Despite efforts on the part of state and federal government and countless private organizations to help our nation slim down, the obesity epidemic shows no signs of slowing. In fact, a new government study shows the number of Americans who suffer from obesity and obesity related diseases is on the rise.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported that more than 72 million Americans are obese, based on their body mass index (BMI). Moreover, nine states now have an obesity rate of more than 30 percent, whereas ten years ago no state had an obesity rate this high.
“Obesity continues to be a major public health problem,” said CDC Director Thomas Frieden in a press release. “We need intensive, comprehensive and ongoing efforts to address obesity.”
The rate of obesity rose 1.1 percent between 2007 and 2009, the CDC reported. Although the figure may seem small, it represents 2.4 million more people whose weight poses a serious health risk. The increase in the number of people suffering from obesity causes researchers to worry that more Americans will die earlier due to obesity-related conditions, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and even certain types of cancer.
The report also claims that people who are obese not only suffered physically last year, but also monetarily. On average, medical costs for obese Americans were $1,429 more than those of people who fell within a normal weight range.
“Obesity is common, serious, and costly; it affects every system in the adult body,” William Dietz, MD, MPH, Director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the CDC, said during a teleconference last week.
To come up with their figures, the CDC collected height and weight measurements from 400,000 people to calculate their BMI. Researchers found that in every state across America more than 15 percent of adults are obese.
The CDC believes that more efforts are needed to curb the growing obesity trend and that new federal initiatives should be put in place to support healthier eating and more active lifestyles.
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August 13th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
Well, if Americans would quit stuffing their fat faces with junk food, and ridiculously huge portions, maybe they wouldn’t be so fat. Then again, Americans are just gluttonous ignoramuses who stuff their faces with cheeseburgers while driving their Hummers one block to the corner store to get their chips and salsa.
August 20th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
It’s not always a “stuffing face” problem, a large amount of americans are overweight because of a number of different reasons, and most of them are medical problems that prevent calories from being burned. Don’t worry, if you’re an ethiopian in a different country, i understand why you wouldn’t understand the struggles overweight people go through