Over the past two decades rates of adult and childhood obesity in the developed world have risen sharply. By the year 2000 65% of the United States population were overweight 30% of these obese. Whilst medical treatment has tended to focus on individual habits of diet and exercise this approach does little to account for globally increasing levels of obesity and the external environmental factors that may be responsible. This in-depth study assembles the evidence for a geographical explanation of current obesity trends and is the first work to examine the ways in which environment and living conditions promote an imbalance of energy intake over energy expenditure. The book calls upon the expertise of geographers nutritionists epidemiologists sociologists and public health researchers resulting in a broad multidisciplinary analysis of this important health issue. Cover graphic designed by Georgia Witten-Sage. Language: English