Does it feel like everywhere you turn there’s more food? Fast food joints like McDonalds and Taco Bell abound. And big box stores like Costco, Walmart and Target sell mounds of groceries. Just the slightest pang of hunger and around the corner there’s another restaurant or retailer enticing us to buy more food. 

Now a study finds that the sheer availability of all this food may be a big part of what is making us fat.

Charles Courtemanch, assistant professor in the school of policy studies at Georgia State University, says that the steady rise in obesity rates is due, in large part, to the constant incentives to eat. 

Courtemanche and his colleagues built a state-wide economic model of economic conditions that influence body weight: things like income and unemployment, food prices, retail outlet presence, as well as gasoline prices and the prevalence of fitness centers.  Their data showed that the presence of supercenters, warehouse clubs and restaurants are responsible for more than 40 percent of the rise in obesity.  The report was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. [Charles J. Courtemanche et al, Can Changing Economic Factors Explain the Rise in Obesity?]

So if you’re trying to shed a few pounds, and you happen to be looking for a new place to live, pick the house closer to the gym over the one near the Walmart.

—Gretchen Cuda Kroen

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]

Editor's correction note: This podcast originally had Charles Courtemanch affiliated with the University of Georgia. He is at Georgia State University.