A new study has turned common conceptions of what causes obesity on its head, revealing that reduced physical activity may not have as large a role in our size as our diets.
The study, published this week in PNAS, challenged common wisdom that people in developed nations such as the U.S. are relatively sedentary and burn fewer calories than people in less industrialized countries. Instead, it found that people living in developed nations burned the same amount of calories as people living in less-developed regions, such as farmers, herders and hunters and gatherers, who have much more active lifestyles.
