Map of the Week: Obesity

TORONTO STAR FILE

This week's map also uses data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, this time looking at obesity in Ontario by health region.

In many ways, it resembles last week's smoking map: northern and rural communities at the top, medium-sized cities in the middle, and urban areas at the bottom.

The top five are:
1) Northwestern
2) Porcupine
3) Hastings and Prince Edward
4) Huron
5) Timiskaming

The bottom five are:
32) Halton
33) York Region
34) City of Ottawa
35) Peel Region
36) City of Toronto

The map uses 2005 data.

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View obesity in a larger map

Percentage	Colour
20 and above
17.5-20
15-17.5
Under 15

Key added Aug 17

Comments

[TBD]

Sigh! Dark blue means high obesity or low obesity?

[LB]

Great idea, but I agree with the poster above - this map needs a legend to explain what the colours mean.

[R. Hewitt]

It is obvious that those who are less obese are more physically active, more aware of what they eat, and have the right sort of foods available for healthy living in more urban areas. The food choices of those living in smaller more remote areas are fewer. They tend to eat more donuts, and use their cars more often than someone living in downtown Toronto.

[Joe]

You can't be serious as to have to ask why there is more obesity in urban...one word: car

[jonathan]

light blue = skinnier
dark blue = fatter

why?: see title: Why is there less obesity in Ontario's urban regions?

[Adrian]

R. Hewitt - I would have agreed completely with your suggestion (and still think there's most of the answer there)... but then I read Matthew Turner's work at the University of Toronto on urban sprawl and its link to obesity. Turner and his colleagues say that, when you control for other factors, people who are less inclined to exercise and walk to places to meet their daily needs tend to move to car-dependent suburbs. While it doesn't explain the leading position of small towns, it can help explain why someone in the suburbs may be more obese than their urban counterparts.

That article can be found here: http://diegopuga.org/papers/fatcity.pdf

Now - about solving this and other urban challenges... I'd love to hear some good suggestions.

[Julia]

Quite simply, the downtown urban lifestyle in Toronto supports healthy living. You have to try very hard to be obese while living in Toronto... By default, you walk everywhere or take transit. Cars are obscenely expensive and impractical for the majority of day-to-day affairs. There were no fast food outlets in my old downtown neighborhood, but there were a half-dozen fresh fruit and veggie markets scattered about, along with a health food store, deli, butcher and a bakery. That meant a trip up and down the neighborhood to collect the items needed for dinner... Is it any wonder that I gained over 30 lbs after moving to the US where everything involves a car ride and finding truly fresh and beautiful produce is an exercise in frustration? Consider yourselves lucky to live in Toronto - I know I'd move back in a heartbeat if I could!

[Brad]

The darker the region, the higher the rate of obesity. I think R. Hewitt basically has it right, though I wouldn't single out doughnuts specifically :P

In most rural and suburban areas, it is impractical to get around without a car, whereas Toronto is a relatively walkable and bikeable city. The TTC is okay, too. I don't drive, for several reasons, so this is a major reason that I prefer to live downtown. If only we had decent public transit outside of the city...

[pcain]

TBD and LB: I added a key just now.

[moof]

Amusing anti-car analysis, folks, but if that was the case, shouldn't the 905 donut around 416 be much darker than it is?

I'll turn the tables with some (hopefully amusing) flip-side observations:
- "Toronto is so low because of all the starving homeless"
- "Wow, all those anorexics in the GTA really skew the numbers"
- "Yep, beer makes you fat, drugs makes you skinny"
All are as equally valid as any of the walk drive statements I just read (Toronto's numbers also include all those people who don't live downtown where some people have been known to drive)

I'll admit that my first reaction was "is that last weeks map?". I'm was also surprised at the the higher rates in the areas where I would assume a greater portion of the jobs are physical. But looking deeper, the choice of so few divisions is (5% separating the two extremes) could be covered by the margin of error - a few more categories (<10, 10-12.5, 12.5-15 plus 20-22.5 22.5-25 and 25+), while more challenging to display in shades of blue would also give a better picture.

[Andy]

I would agree the automobile probably has something to do with it... but I wonder if immigration has anything to do with it as well? Most cultures have lower obesity rates than the North American one, so by extension one might interpret these results to confirm that where you have a higher proportion of immigrants, you have lower obesity rates.

Also, what about education levels? I seem to recall that there are lower rates of obesity and smoking with higher education levels. There are literally dozens of interesting cross-reference studies that could be made between lots of these things. In fact there are so many that it would be difficult to ascertain if there was even a single governing factor.

[melissa]

I moved to the city and have gained weight being here!! (Only 5 lbs but it still sucks). I walk or bike everywhere, I don't have a car like I did when I was in a small town... but there is food everywhere, on every street corner, you can't escape it! It's interesting how we have so much more food available to us in Toronto yet most of us are able to stay slim. It would be interesting to investigate all factors related to obesity in relation to their geographical location.

[Jay-To]

It won't be long before the urban areas catch up with the rural. Just look around at the "rascals" zooming around full of obese people. I have yet to see one who was just not too lazy to walk or ended up in the mobile device because they became to heavy to walk. Accomodating a poor lifestyle like that does nothing to help. We are heading into a situation where getting fat is becoming an accomodated lifvestyle choice that will be very expensive on our health care system. Its time to stop that now and encourage rehabilitation for those whose problem is purely diet. I have a neighbour who is a foodie. His entire existence is to eat different things in big quantities. He has chosen to live like that. His many trips via ambulance is a big expense we are paying for.

[Jay-To]

Wow. This taken with last weeks map contains a message for you rural conservative minded voters. Be careful what you wish for with regard to privatized health care because it appears you are the ones who will be needing it the most in the future.

[Thane]

Moof:

You question why the 905 belt around Toronto isn't much more obese than the city, if car-dependency has anything to do with it.

In actually fact, it is.

York region: 13.7%
Toronto: 10.1%

That's 35% more obese people by population - I'd say that really does suggest that the car is a factor!

[moof]

Thane:

Peel is 11.9, only 17% tubbier, halfway between York and Toronto. What's that mean? Having a lake nearby encourages more swimming, thus fitter people?

Numbers to show how many 905'ers, Suburban Torontonians and Downtowners drivers (as I said, Toronto's 10.1% is not just the downtown 416 folks, in spite of what they think) would be fun.

Here's some math fun: Assume Etobicoke, North York & Scarborough are a suburban as York, for driving purposes. Gathering some numbers from the 2001 census...Etobicoke, North York + Scarborough: 1.6 million; old Toronto and the Yorks: 900,000 (2.5 - 1.6). Therefore 65% of Amalgamated Toronto live in the old hated 'burbs, 75% if you count the Yorks).

Now, if you apply York's 13.7% to the old 'burbs, you get 220,000 people, Amalgamated Toronto's 10.1% gives 250,000 obese - meaning that the 3 inner cities have an obesity rate of 3.7%. If we include the Yorks as 'burbs, the number of obese people in Pre-amalgamation Toronto is negative. Well, that's not possible, is it? (I've rounded numbers here while typing)

There are so many variables at play that to make a blanket claim that "it's the car" would get you kicked out of any entry level science class. Well, maybe not one taught by Dr. Suzuki.

Just having fun...

[Bobber]

Well I think this is simple, you have to drive everywhere in the suburbs to get anything...and I mean anything. I grew up there, and can say without a car, you can't get anything done. And after buying a car, you WILL NEVER WALK ANYWHERE again...which I can guarantee you will make you fat.

People downtown, while also having cars...will more often than not, walk for daily needs as it's close by. And driving is a serious hassle and pain, unless you need the carrying abilities of said car.

I often walk to work each day, or walk home, and or go out for nice walks to a cafe etc., None of that happens in suburbia (much) and people are virtual prisoners to their homes and cars.

To each his own of course, but I would take urban living any day above the prisons of suburbia. :)

[Ben]

MediaCurves.com conducted a study on 402 Americans regarding their health and weight class based on the U.S. Government standards. Results found that nearly one-third of Midwesterners indicated that they live an unhealthy lifestyle, and the majority (64%) are classified as overweight. The study also revealed that American women are significantly more overweight than American men.
More in depth results can be seen at:
http://www.mediacurves.com/HealthCare/J7577b-CalorieCounting/Index.cfm
Thanks,
Ben

[Wendy]

Every one talks about food but missing a major culprit alcohol consumption....

[Leonidas]

We should not forget something about Toronto: More than half of the population is Asian or African. And we all know these two groups are less obese than white North American people.

[steve mcnamee]

The simple answer to why people are also obese in small towns is because most people in small towns also use cars to get around. Most small towns in Ontario have been surrounded by 'mini-suburbs' and most services that people use (banks, large grocery stores) have followed the middle class to the mini-suburbs. The result? Everyone drives with the exception of the low income families and elderly that still live in the older downtown areas, which usually don't have much more than a few variety stores, library, etc. I recently moved back to Toronto and owning a car is a liability. As soon as my lease is up in 5 months I'll be back to living car-free and none-too-soon. I now think of suburban sprawl and suburbs as 'fat cells' around the dense urban 'muscle' of the old, compact cities.

[Mandi]

I think the data is skewed by the high numbers of new Canadians living in urban areas. They have yet to be converted to the typical McNorth American lifestyle.