Now they're calling it an epidemic. But an epidemic presupposes that the cause and/or cure may be out of control. Is obesity out of our control? Or are we unwilling or unknowledgable of how it begins, how to control it, or perhaps to control our own choices relating to it? What's driving this?
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Thu Jul 17, 11:48 PM ET
As published by Yahoo! News
THURSDAY, July 17 (HealthDay News) -- Despite wide-ranging efforts to encourage Americans to lose weight, the number of U.S. adults who are obese increased almost 2 percent between 2005 and 2007, a new report found.
In 2007, 25.6 percent of adults reported being obese, compared to 23.9 percent in 2005, according to the finding in the July 18 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
"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 percentage of adults who are obese varies by state and region, according to the report. For example, in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, 30 percent of the residents reported being obese, compared with 18.7 percent in Colorado, which had the lowest prevalence of obesity.
Obesity was most prevalent in the South, with 27 percent of residents classified as obese. In the Midwest, the number was 25.3 percent; in the Northeast, 23.3 percent; and in the West, 22.1 percent, according to the report.
In terms of age, among those 50 to 59 years old, 31.7 percent of men and 30.2 percent of women were obese. For those 19 to 29, 19.1 percent of men and women were obese.
Breaking the numbers down by race/ethnicity and sex, obesity prevalence was highest for non-Hispanic black women (39.0 percent), followed by non-Hispanic black men (32.1 percent).
Education levels play a role, too. For men, obesity prevalence was lowest among college graduates (22.1 percent) and highest among those with some college (29.5 percent) and a high school diploma (29.1 percent). For women, obesity prevalence was lowest among college graduates (17.9 percent) and highest among those with less than a high school diploma (32.6 percent).
None of the states or the District of Columbia has met the "Healthy People 2010" goal of reducing the prevalence of obesity to 15 percent or less, the CDC said.
"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.
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.
In compiling the data, the CDC used its Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which collected information on more than 350,000 adults through telephone interviews. The researchers calculated BMIs using information reported by survey participants.
"These data from the CDC confirm that the epidemic of obesity continues to spread, whether looking at population trends in the short- or long-term," said Howard D. Sesso, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
The likelihood of America meeting the Healthy People 2010 objectives for obesity prevalence appears dim, Sesso said. "This report highlights the need not only to outright prevent the development of obesity over the life-course, but also to improve efforts to reduce body weight in those already classified as obese," he said.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Obesity increases in US
A recent report on obesity in the United States shows that one in four US adults are affected by obesity. One in four! That's a full quarter of Americans. What is driving this trend? Read on . . .
Fri Jul 18, 2:27 PM ET
As published in Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Obesity continued to creep up in the United States last year and now affects more than one in four US adults, a US government report showed Friday.
In 2005, 23.9 percent of adults in the United States were obese, or had a body mass index greater than 30, while in 2007, the percentage had grown to 25.6 percent, data issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) showed.
Body mass index is calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilos by his or her height squared in meters.
In three states -- Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee -- nearly one in three adults was obese.
Mississippi, which is also the poorest US state, had the highest rate of obesity in the United States, at 32 percent. Colorado had the lowest rate of obesity at 18.7 percent and was the only state in which obesity was running at less than 19 percent.
No state has achieved the official target to bring obesity down to 15 percent of the adult population by 2010, the report showed.
Obesity was highest for non-Hispanic black women, nearly four in 10 of whom were obese.
University graduates were the least likely to be obese -- around 22 percent compared with 29 percent of people who only obtained a high school diploma.
A report issued last year by the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) said the percentage of obese adults more than doubled in the past 25 years across the United States, growing from 15 percent in 1978-80 to 32 percent in 2003-04.
Fri Jul 18, 2:27 PM ET
As published in Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Obesity continued to creep up in the United States last year and now affects more than one in four US adults, a US government report showed Friday.
In 2005, 23.9 percent of adults in the United States were obese, or had a body mass index greater than 30, while in 2007, the percentage had grown to 25.6 percent, data issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) showed.
Body mass index is calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilos by his or her height squared in meters.
In three states -- Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee -- nearly one in three adults was obese.
Mississippi, which is also the poorest US state, had the highest rate of obesity in the United States, at 32 percent. Colorado had the lowest rate of obesity at 18.7 percent and was the only state in which obesity was running at less than 19 percent.
No state has achieved the official target to bring obesity down to 15 percent of the adult population by 2010, the report showed.
Obesity was highest for non-Hispanic black women, nearly four in 10 of whom were obese.
University graduates were the least likely to be obese -- around 22 percent compared with 29 percent of people who only obtained a high school diploma.
A report issued last year by the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) said the percentage of obese adults more than doubled in the past 25 years across the United States, growing from 15 percent in 1978-80 to 32 percent in 2003-04.
Studies show exercise boon for obesity, diabetes
By Michael Kahn
Mon Jul 28, 5:03 PM ET
As published by Yahoo! News
LONDON (Reuters) - Walking a bit more each day can help people control their Type 2 diabetes but obese people trying to keep weight off may need to exercise harder than they had thought, according to a studies published on Monday.
Simply walking 45 minutes more each day helped people with diabetes use blood sugar better, Michael Trenell of Britain's Newcastle University and colleagues wrote in the journal Diabetes Care.
"People often find the thought of going to the gym quite daunting, but what we've found is that nearly everyone with diabetes is able to become more active through walking," Trenell said.
The Newcastle team paired 10 Type 2 diabetes patients with people without the condition of similar height, weight and age and asked everybody to walk more than 10,000 steps each day.
Magnetic resonance imaging or MRI scans showed that people who walked 45 minutes more each day burned about 20 percent more fat -- increasing the ability of the muscles to store sugar and help control diabetes, the researchers said.
"What is exciting about this study is that it provides an immediate way to help control diabetes without any additional drugs," Trenell said.
Diabetes affects an estimated 246 million adults worldwide and accounts for 6 percent of all global deaths. Type 2 diabetes accounts for about 90 percent of all diabetes cases and is closely linked to obesity and physical inactivity.
Obesity and diabetes both are growing problems as more developing nations adopt a Western lifestyle, something the International Diabetes Federation estimates will propel the number of people with diabetes to 380 million by 2025.
But current exercise guidelines calling for people to get 150 minutes -- 2.5 hours -- each week may not be enough to help the obese keep weight off, John Jakicic of the University of Pittsburgh and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
To determine an optimal amount of exercise, the U.S. team enrolled 201 overweight and obese women in a weight loss programme between 1999 and 2003 and assigned them to one of four exercise groups.
After six months, women in all four groups had lost an average of 8 to 10 percent of their weight but many gained it back.
Women assigned to exercise for about an extra hour each day did not gain the weight back, the researchers said. These women were also more likely to stick to healthy diets.
Jakicic recommended that people who want to lose weight and keep it off get at least 4-1/2 hours of exercise a week.
"There is a growing consensus that more exercise may be necessary to enhance long-term weight loss," Jakicic and colleagues wrote.
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Maggie Fox)
Mon Jul 28, 5:03 PM ET
As published by Yahoo! News
LONDON (Reuters) - Walking a bit more each day can help people control their Type 2 diabetes but obese people trying to keep weight off may need to exercise harder than they had thought, according to a studies published on Monday.
Simply walking 45 minutes more each day helped people with diabetes use blood sugar better, Michael Trenell of Britain's Newcastle University and colleagues wrote in the journal Diabetes Care.
"People often find the thought of going to the gym quite daunting, but what we've found is that nearly everyone with diabetes is able to become more active through walking," Trenell said.
The Newcastle team paired 10 Type 2 diabetes patients with people without the condition of similar height, weight and age and asked everybody to walk more than 10,000 steps each day.
Magnetic resonance imaging or MRI scans showed that people who walked 45 minutes more each day burned about 20 percent more fat -- increasing the ability of the muscles to store sugar and help control diabetes, the researchers said.
"What is exciting about this study is that it provides an immediate way to help control diabetes without any additional drugs," Trenell said.
Diabetes affects an estimated 246 million adults worldwide and accounts for 6 percent of all global deaths. Type 2 diabetes accounts for about 90 percent of all diabetes cases and is closely linked to obesity and physical inactivity.
Obesity and diabetes both are growing problems as more developing nations adopt a Western lifestyle, something the International Diabetes Federation estimates will propel the number of people with diabetes to 380 million by 2025.
But current exercise guidelines calling for people to get 150 minutes -- 2.5 hours -- each week may not be enough to help the obese keep weight off, John Jakicic of the University of Pittsburgh and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
To determine an optimal amount of exercise, the U.S. team enrolled 201 overweight and obese women in a weight loss programme between 1999 and 2003 and assigned them to one of four exercise groups.
After six months, women in all four groups had lost an average of 8 to 10 percent of their weight but many gained it back.
Women assigned to exercise for about an extra hour each day did not gain the weight back, the researchers said. These women were also more likely to stick to healthy diets.
Jakicic recommended that people who want to lose weight and keep it off get at least 4-1/2 hours of exercise a week.
"There is a growing consensus that more exercise may be necessary to enhance long-term weight loss," Jakicic and colleagues wrote.
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Maggie Fox)
Saturday, July 26, 2008
First Post of Many
How many people might there be who have eaten the common American diet and grown up in homes too busy to cook healthy meals? Does anyone wonder why American children are fatter than children of 50 years ago? And how many young adults launch out into the world without knowing how to cook anything from "scratch" if they had to?
The natural, whole food revolution is gaining momentum, but still there are people who want to eat healthily, but honestly don't know how. How does one choose the food, where does one buy it, can it be grown and how, what's the best time to harvest food, the best way to preserve it, to prepare it, boil, fry, bake it or eat it raw? YIKES!!! Where does one start?
Is there an inexpensive, effective way to learn the basics?
This blog author has written an eBook, "101 Ways to Get More From Less," a handy look at several ways to learn the basics, prepare healthy food and find other ways to just save money each month. Whether you want to brush up on health yourself or give a gift to a young person or single-provider family, this is a great way to begin. Go to LowCostFood.net and get started today! :-)
The natural, whole food revolution is gaining momentum, but still there are people who want to eat healthily, but honestly don't know how. How does one choose the food, where does one buy it, can it be grown and how, what's the best time to harvest food, the best way to preserve it, to prepare it, boil, fry, bake it or eat it raw? YIKES!!! Where does one start?
Is there an inexpensive, effective way to learn the basics?
This blog author has written an eBook, "101 Ways to Get More From Less," a handy look at several ways to learn the basics, prepare healthy food and find other ways to just save money each month. Whether you want to brush up on health yourself or give a gift to a young person or single-provider family, this is a great way to begin. Go to LowCostFood.net and get started today! :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
