OTL

A new study released by two health advocacy groups proves that American adults and child are continuing on the path of obesity, with rates higher than those of last year’s.

Not one state was able to make a decrease in the obesity rate, and worse, three of every ten children living in 30 states are considered obese, said Jeff Levi, PhD, executive director of the Trust for America’s Health, which compiled the “F as in Fat” report with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The report also shows that the rate of obesity, throughout the U.S., is higher among 55-to-64-year-olds than among those 65-years-and-older.

Mississippi had the highest rate of adult obesity at 32.5 percent, taking the price for the fifth year in a row that the state topped the list. Four states currently have rates higher than 30 percent, West Virginia (31.2 percent), Alabama (31.1 percent) and Tennessee (30.2 percent). 8 of the 10 states with the highest percentage of obese
adults are in the South. Colorado continued to have the lowest percentage of obese adults at 18.9 percent.

With the high obesity rate, the U.S. government will miss its goal of halving the overall obesity rate to 15 per cent by next year, the report’s authors note.

Not only is this not good for our own wellbeing as obesity can lead to elevated cases of diabetes and other health-related problems, but it almost certainly will mean more problems for our health-care system.

“Our health-care costs have grown along with our waistlines,” said Jeff Levi, Ph.D., executive director of Trust for America’s Health. “The obesity epidemic is a big contributor to the skyrocketing health-care costs in the United States. How are we going to compete with the rest of the world if our economy and workforce are weighed down by bad health?”