Obese people are being accused of contributing to the world food crisis because they overeat.
Researchers calculated that obese populations consume 18 per cent more calories than average, boosting the global demand for food and pushing up prices.
Car use by overweight people also affected oil supplies and the cost of food production.
Fo
od prices are soaring around the world, placing staple products beyond the reach of poorer communities and leading to social unrest.
Last month several people were reported killed as food riots erupted in Haiti, where the price of rice, beans and fruit has soared by more than 50 per cent in the space of a year.
Trouble has also flared in Mexico, Bangladesh, Egypt, Senegal, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Mauritania and Yemen.
Increasing oil prices and the use of land for growing biofuels instead of edible crops are said to be two major factors driving up the cost of food.
But according to two experts from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, obesity is also to blame.
Dr Phil Edwards and Dr Ian Roberts compared the calorie consumption of individuals with a normal and obese body mass index (BMI), a measurement that relates height and weight and is used to define obesity.
They estimated that populations with an average BMI in the healthy range of 24.5 consumed a total of 2,500 calories per person per day.
But an obese population with an average BMI of 29 required 2,960 calories per person per day – an extra 18 per cent of food energy.
Writing in The Lancet medical journal, published today, the scientists say more fuel will be used to transport an obese population, which will increase even further if overweight people choose to walk less and drive more.
They say motor transport is more than 95 per cent oil dependent and accounts for almost half the world's oil use.
Because oil is so important to agriculture, demand for transportation fuel affects food prices, they claim.
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