process.

"With advances in technology such as microwaves and vacuum packing, meals can now be produced, made and prepared in minutes.

"Food is cheaper, not only in the hours on the job it takes to earn money to buy dinner, but also in the minutes needed to make it.

"This fall in time price has led to an increase in the quantity and variety of food consumed."

Professor Propper will describe a series of key findings in the economic analysis of obesity and their implications for public policy, both here and in the United States - the only major economy to have a worse obesity problem than England.

The lecture will be held at the Royal Institute in London.

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