MILWAUKEE — Dousing hopes that America’s obesity epidemic might be leveling off or reversing, new data show an alarming increase in the number of obese children and raise questions about how fat America can get. ‘Obviously there has to be some upper limit,’ said lead author Cynthia Ogden, a researcher with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ‘I just don’t know where it’s going to be.’ The number of obese and overweight men also increased, although an encouraging sign was that obesity in women remained constant at about one-third of the population aged 20 and over. At the other end of the spectrum, a separate group of researchers found that depriving people of about 25 percent of their normal calories, while still eating nutritionally balanced diets, led to physiological changes associated with increased longevity. The six-month month study involving 48 people – the first in non-obese humans – showed that calorie restriction led to improvements in insulin levels, a beneficial decrease of about one degree in body temperature and less DNA damage to cells. Numerous animal studies have showed that calorie restriction, which slows metabolism, can extend life span by as much as […]