Obesity Rates Continue to Climb in U.S.
"The good news to be found in the actual obesity numbers is that the pace of the epidemic growth may be starting to slow," Dr. James S. Marks, senior vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said during the teleconference. "We are still getting fatted, but maybe a little more slowly than before."
For the fifth year in a row, Mississippi topped the list as the state with the highest rate of adult obesity, at 32.5 percent, according to the report, F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2009.
Besides Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee have obesity rates above 30 percent. Eight of the 10 states with the highest number of obese adults are in the South. The state with the lowest adult obesity rate is Colorado, at 18.9 percent, according to the report.
In 31 states, obesity rates exceed 25 percent, and in 49 states and Washington, D.C., the rates are above 20 percent.
Overall, two-thirds of American adults are now obese or overweight, according to the report.
As recently as 1991, no state had an adult obesity rate higher than 20 percent; in 1980 just 15 percent of adults were obese, the report noted.
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Is it possible that "Trust for America's Health" has a political agenda?
I spend every day helping people lose fat / get fit / etc..., but these reports about the Obesity Epidemic seem designed to scare people.
Fear is a great tool for driving public opinion & gov't policy