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.

These Are America's Fattest States

According to a new report, one third of U.S. adults are obese along with one in six children.

The research was conducted by the Trust for America"s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and, as Statista"s Nial McCarthy explains, it found that the adult obesity rate exceeded 35 percent in five states, 30 percent in 25 states and 25 percent in 46 states.

In 2016, West Virginia had the highest rate of obesity at 37.7 percent, followed closely by Mississippi with 37.3 percent. Alabama and Arkansas jointly round off the top three with 35.7 percent each.

You will find more statistics at Statista

Back in 2000, no U.S. state had an obesity rate higher than 25 percent.

As bad as the obesity epidemic is, the report also found that rates are starting to stabilize and actually decline in some places. Colorado, Minnesota, Washington and West Virginia all saw their obesity rates climb while Kansas saw a decrease.

The situation remained stable everywhere else.

Progress in halting the spread of expanding waistlines can be attributed to state policies improving access to healthy food and increasing physical activity.

The report notes that early childhood education has proven particularly effective at preventing obesity in early life, instead of having to reverse the problem in later years.

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.

Government Knows Best - Junk Food Ban Goes Global

Obesity is a "big" (pardon the pun) problem in the Pacific Islands.  In fact, a recent World Bank study found that over half the adult population in 16 of the 17 Pacific Island countries and territories were obese while over 75% of the population was obese in 11 of those counties.

So what do you do when you just can"t count on citizens to make sound judgements about their own personal health decisions?  Well, you call in the Nanny State to ban sodas and sugary snacks, of course...which, according to the New York Times, is exactly what the tiny Pacific island nation of Vanuatu is doing.

While many governments struggle to ban soda to curb obesity, the tiny Torba Tourism Council in the remote Pacific island nation of Vanuatu is planning to outlaw all imported food at government functions and tourist establishments across the province’s 13 inhabited islands.

Provincial leaders hope to turn them instead into havens of local organic food. The ban, scheduled to take effect in March, comes as many Pacific island nations struggle with an obesity crisis brought on in part by the overconsumption of imported junk food.

“We want to ban all other junk food from this province,” Luke Dini, the council’s chairman and a retired Anglican priest, said in a telephone interview from Torba. He said the province had about 9,000 residents and got fewer than 1,000 tourists a year, mostly Europeans.

Not surprisingly, so-called "public health experts" have praised Vanuatu"s ban on imported food while blasting international consumer goods companies for "exploiting these nations by providing a food supply that is not, in the long term, better for health" while "decimating" local populations.

Public health experts who study the island nations of the Pacific welcomed the ban, saying that bold measures were necessary for an impoverished and isolated region of 10 million people — one where the cost of sending legions of patients abroad for dialysis treatment or kidney transplants is untenable.

“Imagine if 75 million Americans had diabetes — that’s the scale of the epidemic we’re talking about in Vanuatu,” Roger Magnusson, a professor of health law and governance at Sydney Law School in Australia, said in an email.

“Can anyone seriously say that Vanuatu doesn’t have the right to exercise its health sovereignty in every way possible to protect its population from an epidemic of that scale?” he added.

“It is so wrong what is being done to exploit these nations by providing a food supply that is not, in the long term, better for health,” said Elaine Rush, a professor of nutrition at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand who has studied health problems in the Pacific islands. She described the effect that the health crisis was having on families there as “decimating.”

Of course, there are just a couple of small problems with the "evil corporation" theory as presented by "public health experts" and the New York Times.  Unfortunately, while the "health experts" would like for you to believe that obesity is a new problem plaguing the people of the Pacific islands, as Wendy Snowden of the World Health Organization points out, in reality obesity rates on these islands were simply "higher to start with."  Moreover, as Snowden also notes, one other small problem is that no level of "taxes and prohibitions" on sugary food products has "been able to demonstrate reductions in obesity prevalence."

Still, Dr. Snowdon said, the taxes and prohibitions on drinks in the Pacific islands — along with education, food labeling and school-nutrition programs — have not reduced the region’s overall incidence of obesity or its associated health problems.

"No country in the world has been able to demonstrate reductions in its obesity prevalence, so we’re not that different,” she said. “It’s just that our levels are higher to start with.”

But rest assured, dear citizens of the world, that your Nanny State"s aggressive, invasive policies stripping you of your basic personal liberties are intended for your own good and are in no way a meaningless attempt to cram their liberal agendas down your throat at all costs, irrespective of scientific data proving their complete lack of effectiveness in achieving their stated goals.