The Facts Of Obesity In America

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, reports a drastic increase in obesity in the United States over the past 20 years. Body Mass Index is calculated based on weight and height. The CDC defines "obese" as having a BMI of over 30 and "overweight" as having a BMI of 25 to 29. A high BMI is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer says the CDC. But in "The Obesity Myth," lawyer Paul Campos asks: If fat equals unhealthy and people in the United States have gotten progressively fatter over the past century, why are they dying later instead of sooner?

Geography

In 2008, only Colorado reported a state obesity rate of less than 20 percent. Thirty-two states reported a 25 percent obesity rate. Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia reported obesity rates of over 30 percent. According to CDC data from 2006 to 2008, blacks and Hispanics had the highest obesity rates of all, 51 percent and 21 percent, respectively. Southerners and Midwesterners were more obese than Northeasterners and Westerners.

Solution

In July 2009, the CDC proposed community strategies to combat obesity. These include: restaurants providing healthier food and beverage choices; locating more supermarkets that provide fresh produce in underserved communities; more opportunities for residents to purchase local farm produce; less advertisements featuring unhealthy foods and beverages; more support for breastfeeding; requiring more physical activity in schools; and supporting physical activity in neighborhoods, including bicycling and walking.

Prevention

U.S. First Lady Michele Obama introduced her "Let's Move" campaign in March 2010 to combat childhood obesity. Children and teens have different nutritional and physical activity requirements than adults. The CDC recommends that children ages 9 to 13 consume 1,300 mg of calcium daily and that 6 to 17-year-olds get 60 minutes of daily cardiovascular exercise.

Misconceptions

According Paul Campos, author of "The Obesity Myth," obesity is not the greatest health risk in the United States, a sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition are the culprits. He cites research that when overweight or obese adults follow the CDC recommendation to exercise the equivalent of walking briskly five days a week for 30 minutes each day, and primarily eat nutritious foods, they are just as healthy as thinner people who do so.
Campos says research shows that the more a person loses and regains weight--or "yo-yo" diets--the more likely she is to suffer from illnesses associated with obesity. So, typically, a fat person who exercises and eats nutritiously is healthier than a yo-yo dieter.

Expert Insight

In an April 2005 "Journal of the American Medical Association" report, Katherine M. Flegal, Ph.D., and colleagues cite decades of international studies indicating that on average a person 5 pounds underweight faces a greater risk of early death than someone 25 or more pounds overweight.
Flegal found that when excluding "smokers and those with possible illness-induced weight loss ... [being] overweight was still not associated with excess mortality risk." Scientifically speaking, says Flegal's team, an overweight person's risk of early death is about the same or lower than a normal weight person's risk.