For the study, researchers examined country-specific data on obesity rates and the per capita per day availability of major food groups from 170 countries. After extracting physical inactivity, urbanization and overall caloric intake from the analysis, researchers found 50 percent of obesity variation to be attributable to sugar availability and the other 50 percent of obesity variation to be attributable to meat availability. When considering all factors that contribute to obesity, researchers found both meat consumption and sugar consumption continued to have equal influence on obesity rates.
Maciej Henneberg, PhD, head of the Biological Anthropology and Comparative Anatomy Research Unit at Adelaide University in Australia, said, “While we believe it’s important that the public should be alert to the over-consumption of sugar and some fats in their diets, based on our findings we believe meat protein in the human diet is also making a significant contribution to obesity.”
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