Obesity in America Continues to Expand

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http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/082405HA.shtml

 

Obesity in America Continues to Expand

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDayNews

 

Tuesday 23 August 2005

 

Obesity rates continue to climb in every state except Oregon, and

government policies and actions offer little hope of reversing the

trend, according to a new report Tuesday from the Trust for America's

Health.

 

The report, F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in

America, 2005, found that Mississippi is the heaviest state, while

Colorado is the least heavy.

 

More than 25 percent of adults in 10 states are obese -

Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas,

Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana and South Carolina.

 

" Across the board, we have every state failing to meet the

national goal of 15 percent or less of the population being obese, "

Shelley Hearne, executive director of the Trust for America's Health,

told a press conference.

 

" Bulging waistlines are growing, and they are going to cost

taxpayers more dollars, and it's going to cost us in years of life and

quality of life, regardless of where you live, " Hearne added. " We can,

and must, do better to start to turn around this obesity epidemic. "

 

Added study co-author Parris Glendening, president of the Smart

Growth Leadership Institute: " About 119 million Americans are either

overweight or obese. That's 64.5 percent of adult Americans. "

 

Excess weight is known to cause a variety of health problems,

including heart disease, hypertension and diabetes.

 

The number of obese American adults rose from 23.7 percent in 2003

to 24.5 percent in 2004. The US Department of Health and Human

Services set a national goal that obesity would be reduced by 15

percent by 2010. An estimated 16 percent of active duty US military

personnel are obese, and obesity is the biggest reason for discharging

soldiers, Glendening noted.

 

In addition, people on food stamps are more likely to be obese

compared with higher income individuals, Glendening said. " There is a

link between obesity and those with lower incomes and less education, "

he added.

 

Glendening said that to fight the obesity epidemic, a combination

of individual responsibility and government policy is needed.

 

" While it is indisputable that individual behavior - eating less

and exercising more - is critical to addressing obesity, the

government and private industry also have important roles to play in

setting policies and taking actions that make it easier to help people

make healthy choices, " he said.

 

The report criticizes government policies as insufficient and too

narrowly focused to have a significant impact on countering the

obesity problem.

 

" The bottom line is that there is a lot more that could and should

be done to help people with nutrition and exercise, " Glendening said.

 

Glendening and Hearne believe that both state and federal

governments can institute policies to help Americans shape up. They

include combating suburban sprawl by increasing recreation space, and

improving nutrition and physical education in schools.

 

" To really see a change in people's health, these programs must

grow significantly, " Glendening said.

 

" We have a crisis in poor nutrition and physical activity in this

country, " Hearne added. " It's simple math: we are eating more and

exercising less. And it's time we deal with it in a much more

systematic and realistic way. "

 

An outside expert put it even more starkly.

 

" Obesity is arguably the gravest public health threat in the

United States today, " said Dr. David L. Katz, the director of the

Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine.

 

Obesity is among the root causes of almost every major chronic

disease you face, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease,

breathing disorders and cancer, he added.

 

" This new report indicating that we are not doing enough to

control obesity should come as no surprise, " Katz said. " We are, in

fact, doing quite a lot to make obesity worse. New technologies that

decreases our physical activity; new processed food products that

combine tasty calories with poor nutrition; time wasted on silly

distractions such as fad diets, and policies and politics that squeeze

physical activity and opportunities for good nutrition out of the

typical work and school day all conspire against us. "

 

Katz said that it will take a massive and comprehensive effort to

turn around the array of " obesigenic " factors that conspire against

everyone.

 

" But the effort will be worth it, " he added. " Without it, we face

rising rates of chronic disease for as far ahead as we can see. That

is simply not a future any of us can accept. "