We know the numbers – more than 1/3 of U.S. adults are considered obese. And we know the risks, obesity puts us in greater danger of chronic problems like diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis and even some cancers.
And now it seems that more of us may be getting the message and trying to get our weight under control, or at least not so many of us are packing on unhealthy pounds.
According to a review of CDC data that has just been released online in the Journal of the American Medical Association, figures from the National Center for Health Statistics put a still too high 34% of Americans over 20 (double the number of 20 years ago) as obese, and another 34% in the overweight category in 2007-2008.
As for kids, there’s another study in the same JAMA issue that puts 17% of kids aged 2 to 19 (three times the number from 20 years ago) in the obese category, another 32% overweight.
As always, overweight was considered a body mass index of 25.0 to 29.9, and obesity was defined as a body mass index higher than 30.0.
The good news in these numbers is that the CDC statisticians found the rapid (and worrisome) obesity growth rates of the 80s and 90s seem to be slowing for both women and (most recently) men.
In 2007-08 the prevalence of obesity was 32.2% among adult men, 35.5% for adult women – still high, but not nearly as high as it might have been if earlier rates had held. It seems that the percentage of the very overweight has leveled off.
The one exception to the good news is the rate of obesity in heavyweight boys, aged 6 to 19, whose numbers keep going up. “The heaviest boys may be getting even heavier, ” the researchers point out.
Experts point to environments of unhealthy food and lots of physical inactivity as the likely culprits, and these have not changed much over the last few years.
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Obesity Rates: At Last Some Good News Continued…
Obesity rates in these studies are based on data that includes the height and weight of 5,555 adults and about 4,000 children considered representative of the total U.S. population collected as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
Once the data was gathered, detailed statistical analysis was performed and the data from 2007-08 was compared with that from 1999 to 2006.
“Right now we’ve halted the progress of the obesity epidemic,” said Dr. William H. Dietz, director of the division of nutrition, physical activity and obesity at the disease control centers. “The data are really promising. That said, I don’t think we have in place the kind of policy or environmental changes needed to reverse this epidemic just yet.”
Ten years ago federal health officials had set a goal that no more than 15% of adults would be obese in 2010. Clearly we’re not near that, nor have we moved very far in that direction. What we have done is slow our progress in the wrong direction.
Why the slowdown? Increased awareness of obesity and the risks to health may be a factor, especially among women who buy food and prepare meals for their families.
There have also been efforts to make food choices at school healthier, and this may also be bearing fruit. Another theory is that the plateau might suggest we’ve reached a limit, biologically, as to just how big we can get.
Daily Health Bulletin
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