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 Health & Beauty | August 2006 
Americans Growing Even Fatter
 AFP
| | A woman leaves a cookie store in Los Angeles. Americans get fatter and fatter, with the nation's obesity rate increasing in 31 mostly southern states, the group Trust for American Health reported. (AFP/Robyn Beck) |
Americans get fatter and fatter, with the nation's obesity rate increasing in 31 mostly southern states, the group Trust for American Health reported.
"The epidemic obesity is getting worse," said Jeff Levi, the group's executive director, who has issued the organization's third report on the problem.
In a telephone press conference Levi blasted the government for failing to provide a global policy to handle the epidemic. There is "no strategic global policy; quick fixes don't work," he said.
A full 27 percent of the nation's health care costs are related to problems linked to obesity, Levi said.
Nearly two-thirds of adult Americans are either overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Childhood overweight rates have more than tripled from 1980 to 2004, from five to 17 percent, according to the CDC.
The Trust for America's Health report showed that Mississippi was the heaviest state in nationwide rankings, with an adult obesity of 29.5 percent. Second was another southern state, Alabama, followed by West Virginia.
Nine out of 10 southern US states have the nation's highest obesity rate - and not surprisingly, those states also report the highest rates of diabetes and hypertension, two health problems associated with obesity, according to the report.
Colorado was the leanest state, with an adult obesity rate of 16.9 percent.
Obesity rates remained the same in 18 states and in the US capital district, Washington. All states fail to meet the national goal of reducing adult obesity levels to 15 percent or less by the year 2010.
"Government policy efforts have consistently failed to provide solutions to the growing obesity crisis," Levi said.
The report, titled "F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing America, 2006" offers recommendations that include a "comprehensive approach through which individual efforts to lead healthier lives are supported by families, communities, schools, employers, the food industry, health professionals, and state and federal governments."
"While personal responsibility is critical to adopting and sustaining healthy behaviors," the report noted "that individual behavior change will not work in isolation." |
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