US obesity growing 'faster than anyone imagined'

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WASHINGTON — Obesity in the United States has grown "faster than anyone could have imagined," doubling in adults and tripling in children in recent years, a leading health official said Tuesday.

The number of states where more than 30 percent of residents are obese tripled, from three to nine, between 2007 and 2009, Dr. Thomas Frieden, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told reporters as he released data from the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).

The BRFSS has been tracking health conditions and risk behaviors in the United States yearly since 1984.

"Less than a decade ago, in 2000, not a single state had an obesity prevalence of 30 percent or higher," Frieden said.

This year, added Frieden, not one state managed to achieve a goal set by health officials to cut the rate of obesity to 15 percent or less.

Instead, an additional 2.4 million US adults self-reported to the BRFSS that they were obese, pushing the national obesity rate up by 1.1 percentage points to 27 percent, according to the BRFSS.

BRFSS statistics put the obesity rate lower than the 34 percent prevalence reported by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Frieden blamed the difference on the data collection methods used by each survey: BRFSS is self-reported while "in NHANES, participants are weighed and measured."

Obesity is defined as having a body mass index -- calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by their height squared in meters -- greater than 30.

In health terms, it means a person is at greater risk for a whole host of maladies, ranging from high blood pressure to diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

The rising rate of obesity in the United States is driving up medical costs as complications from the condition, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer, sicken and kill more and more people, said Frieden.

In 2008, medical costs associated with obesity were estimated at 147 billion dollars, Frieden said.

"That translates into medical costs for people who are obese that were 1,429 higher per person each year compared to normal-weight individuals," he said.

A separate study published Tuesday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that the percentage of obese adults in the United States shot up by 90 percent in 16 years, from 14 percent in 1993 to 27 percent two years ago.

That study, based on data from the 1993-2008 BRFSS, showed that more American men and women from every ethnic group were dying younger or suffering ill health because they were obese.

Obesity's steep growth curve is not uniquely American, Bill Dietz, director of the CDC's division of nutrition, physical activity and obesity, said at the news conference with Frieden.

"We have a very high prevalence but a couple of years ago I compared the rate of rise of obesity in women in the UK versus women in the United States," Dietz said.

"The curves were parallel," he added, blaming the international growth of girth on a cultural shift that has made "high-calorie food more readily available and reduced opportunities for physical activity."

Ordinary people in the US are getting very poor. Bad food is far cheaper than good food.

Mike

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_otfwl2zc6Qc/Srp4LAD2k6I/AAAAAAAALao/zwiWotXaYdg/s1600/map.jpg

Ordinary people in the US are getting very poor. Bad food is far cheaper than good food.

Mike

That's a cop out. Overeating and lack of exercise causes obesity. Anyone can eat just as cheaply substituting fresh vegetables for your $3 bag of potato chips. You can buy a whole chicken at the grocery store for $4, which is cheaper than the burger/fries/drink combo at the local fast food joint and will feed the whole family.

That's a cop out. Overeating and lack of exercise causes obesity. Anyone can eat just as cheaply substituting fresh vegetables for your $3 bag of potato chips. You can buy a whole chicken at the grocery store for $4, which is cheaper than the burger/fries/drink combo at the local fast food joint and will feed the whole family.

Actually, I eat quite well, and my weight is fine, also my health. I prepare every meal I eat. I only consume fresh meat, fish, fowl, vegetables and fruit. I even bake my own bread. I've enough rice to last years, so that costs me nothing.

My food budget is over $200. That's one person, me. I make every attempt to track and take advantage of discounts at the grocers. My budget would be less, but I have certain tastes that I simply won't compromise. I like good quality, whole milk, real butter, and the only oil I use is good olive oil, and more.

I've done the study. If you buy and eat pure crap...microwaveable dinners, microwaveable 'pockets,' whatever they are, cheap white bread, and the like, you can easily get by on less than $100 a month. You could probably get by on about $50 a month if you really watched the special prices. Hell, you could probably eat for $100 a month and eat at the fast-food places almost every day.

My observation is exactly accurate. That's what is going on in the US. An increasingly poorer population is eating what is easy to get and prepare, and is cheap. It is making them fat and unhealthy.

Mike

My food budget is over $200. That's one person, me. If you buy and eat pure crap...microwaveable dinners, microwaveable 'pockets,' whatever they are, cheap white bread, and the like, you can easily get by on less than $100 a month. You could probably get by on about $50 a month if you really watched the special prices.
Mike

Pay now or pay later. They'll pay later when they have to take a boatload of medicines for diabetes, heart problems, and cancer.

Poor peoples' diets are largely corn based. Some form of corn is found in nearly all packaged/prepared foods. Corn is how livestock, and people, are fattened up. Corn is food only for cattle, and Indians.

Ordinary people in the US are getting very poor. Bad food is far cheaper than good food.

Mike

that's true. people seem to overlook this. 20 some odd years ago there were more jobs that paid sustainable wages and the divorce rate wasn't as bad. there were more intact families and more people were able to go home and eat a home cooked meal. not anymore all thanks to feminism.

That's a cop out. Overeating and lack of exercise causes obesity. Anyone can eat just as cheaply substituting fresh vegetables for your $3 bag of potato chips. You can buy a whole chicken at the grocery store for $4, which is cheaper than the burger/fries/drink combo at the local fast food joint and will feed the whole family.

most people can't afford the time allocation because after working all day they're too tired to cook. long gone are the days when a man earned enough to afford to have his wife stay home and being the domestic engineer.

Pay now or pay later. They'll pay later when they have to take a boatload of medicines for diabetes, heart problems, and cancer.

Poor peoples' diets are largely corn based. Some form of corn is found in nearly all packaged/prepared foods. Corn is how livestock, and people, are fattened up. Corn is food only for cattle, and Indians.

the people are being fattened for the kill.

I think the obesity rate does have something to do with poverty. Notice I didn't say that it has EVERYTHING to do with poverty. Americans are gluttons who have been consumed by a very bad case of sloth, brought to you courtesy of uncle jew. But back to the whole class angle, I've notice that in the well-to-do areas the people are usually well-groomed and for the most part, healthy looking. When I head over to the blue collar/nigger areas, everyone is fat and unkempt. All around slobs, really. Fast food is cheap food. If anyone has ever been to the Baltimore area, or any big third-world nigger city, you'll know what I'm talking about.

class, P.E. was the first cut in teachers and classes. I had gym everyday growing up. :D

Whose retarded idea was that ?