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Wednesday, June 16, 2004The latest snapshot of US obesity rates shows no let-up in the epidemic that has gripped the nation over the past two decades and panicked public health authorities, a study said. Public health authorities are in a panic now because they haven't succeeded in getting the public to lose weight as fast as they hoped, failing to recognize the fundamental reality that no one ever succeeds in getting someone else to lose weight (unless they lock them in a room and deny and starve them): The US Department of Health and Human Services had hoped to slash the percentages of seriously overweight adults and children/adolescents to 15 and five percent of the population respectively by 2010, as part of a broader disease-prevention program. The study found that we're about the same as we ever were: Between 1999-2000 and 2001-2002, there were no significant changes among adults in the prevalence of overweight or obesity (64.5% vs 65.7%), obesity (30.5% vs 30.6%), or extreme obesity (4.7% vs 5.1%), or among children aged 6 through 19 years in the prevalence of at risk for overweight or overweight (29.9% vs 31.5%) or overweight (15.0% vs 16.5%). Overall, among adults aged at least 20 years in 1999-2002, 65.1% were overweight or obese, 30.4% were obese, and 4.9% were extremely obese. Among children aged 6 through 19 years in 1999-2002, 31.0% were at risk for overweight or overweight and 16.0% were overweight. "At risk" for obesity means that the child is within the upper limits of normal. The fact that public health authorities consider this a disease category should give us pause. It's almost as chilling as this idea that they can control what other people eat and how much activity they pursue. If they ever do succeed in getting the population to lose weight, where will it stop? Will "normalcy" be shifted ever downward until we're a nation of near-anorexics? posted by Sydney on 6/16/2004 06:55:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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