Comment on I live in the green part
inv3r510n@lemmy.world 2 weeks agoHigh elevation makes the body work harder because there’s less oxygen. Elite athletes train in the high country for the effects.
Altitude is an appetite suppressant.
The trend of altitude being inversely correlated with obesity rates is really obvious from county-level data. That trend persists across multiple countries, but the specific correlation varies from country to country, in a way that suggests that rich countries have a stronger inverse correlation between altitude and obesity.
Today I learned….
Haha. What’s interesting is there’s other high country in the US but it’s not green in this map.
That’s why the county level data makes the trend that much more obvious, because the states tend to clump big groups together. Here’s an example.
There, you can see that Colorado is special in that its rural counties tend to be low obesity, compared to even its neighbors in the Rockies. You also see a sliver of green following the Appalachian Mountains.
And obviously it isn’t the only factor. Poverty is really important, as are lifestyles (and the intentional and unintentional features of any given community in incentivizing or disincentivizing things like walking, regular exercise, eating healthy, etc.).
Oh yeah, it near perfectly captures where the mountains are. The green areas are mountains and cities. NH is interesting, the darkest part is where the ski areas are, the lighter part is the more populated area.
Are you sure it is not the other way around? Maybe the driven people who are physically fit are moving to higher elevation. If someone is obese they probably aren’t going to move to rual mountains
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Only for a short period of time. You adapt and the effects go away since your body creates more red blood cells.
inv3r510n@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
But then those athletes go down to sea level for a competition and have an advantage
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
For a few days
spongebue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yup. Go to high elevations, and until you acclimate you’ll feel a little off. Go to low elevations, and for the equal but opposite reasons you can run a marathon and outdrink anyone.