We Sit (All Day); Therefore We Are Fat

Call it progress: in 1960, one out of two Americans had a job that was physically active. Now, Tara Parker-Pope reports in the New York Times, one in five Americans has such a job. Parker-Pope’s numbers come a recent report in PLoSOne that attempts to describe how shifts in the labor force have brought us to the point where one in three Americans is obese. The researchers found that changes in jobs since 1960 translate to an average decline of about 120 to 140 calories a day in physical activity, closely matching the nation’s steady weight gain over the past five decades. Parker-Pope suggests that the report may take some of the heat off of changes in our diet, which has been the primary target of many health experts. Or not.

Read more in the New York Times.