Obesity among all US adults reaches all-time high

(CNN)The United States will not be escaping the obesity epidemic crisis anytime soon: Nearly 40% of adults and 19% of youth are obese, the highest rate the country has ever seen in all adults, according to research released Friday by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Since 1999, there has been a staggering rise in the prevalence of obesity, particularly in adults, without any "signs of it slowing down," according to the study's lead researcher, Dr.Craig Hales, medical epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Source.

Is this why USA failed to qualify for the WC?

What a shame.

Hell, in 'Murica even stray dogs are fat ....

USA got cheated by a ghost goal.

And who cares , people live their lives as they see fit and who i'm i to tell them to live it otherwise.

It costs the country money...

Well, so does drinking and smoking and bad drivers.

So ?

I wanted to answer, but hey someone beat me to it.

I think it should be added that driving also has its benefits.

This is what happens when corporations control every aspect of society. When healthy food is more expensive than HFCS-containing food, it's not hard to see why America is so fat.

In small amounts, isn't it? Like a glass of wine if I remember correctly.

It's easier to make unhealthy food more expensive than making healthy food cheaper sadly... So it is difficult to do anything with it.

Sure, but what better way to control a citizenry than to make them poor, uneducated and heavily disabled and feeling unable to escape the hole they've fallen into. The US elected Donald Trump as their president. 30-40 years ago people would have laughed at the thought.

People always make excuses saying they don't have time and put it off till "tomorrow" or complain about healthy food being expensive while they wait in line for fast food. As long as a medical condition isn't preventing you it really isn't hard to lose weight but it takes effort which for some people is too much sadly.

Practice fork putdowns, do weight lifting 3-4 times a week or at least do cardio a couple times a week as well as track your calories on an app. Easy..

I wish I did it when I was a teen instead of waiting till after I was in my 20's.

i think its because of technology and government subsidy

Deadlifting is pretty much the best way to lose weight. It burns the most calories for the lowest amount of time invested. When I started it, I couldn't believe how quickly I exhausted all my energy. I would do 3-5 sets of 3-4 reps and be done completely for the day. And would be absolutely starving afterwards.

In other news, fact acceptance groups have grown bigger

@Jacanuk: @loco145:

Im not clicking the link but did they go around and check every human being in America?

@Jacanuk

"And who cares , people live their lives as they see fit and who i'm i to tell them to live it otherwise."

I agree. In Illinois we added a stupid cook county sugar tax which all drinks that contain sugar cost way more now. They say it's about helping the obese buts that's a bunch of bull.

And yet people still don´t give a shit about people who smoke, drink or drive like shit.

Not to mention the legalization of weed, which probably is going to cause more to become obese.

But my point was that how you look, what you eat , drink or smoke is your own private business.

While it might not be the case in US, in Europe many countries do things to stop people smoking. Prices on cigarettes here go up more than average inflation every year. And speaking of making it illegal by 2040 or so.

The government does less when it comes to stop reckless driving, however car companies do what they can to make car safer.

I agree it is your own personal business what you eat, drink, smoke or how you drive. The government can encourage different types of behavior.

I used to make this argument to my wife because I enjoy wine, but they've walked this one back a bit in recent years. Some of the later studies have suggested that the health benefits have more to do with the social/economic advantages of being affluent enough to drink wine rather than the wine itself.

Sugar tax is some obnoxious BS because they disproportionately effect low income families and they don't really "help" anyone. The middle class and up will likely view more expensive soda as an annoyance rather than a bar for entry while poor families who already spend more than half their income just trying to feed themselves get jacked up prices on things like fruit juice. To add insult to injury, the implication of the law is "we need to do this for your own good because you're too dumb to judge how to spend your money wisely."

As to the topic, sure your body weight is a measure of calories taken in versus burned but there are other factors that effect this. In the US, the cheapest food is generally the worst food for you, which isn't just a factor of weight but overall health. I've been to many other countries where the food that tends to be better for you like fresh vegetables or unprocessed meats are the cheaper options. If you have $10 to feed a family of four in the US, fast food is going to be one of your only choices a lot of the time, whereas those with more money can go drop $15 at a nice salad buffet for one.

It would be better if the US subsidized healthier foods rather than trying to tax sugar.

Another thing to consider is various health and body factors. While gaining weight is a measure of eating more than you burn, it's also worth noting that the amount of effort one person has to go through to maintain a target BMI can be -wildly- different from another person. If you put in X amount of effort to get Y result, and someone else is fatter than you, that doesn't automatically mean that person puts in less effort than you. Maybe that's the case, or maybe they are putting in the same amount of effort, or even more, for a less effective result due to any number of reasons. Of course personal responsibility is always a factor in this, but don't judge someone you don't know based solely on their appearance.

-Byshop

The US is a culture of excess. Look at the way things are advertised; more is better.

Obesity in America is a cultural problem.

That's crazy. I just got fat.

The United States has quite the gluttonous society. Watch those food shows on television in which people eat a 10 pound burger in 30 minutes and get it free or those hot dog eating contests or the numerous high portion meals and I wonder what others in the world think.

It does, completely agree.

But at the same time, they are all but cramming shitty food down our throats. They give tax breaks, deals, and so forth for sugar, [food] oil, mass produced fast food companies, chemical companies that make food additives, and so forth. When there are social programs or school programs relating to food, they usually go to companies that save money (and send that money to profit) by giving people shit food.

I mean we've classified ketchup, something loaded with salt and corn syrup, as a vegetable according to the school lunch criteria. WTF?

So, yeah...there is some personal choice involved when you have a choice. But at the same time, they make it really hard to have a choice.

Americans also have little to no education about food. The amount of people I encounter, adults I'm talking about here, that don't know how to cook is staggering. I mean most people's idea of making spaghetti is to take a jar/can of spaghetti sauce, boil water with noodles, heat the sauce, then combine the two...they DON'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE A BASIC TOMATO SAUCE!!! That jarred sauce is full of sugar, salt, chemicals, old herbs from China or Pakistan or India or god knows where.

They don't know how to count calories, that protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram and fat has 9, which is why your tablespoon of olive oil has 200 calories but that spoonful of sugar only has 15 (seriously, it blows their mind that the sugar has fewer calories than the oil).

Americans are brainwashed to be fat, it's really sad. It's also why the healthy people come off as, frankly, dicks so often (not saying they are, but they can be pretty abrasive). Because they've shaken off that yoke and see the world for what it is. To be honest I am surprised "only" 40% of Americans are obese.

So when you say it's "because they eat to much" you are grossly oversimplifying the matter. That's like saying I got sick because I breathed air next to someone else; I mean, yeah, probably...but no, not really.

I blame the Fat Pride movement

People can blame culture or fast food restaurants all they want, but the problem is people not able to put the blame on themselves on why the obesity rate is going up. Also, there is a small movement of people that are starting to enable this type of behavior and it's not good!

@Byshop:"It would be better if the US subsidized healthier foods rather than trying to tax sugar."

lol.

Anyway, did your area get a sugar tax? It really sucks.

PSP107-

It's hard to push for healthier foods if the prices weren't so damn high. Also, the Non-GMO lobby are the ones also hindering farmers to help food grow faster.

I don't drink soda, but I can afford whatever so it doesn't effect me personally. One of the cities I live near and shop/eat at regularly enacted the steepest sugar tax in the country and I know people who live there and have been negatively impacted by it. One friend is on disability so she doesn't make much money and one of her children has autism. Fruit juice (not soda) is a part of their regular routine and helps him get by, but now she's getting hammered by this tax.

As for healthier foods in general, I'm not saying this is an easy problem to solve. Unless you buy all of your food from your local farmer's market (which is generally a pretty expensive way to go), the supply chain involved in getting food from the farmer's field or livestock to your local supermarket is staggeringly complex in the US.

-Byshop

@FireEmblem_Man: yeah, I am fat as hell, and I eat healthy foods (I have the bloodwork and blood pressure to prove it), but I will never be proud of my weight because it is still going to A.) send me to an early grave and/or B.) cause physical pain for me at an early age (i.e. back, knee, etc). The whole "fat but healthy" (that is, the idea that you are healthy you just carry a lot of weight) thing only lasts until you're about 40, then you start getting hit with problems, and getting hit hard.

I understand not wanting to be ashamed of yourself, and that is totally cool, but you don't need to go in the opposite direction and be proud of it. Fat people are already thoroughly despised by a lot of society, we don't need to be even more hated.

Being fat is unhealthy. Period.

I mean if you are a little thick, that is one thing, but most of the people in these pictures and examples are not part of the natural exception "just the way they are" category, they are part of the ignorant "did it to themselves" category. When they say they are proud or not ashamed and flaunt this issue that plagues them, all I see is someone overcompensating for a serious problem they don't know how to deal with.

I feel sorry for them, they need serious psychological help, and a reality check.

yup, that is the core.

It´s your own private business and while the government can do it's to guide you towards a more socially accepted behaviour, in the end if you are happy the way you are, that's what matter.

Because people who are obese are less productive and are sick more often, they also a huge strain on a countries healthcare system. If obesity was at a low rate I'd agree it's a personal problem, but when it reaches 40% of the adult population it's a national crisis.

Hispanic adults had an obesity rate of 47% and Non-Hispanic black adults a rate of 46.8% in 2015-16, the new report showed, with non-Hispanic white adults at 37.9% and Asian adults at 12.7%.Among youths, Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks also had higher rates of obesity, at 25.8% and 22% respectively, compared with 14% of non-Hispanic whites and 11% of Asians.

I think the root of the issue is again education and poverty. If you look at the healthiest cities in US vs wealthiest/best educated ones, there's a positive correlations between them. It's unfortunately that mass produced food as become so unhealthy. I think along with education this is something government should do more in managing instead of spending all their times arguing whether we should ban immigrants or keep transsexuals from using bathrooms or limit sales of bump stocks.

Pokemon Go failed in making Americans fit again. :(

What a narrow minded generalisation. I have worked with people who were "obese" and they were less sick and more productive than some of their "skinny" counterparts. I have also worked with some "skinny" people who smoked and drank and where you could hear it and see it. Have you ever gone by someone who smokes in the morning, the smell is horrendous

Also the biggest strain on the healthcare system is from the healthy ones not the obese, smokers and drinkers.

But at the same time, you have to ask yourself if there is a point where the government should intervene.

It would be best if children were taught in school the benefits of activity and how your lifestyle may affect your health later on. We know enough today to say that one should take care of oneself.

You will have to explain this one better.

Oh noes, I am a horrible person and should be ashamed of myself. I'd find a corner to crawl into but I'm just too big... Now where did I put that double cheeseburger...

i am not surprised really

europe isn't faring much better either

Any particular country or just the whole continent?

-Byshop

As someone who just lost 51 pounds since mid-December last year, I'm so glad I'm not part of that statistic anymore. It took serious mental strength in order for me to change my eating habits and motivate myself to do a little exercise each day, but what caused me to finally get my butt in gear and do something was accept the fact that I was not happy about my body.

I think body acceptance is actually a detrimental mentality to yourself. You shouldn't be happy being obese. You shouldn't be happy with diabetes. You shouldn't be happy with joint pain, being short of breath, and at higher risks of heart diseases. If your happiness in life is being able to eat junk food for the rest of your life, do you really value that more than your body's well-being? Not saying you can't eat junk food and other unhealthy foods, because I still do, but I control it. I didn't before. Everyone can control it. Those who don't want to because they want to "accept their bodies" damage themselves and ultimately everyone around them in some form.

But of course, will power and self control is hard to establish when you're constantly bombarded with corporations promoting their unhealthy foods while at the same time making them more affordable compared to health foods. It's predatory, actually.

If you look up the costs in the american healthcare system. The costs of a "normal" person is more than that of a "obese" and a "smoker/drinker"

Well, not just calorie restriction. Sedentary lifestyles play a huge role in both obesity and overall healthy. That being said, the food industry also has blame. They've been adding sugar/corn syrup to pretty much everything. Things people wouldnt even know to look for. For instance, meat has added sugar. Not something you would think.

That's completely false. Obesity and smoking are leading causes of not just death but morbidity in the united states and world over. Every major medical condition from heart disease to cancer to diabetes is heavily impacted by both obesity and smoking.

Even if these people are "uninsured", those costs still get passed on to the system. So I dont no where you get the idea that they cost less.

Maybe he or whatever source he uses doesn't count those who dies?

You may want to check facts and not count on your own uninformed opinions. and bigotry

Leading strain on the healthcare is Ischemic Heart Disease, Back and neck pain and hypertension which combined costs over 240 billion And that is not even counting Fall injuries and depression each at around 75 billion.

Is the rate of these 3 higher or lower in people who are obese?