A number of obese people in the US have lost considerable amount of flab in the last three years since the start of the recession in 2007, a new study has revealed.
Researchers are baffled with the findings as previous researches suggested that low-income families prefer to buy foods which are cheaper, but higher in calories, due to the global financial meltdown.
In their study, the researchers at Arizona University used information collected from a study of 350,000 adults across the US, the
People were asked for their height and weight, which allows researchers to calculate their Body Mass Index (BMI). The World Health Organisation considers a person obese if they have a BMI score of 30 or over, and overweight if they have a score of between 25 and 30.
The researchers said: “In all but the poorest income group the annual increase in BMI decelerated substantially during the recession. There is little evidence that the economic downturn has exacerbated obesity by causing people to consume cheaper foods.”