Obesity in America: Good News?

In case you haven’t noticed, Americans are fat. The good news is that it seems like the obesity rate in this country has leveled off after several decades of steady increases. The bad news? Well…

The bad news is that it’s leveled off at just over one-third of Americans. That’s right, 34% of U.S. adults (roughly 73 million people) are currently classified as obese. In other words, they’re 30 or more pound above a “healthy” weight.

According to Cynthia Ogden of the National Center for Health Statistics:

“The obesity trend appears to be slowing down, but the prevalence remains high and continues to be a critical national health concern.”

Donna Ryan, president of the Obesity Society, goes on to argue leveling off at 34% is:

“… no great achievement. It’s still very, very alarming. And the high rates of childhood obesity are likely to translate into higher rates of extreme obesity when those children reach adulthood.”

One of the big concerns is that obesity increases the incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, and cancer. It’s thus not surprising that obesity has a major effect on life expectancy.

Interestingly, obesity seems to be a great problem for minorities, with
obesity rates for African American (49.6%) and Hispanic (43%) women being higher than for white women (33%). Similarly, more African American girls and Hispanic boys between ages 2-19 are overweight/obese as compared to white children in the same age range.

Source: USA Today

Filed under: Health & Fitness
Tags: obesity, weight loss