If you want to know which of Canada's towns and cities are the fattest, you might want to count up the number of fast food outlets the town has.
A University of Alberta researcher has done just that and drawn up what he calls an "obesity map" of Canada.
Health economics professor Sean Cash and fellow researchers did a count of the country's top 10 food chains (Tim Hortons, Subway, McDonald's, KFC, A&W, Dairy Queen, Harvey's, Wendy's, Burger King and Domino's Pizza) in various cities across Canada, and cross-referenced it with Statistics Canada's latest figures on obesity levels in those urban areas.
The research revealed that obesity rates are highest in areas with the most "large chain" fast food places.
"The findings support the theory that increased incidence of obesity is related to the higher number of outlets," said co-author Lacanilao, a graduate student in the University of Alberta Department of Rural Economy.
Interestingly, other factors such as income and commuting time appeared to have little effect on obesity rates.
The researchers found that Maritime residents have more opportunity to sink their teeth into burgers and fries than other Canadians. Cities in those provinces have four fast food outlets for every 10,000 people -- the highest number in Canada.
Metropolitan areas in the Prairie provinces--Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta--were next, averaging three outlets per person.
Montreal had the fewest number, with 1.4 restaurants per every 10,000 people. Also at the lower end of the scale were people in Vancouver. Those cities also had lower incidences of obesity.
Cash says the study also raised a chicken-and-egg question: did people in some areas get fatter because of the number of fast food outlets in their neighbourhoods? Or did fast food outlets open in areas where they knew they had lots of overweight customers eager for their products? Or, is it all a coincidence.
"The study showed that the accessibility of fast food varies greatly across Canadian metropolitan areas, leading to the question of whether some areas are more targeted by fast food outlets than others, and why that might be the case," said Cash.
Cash cautions that the study simply shows a correlation; it doesn't prove if one causes the other. But he says his study finds a strong relationship between fast-food restaurant density and higher obesity rates.
The research was completed earlier this year and recently presented in poster form at an Agricultural Institute of Canada conference. Cash is hoping to publish the study soon.
Here is the list of the cities studied, inorder of their obesity rates according to 2006 Statistics Canada data, along with their number of the "top 10" fast-food outlets per 10,000 people, as compiled by researchers at the University of Alberta.
| City | Obesity rate | # of fast-food outlets per 10,000 residents |
|---|---|---|
| St. John's, NL | 36.4% | 3.54 |
| Saint John, N.B | 34.7 | 4.11 |
| Hamilton | 34.6 | 3.0 |
| Windsor, Ont. |
33.2 | 3.3 |
| Thunder Bay, Ont. | 32.6 | 2.68 |
| Regina | 31.8 | 3.08 |
| Kitchener, Ont. | 30.7 | 3.36 |
| Oshawa, Ont. | 29.6 | 1.78 |
| Kingston, Ont. | 28.9 | 3.53 |
| Saskatoon | 27.0 | 2.94 |
| London, Ont. | 26.6 | 3.38 |
| Greater Sudbury, Ont. | 26.1 | 3.91 |
| Calgary | 25.7 | 3.23 |
| Winnipeg | 25.2 | 2.75 |
| Abbotsford, B.C. | 25.0 | 2.96 |
| St. Catharines, Ont. | 23.1 | 3.31 |
| Montreal | 21.2 | 1.44 |
| Edmonton | 20.1 | 3.14 |
| Ottawa | 19.7 | 2.54 |
| Victoria | 19.0 | 2.55 |
| Saguenay, Que. | 18.9 | 1.69 |
| Halifax | 18.4 | 3.85 |
| Quebec | 17.3 | 1.97 |
| Toronto | 15.6 | 2.05 |
| Vancouver | 11.7 | 2.03 |
