It was just a matter of time before someone made this connection: The rising incidence of obesity in the United States doesn’t just lead to diabetes, high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol, it also increases fuel consumption in passenger vehicles, according to a study by Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Americans have gained an average of 24 pounds since 1960. That weight gain has resulted in an extra 938 million gallons of fuel consumed annually, according to the study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation. That’s nearly three times the total amount of fuel consumed by all passenger vehicles each day based on current driving habits.
