Using data from the United Nations and World Health Organization, researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated that the adult human population weights in at 287 million tonnes. 15 millions of which is due to the overweight and 3.5 million due to obesity.
While the average body mass globally was 62kg, North America, which has the highest body mass of any continent, with an average body mass of 80.7kg. North America has only 6% of the world’s population but 34% of the world’s biomass mass due to obesity. In contrast Asia has 61% of the world’s population but only 13% of the world’s biomass due to obesity.
If all countries had the same average BMI as the USA the total human biomass would increase by 58 million tonnes – this is the equivalent of an additional 935 million people of world average body mass.
Science Brief thanks to EurekAlert.
Read more here:
The weight of nations: An estimation of adult human biomass
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- An Estimation Of Total Adult Human Biomass – The Weight Of Nations (medicalnewstoday.com)
Reblogged this on Ubeudgen’s Blog.
Reblogged this on Ubeudgen’s Blog.