US scientists have amassed "planetary-scale" data from peoples' smartphones to see how active we really are. The average number of steps in a country appears to be less important for obesity levels, for example. The key ingredient was "activity inequality" - it's like wealth inequality, except instead of the difference between rich and poor, it's the difference between the fittest and laziest. The bigger the activity inequality, the higher the rates of obesity. The United States and Mexico both have similar average steps, but the US has higher activity inequality and obesity levels.

Source: The Star July 12, 2017 00:33 UTC