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A recent study by the CDC, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) has determined that more than two-thirds of US adults are overweight or obese, one-third are considered obese, and more than 10% of children and adolescents are also considered too heavy for their age.
Prevalence of Obesity and Overweight (%) for Adults >20 Years
| Category |
All (n=5555) |
Non-Hispanic white (n=2618) |
Non-Hispanic black (n=1114) |
All Hispanic (n=1566) |
Mexican-American (n=945) |
| BMI >30 |
33.8 |
32.4 |
44.1 |
38.7 |
40.4 |
| All men |
32.2 |
31.9 |
37.3 |
34.3 |
35.9 |
| All women |
35.5 |
33.0 |
49.6 |
43.0 |
45.1 |
| BMI >25 |
68.0 |
66.7 |
73.8 |
77.9 |
78.8 |
| All men |
72.3 |
72.6 |
68.5 |
79.3 |
80.0 |
| All women |
64.1 |
61.2 |
78.2 |
76.1 |
76.9 |
The data, from this study was published online January 13, 2010 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. An editorial accompanying the studies was written by Dr J Michael Gaziano (Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA). Within that editorial Dr Gaziano reviewed the following long-term effects of obesity: " the wide variety of deleterious health effects strongly linked to excess weight, such as coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, joint disease, cancer, sleep apnea, asthma, and other chronic conditions." Early obesity, he notes, strongly predicts later cardiovascular disease, and excess weight might help explain the dramatic increase in type 2 diabetes, a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease."If left unchecked, overweight and obesity have the potential to rival smoking as a public-health problem, potentially reversing the net benefit that declining smoking rates have had on the US population over the last 50 years," writes Gaziano.
See a graph of WHO statistics to see how we compare to other nations here. Why do you suppose that the Japanese have such a low percentage of obesity?
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