Obesity is a disease that occurs when there is an abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat that poses a risk to health. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC define obesity as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher for adults. A BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight. Morbid obesity is defined as a BMI of more than 40, which is roughly 80 pounds overweight for women and 100 pounds overweight for men. You can calculate your BMI here: https://www.forhers.com/tools/bmi-calculator.
A primary care physician who is, herself, an SR reader sent me this, and wrote that in the 30 years of her practice her patients, young and old have become ever more obese, and would I publish this in SR to warn people they needed to talk with their physicians about how to lose weight because their lives depended on it. As I thought about this study I realized she was right, and that it is a growing problem shaping the American culture. I have already published in SR that Americans have much shorter lives — typically about seven years shorter — than people in other developed democracies, and that obesity resulting from poor diet is one of the major causes of this shortened life span. If this is an issue for you, or someone you know please do help them get the assistance and guidance they need.
Results from the 2017–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), using measured heights and weights, indicate that an estimated 42.5% of U.S. adults aged 20 and over have obesity, including 9.0% with severe obesity, and another 31.1% are overweight. Body mass index (BMI), expressed as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared (kg/m2), is used commonly to classify overweight (BMI 25.0–29.9), obesity (BMI at or above 30.0), and severe obesity (BMI at or above 40.0). Age-adjusted trends in overweight, obesity, and severe obesity prevalence from 1960–1962 through 2017–2018 are shown in Table 1. Because surveys before 1988 did not include persons over age 74, Table 1 shows the prevalence for adults aged 20 and over since 1988, and for adults aged 20–74 for all survey periods dating back to 1960. The age-adjusted sex-specific trends of overweight, obesity, and severe obesity among adults aged 20–74 from 1960–1962 through 2017–2018 are shown in the Figure. Table 2 contains the prevalence of obesity by age for men and women since 1988–1994, and Table 3 contains the […]
Albus Eddie
on Monday, September 23, 2024 at 4:51 am
Excellent article. These findings are a result of the food industry moving to a model with prioritizes profit over everything else. As a consequence, we have seen a rise in the sugar content of food as well as the addition of preservatives, emulsifiers, etc… for what has become labeled as “Ultra-processed Food”. You can eat it, but it’s not really food, it has calories yes, but nutrition, no. This is the behavioral example and consequence of regulatory capture. Think outside the box.
Excellent article. These findings are a result of the food industry moving to a model with prioritizes profit over everything else. As a consequence, we have seen a rise in the sugar content of food as well as the addition of preservatives, emulsifiers, etc… for what has become labeled as “Ultra-processed Food”. You can eat it, but it’s not really food, it has calories yes, but nutrition, no. This is the behavioral example and consequence of regulatory capture. Think outside the box.