The SUV of Human Consumption!

The other day I came across this article from the Associated Press. When I first read it I laughed. Then I realized that someone has too much money to spend on something too little for me to care about. So before I give you “My Take”…here’s part of what the article said:

CHICAGO — Want to spend less at the pump? Lose some weight. That's the implication of a new study that says Americans are burning nearly 1 billion more gallons of gasoline each year than they did in 1960 because of their expanding waistlines. Simply put, more weight in the car means lower gas mileage.

The lost mileage is pretty small for any single driver. Jacobson said the typical driver — someone who records less than 12,000 miles annually — would use roughly 18 fewer gallons of gas over the course of a year by losing 100 pounds. At $2.20 per gallon, that would be a savings of almost $40.

If you put more weight into your car, you're going to get fewer miles per gallon," Emory University health care analyst Kenneth Thorpe said Wednesday.

The same effect has been seen in airplanes. Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that heavy fliers have contributed to higher fuel costs for airlines. They estimated that more than 39 million gallons of fuel are used each year for every additional pound of passenger weight.

The amount of extra fuel consumption blamed on weight gain since 1960 — 938 million gallons — would fill almost 2 million cars with gas for an entire year. However, that is only 0.7% of the total amount of fuel consumed by U.S. passenger vehicles each year, Jacobson said.

The estimates "are probably pretty reliable," said Larry Chavis, an economist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. "I don't know if it's going to encourage anybody to go out and lose weight to save gasoline, but even for individual families, it could have an effect on their budget."

My Take:

Do you realize how much funding and time was spent on this issue? We have health care analysts, economists, disease centers, and universities all taking the effort to study a subject matter that probably wouldn’t move the gas gauge one centimeter.

If you want to change the gas consumption in our country you might want to take heed of what the Europeans have been doing for years…walking not driving! That’s right…they walk, they bike, they run, they EXERCISE!

And here’s another thing Americans don’t know about…Moderation! We’re not happy with restaurants that offer simple high quality foods. We want huge portions on our plates. And we want it to taste like anything but what it’s supposed to. And finally…how about spending less time driving and more time home with our families? Now that I’ve only spent 15 minutes fixing our fuel consumption problem...I think I’ll go for a walk!

Al Serin,
President
VitalMax Vitamins

Source: Tanner, Lindsey. Weight Gain Could Mean Lower Gas Mileage. Associated Press.