Poor, Obese and Unhealthy into the 21st Century

(The Real Agenda News) Over 40 million Children are obese according to the latest numbers.

Childhood obesity is not just a problem of rich countries. In fact, it is much less so in wealthy nations.

According to the World Health Organization, of the 42 million children under five who are overweight in the world, 35 million, or 83%, are part of middle and low-income families.

“It’s an explosive nightmare,” says the World Health Organization (WHO), which has advanced data from the Commission to End Childhood Obesity; a body that was established two years ago.

Apart from the figures, the WHO is concerned about childhood development. For example, in Africa, the number of obese and overweight children under five years of age has nearly doubled since 1990, according to this study.

Obesity problems go beyond the scale and into degenerative diseases that are the result of being overweight, obese and morbidly obese.

The consequences of these diseases are now much more prevalent in so-called developed countries, where the crisis is not one of undernutrition due to lack of food, but of malnutrition due to the consumption of fast food.

Going Beyond Malnutrition

In poor countries, malnutrition is not the only problem.

There are more cases of diseases such as dengue, cholera, tuberculosis and AIDS, to name but a few. It is also important to remember that the third world also suffers from high incidence of cancers, cardiovascular diseases and traffic accidents, not to mention other causes of death that were once characteristic of rich countries.

The report, whose data are not yet completed, has drawn the first conclusion: “It is not the child’s fault,” said the co-chair of the commission, Peter Gluckman.

According to the data from the WHO, in 2014, 48% of all obese and overweight children lived in Asia, and 25% in Africa.

“The region where the problem is so alarming and where t is fast growing is Asia,” warned Gluckman.

Among the factors behind the increase in childhood obesity figures include biological factors, the environment and, of course, food intake.

The report also includes other issues such as inadequate access to health services, decreased physical activity in schools and the deregulation of fattening foods.

Any solution to the exploding obesity epidemic requires a comprehensive and coordinated response, the report indicates.

Is being Obese a matter of Genetic Predisposition?

Gluckman has explained that it has been detected that Asian children have a specific metabolism that makes them retain fat in the abdominal part of the body, the area surrounding vital organs, exactly where it is most harmful to health.

“We are studying why, but it is a very dangerous development because that fat is installed long before the external and the child shows signs of overweight and obesity on the outside,” he explained.

With regard to Latin America, it is estimated that the prevalence of overweight children in the region stands at 8% in children under five.

Gluckman has pointed out that Latin American leaders are well aware of the problem and are seriously responding, and noted that many countries are directing their policies in the right direction.

“Keep in mind that obesity impacts the quality of life of children, affecting their physical, psychological state, their ability to study, to relate, and will put many barriers in life, so we must urgently deal with this matter,” said Sania Sishtar, the co-chair of the commission.

In addition, Sishtar has warned that childhood obesity is a major factor in the possibility of developing obesity during adulthood and, consequently, major noncommunicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease.

In this situation, the study’s authors expect the WHO Executive Board, meeting this week in Geneva at its 138 edition, to note and suggest to the World Health Assembly to adopt a resolution urging countries to implement measures to fight obesity.

Among them, the report recommends educating children, parents, teachers, and leaders about the importance of eating healthy food and reducing the intake of sugars and fats. It is also necessary to promote physical activity and reduce sedentarism.

In extreme cases of adult obesity in women, the report suggests that they enter into programs that help prevent diabetes for them and their future children, since many cases of obesity may be related to what happened during the months of pregnancy.

The post Poor, Obese and Unhealthy into the 21st Century appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

CDC Says Americans Are Fatter Than Ever Before; 40% Of Adults Now Considered Obese

Despite the best efforts of our political elites to ban sodas, among other products deemed unhealthy by our growing nanny state, Americans just continue to grow ever fatter.  According to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control, 40% of Americans are now obese, a new all-time record high, and over 70% are overweight.  Per NBC:

A troubling new report released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that almost 40 percent of American adults and nearly 20 percent of adolescents are obese — the highest rates ever recorded for the U.S.

"It"s difficult to be optimistic at this point," said Dr. Frank Hu, chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "The trend of obesity has been steadily increasing in both children and adults despite many public health efforts to improve nutrition and physical activity."

Overall, 70.7 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese, meaning that an unhealthy weight has become the norm, with normal weight Americans — a BMI of less than 25 — now in the minority.

So which states are harboring the largest Americans?  As it turns out, the fried delicacies of the American South aren"t so great for the waistline...

Meanwhile, a study from Georgia Southern University revealed that it"s not just poor eating habits that"s causing Americans to pack on the pounds...extreme laziness and binge watching the latest Netflix series are also contributing factors.

What the CDC report doesn"t reveal is why the obesity crisis continues to worsen. A recent study by epidemiologists at Georgia Southern University discovered that fewer Americans, particularly women, are trying to lose weight. Public health experts say that an unhealthy diet and the lack of exercise are still the two biggest culprits.

"There’s still a huge amount of cheap, accessible, highly processed food available everywhere almost anytime," says Hu. "And despite people doing more recreational activity these days, the overall activity level, household activity and occupational activity has decreased in recent years."

In addition to unhealthy foods and a sedentary lifestyle, there could be another possible reason for the increasing obesity rates: sleep deprivation. An estimated 50 million and 70 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders or sleep deprivation, according to the Institute of Medicine.

Inadequate sleep is a risk factor for childhood and adult obesity, says Hu. Sleep-deprived people may be too tired to exercise, take in more calories and may undergo hormones changes that control appetite.

Perhaps even more disturbing, the CDC also found that 20% of teenagers and 10% of preschoolers are also now considered obese.

The continued weight increase in the youngest Americans is especially worrisome for long-term health. One in five adolescents, ages 12–19; one in five kids, ages 6–11, and and one in ten preschoolers, ages 2–5 are considered obese, not just overweight.

Obesity is medically defined as having a body-mass index of more than 30. The findings on obese kids in the U.S. comes on top of this week"s World Health Organization report that childhood obesity is soaring around the world, increasing more than tenfold over the past four decades.

Overweight and obese children have a higher risk to stay obese and childhood obesity is linked to a higher chance of early death in adulthood.

The consequences of the obesity epidemic are devastating: High blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and stroke are not only killing millions of Americans annually — the obesity epidemic is also a humongous burden on the American health care system, making up $190 billion a year in weight-related medical bills. 

Luckily, Obamacare socialized the medical cost of these bad habits...so enjoy those McDonalds fries and we"ll all share the cost of your blood pressure and cholesterol medications...it"s just more "fair" that way.

This Silent Public-Health Crisis Costs The US $150 Billion A Year

The opioid epidemic isn’t the only public-health crisis costing the economy hundreds of billions of dollars. According to the Trust for America’s Health’s annual “State of Obesity” report, nearly 40% of American adults are obese or overweight.  And collectively, they will add some $150 billion to the cost of health care, and billions more in lost productivity.

Obesity rates have finally stabilized after having nearly tripled since the CDC first began tracking them in 1960. They’ve doubled since the 1980s. Particularly problematic is childhood obesity, which is correlated with poor performance and school and other factors that could impact a child’s wellbeing into adulthood.

According to the study, obesity disproportionately affects low-income Americans:

“Obesity disproportionately affects low-income and rural communities as well as certain racial and ethnic groups, including Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans. Societal inequities contribute to these disparities. For example, in many communities, children have few safe outdoor spaces to play or accessible routes to walk or bike to school. Their neighborhoods may often be food deserts, having small food outlets and fast-food restaurants that sell and advertise unhealthy food and beverages, but lacking those with fresh and healthy foods at affordable prices. Thus, addressing the obesity epidemic is also a fight for health equity.”

The report, which is accompanied by charts and maps, illustrates how obesity rates vary across different regions, with West Virginia (and a preponderance of poor, South states) having the highest obesity rate among adults, at 37.7% Colorado, meanwhile, has the nation’s lowest with 22.3%. Mississippi wins the superlative for highest childhood-obesity rate at 21.7%, with Oregon owning the lowest, at 9.9%.

“Obesity rates vary state-to-state, but remain high nationwide. Across the United States, more than one in three adults and one in six children (ages 2-19) are obese — and one in 11 young children (ages 2-5) are obese. Adult obesity rates range from a high of 37.7 in West Virginia to a low of 22.3 in Colorado. Childhood rates are highest in Mississippi (21.7 percent) and lowest in Oregon (9.9 percent). Obesity rates also differ from county to county, and neighborhood to neighborhood.

More than 20 states have counties with adult obesity rates above 40 percent, including 29 counties in Mississippi and 14 counties in Alabama. Only two states have counties with adult obesity rates below 20 percent: 17 counties in Colorado and one in Massachusetts.”

Obesity is a massive drain on state Medicare programs…

“Each state and community is impacted by the cost of obesity — severe obesity alone costs state Medicaid programs between $5 million in Wyoming and $1.3 billion in California each year. Overall obesity related healthcare costs range from $279 per person per year in Wyoming to $768 in Oregon. Employers want to operate businesses in places with healthier populations — with a workforce that is more productive and has lower healthcare costs.”

…and workplace productivity…

“Obesity costs our nation more than $149 billion in healthcare costs each year. Indirect costs attributable to obesity also run in the billions due to absenteeism in school and jobs and reduced productivity. One study estimated indirect absenteeism costs to be as much as $6.3 billion annually.”

…it even impacts national security by having a deleterious effect on military readiness.

“Obesity is a national security issue. The obesity crisis also impacts our nation’s military readiness. Being overweight or obese is the leading cause of medical disqualifications, with nearly one-quarter of service applicants rejected for exceeding the weight or body fat standards. Obese service members and members of their family who are obese cost the military about $1 billion every year in healthcare costs and lost productivity. Mission: Readiness has found that more than 70 percent of today’s youth are not fit to serve in the military due to obesity or being overweight, criminal records, drug misuse or educational deficits.”

The study’s authors claim that the most effective policies to combat childhood obesity are implemented at the local level, and involve the cooperation of local institutions like schools, hospitals, universities and philanthropies.

“The most successful approaches are often comprehensive, localized, “place-based” efforts — where leaders and members of a community build partnerships that bring together public health and healthcare providers; hospitals, schools and universities; child-care providers and centers; social service groups; philanthropies; community-based, faith-based and community development organizations; and transportation and housing planners — to assess the priorities within the local area; leverage existing community resources; and determine the most effective, evidence-based strategies that can best meet their needs. Experts have identified a range of policies and programs that communities can implement to help make healthy eating and physical activity part of people’s daily routines, including improving school nutrition, complete streets initiatives, access to open space, incentives for healthy food purchases, food labeling and limits on advertising to children.”

For adult obesity, workplace wellness programs, insurance incentives, and making unhealthy food more expensive and inconvenient (i.e. taxing it) all appear to have some impact. While rates have largely stabilized since reaching all-time highs, the study warns that costs associated with obesity have not. As obese adults age, chronic health problems like diabetes will cause health-care costs to soar, making insurers already-fragile risk pools even more untenable.

Read the full report below:

TFAH 2017 ObesityReport FINAL by zerohedge on Scribd

 

Winning: U.S. Crushes All Other Countries In Latest Obesity Study

When President Trump promised last fall that under a Trump administration America would "would win so much you"ll get tired of winning," we suspect this is not what he had in mind.  According to the latest international obesity study from the Organization For Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), America is by far the fattest nation in the world with just over 38% of the adult population considered "obese."

Here are some stats from the OECD"s latest study courtesy of the Washington Examiner:

-  In 2015, an estimated 603.7 million adults and 107.7 million children worldwide were obese. That represents about 12 percent of all adults and 5 percent of all children.

-  The prevalence of obesity doubled in 73 countries between 1980 and 2015 and continuously increased in most of the other countries.

-  China and India had the highest number of obese children. China and the U.S. had the highest number of obese adults.

-  Excess body weight accounted for about 4 million deaths — or 7.1 percent of all deaths — in 2015.

-  Almost 70 percent of deaths related to a high BMI were due to cardiovascular disease.

-  The study finds evidence that having a high BMI causes leukemia and several types of cancer, including cancers of the esophagus, liver, breast, uterus, ovary, kidney and thyroid.

-  In rich and poor countries, obesity rates increased, indicating "the problem is not simply a function of income or wealth. Changes in the food environment and food systems are probably major drivers. Increased availability, accessibility, and affordability of energy-dense foods, along with intense marketing of such foods, could explain excess energy intake and weight gain among different populations. The reduced opportunities for physical activity that have followed urbanization and other changes in the built environment have also been considered as potential drivers; however, these changes generally preceded the global increase in obesity and are less likely to be major contributors."

Of course, obesity in the "fast food nation" is hardly a new epidemic though the rate of change is fairly staggering.

Meanwhile, Michelle Obama"s crusade against childhood obesity didn"t seem to work all that well...

But that "Turn-ip for what?" video was so clever...shocking it was ineffective.

Finally, for all of you who will undoubtedly sign up for a brand new gym membership as part of your New Years resolution to shed the extra pounds in 2018...you might as well just give up now because the OECD predicts we"re all just going to get much fatter over the next 15 years.

OECD projections show a steady increase in obesity rates until at least 2030 (Figure 5). Obesity levels are expected to be particularly high in the United States, Mexico and England, where 47%, 39% and 35% of the population respectively are projected to be obese in 2030. On the contrary, the increase is expected to be weaker in Italy and Korea, with obesity rates projected to be 13% and 9% in 2030, respectively. The level of obesity in France is projected to nearly match that of Spain, at 21% in 2030. Obesity rates are projected to increase at a faster pace in Korea and Switzerland where rates have been historically low.