If you think you excess weight is caused by unhealthy diets, you are right. Just partly, though. According to a new study, exposure to air pollution can be one of the factors that increases your risk of developing obesity.

 

According to researchers from Duke University in North Carolina, U.S., laboratory rats who breathed Beijing’s polluted air developed cardio-respiratory and metabolic dysfunctions, and gained weight. Also, pregnant rats had heavier lungs and livers, higher LDL cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol), higher total cholesterol and more insulin resistance, which is a precursor of Type 2 diabetes.

 

Jim Zhang, a professor of global and environmental health at Duke University and a senior author of the paper, says if findings of the study are translated and verified in humans, they will support the urgent need to reduce air pollution.