Obesity epidemic in the U. S. swells

Americans just can’t seem to step away from the plate or the fast foods. With the state of the economy and the associated increasing stress the reach for cheap comfort food may get more compelling.

According to the latest U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the number of U.S. adults who are obese increased almost 2 percent between 2005 and 2007. With about 25 percent of Americans being obese.

“The epidemic of adult obesity continues to rise in the United States, indicating that we need to step up our efforts at the national, state and local levels,” Dr. William Dietz, director of CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, said in a news release. “We need to encourage people to eat more fruits and vegetables, engage in more physical activity and reduce the consumption of high-calorie foods and sugar-sweetened beverages in order to maintain a healthy weight.”

The obese stats vary from region-to-region but nowhere are they very good. The south, oh that southern cooking, carries more weight than the northeast. The countryside tends to outweigh the city. Nothing surprising in these results. And things vary by age, sex and race. The important point is that folks are getting fatter and that is not healthy.

The CDC defines obesity as a body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) of 30 or above. An adult who is 5-feet, 9-inches tall is considered obese if he or she weighs 203 pounds.

“Obesity is a major risk factor for a number of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke. These diseases can be very costly for states and the country as a whole,” Deb Galuska, associate director for science at the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, said in a news release.

Source
CDC