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When I began Schwartzreport my purpose was to produce an entirely fact-based daily publication in favor of the earth, the inter-connectedness and interdependence of all life, democracy, equality for all, liberty, and things that are life-affirming. Also, to warn my readers about actions, events, and trends that threaten those values. Our country now stands at a crossroads, indeed, the world stands at a crossroads where those values are very much at risk and it is up to each of us who care about wellbeing to do what we can to defend those principles. I want to thank all of you who have contributed to SR, particularly those of you who have scheduled an ongoing monthly contribution. It makes a big difference and is much appreciated. It is one thing to put in the hours each day and to do the work for free, but another to have to cover the rising out-of-pocket costs. For those of you who haven’t done so, but read SR regularly, I ask that you consider supporting it.
We are the world leader it has been researched and announced. We are now the world’s largest population of fatties. Obesity in America has become the norm. This trend has been coming on for years. If you have ever been overseas in another country you have seen that what usually identifies someone as an American is that they’re fat. It is one of the main reasons Americans have such short life spans — typically seven years shorter than people in other developed democracies.
Two new studies are highlighting a dark picture of the obesity epidemic in the United States: one shows the number of obesity-related deaths is on the rise and the other projects a continued increase in the number of Americans who have overweight or obesity.
In the Lancet, the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study collaboration found that more than 170 million adults 25 years and older, as well as 15 million children and young adolescents (aged 5 to 14 years) and 21 million older adolescents (15 to 24 years), have overweight or obesity, defined as a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25 kg/m2.
“The current prevalence of overweight and obesity in the US are extraordinarily high and rising, presenting a significant public health concern,” GBD study investigator Xiaochen Dai, PhD (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Seattle, WA), told TCTMD in an email. “Forecasts to 2050 highlight an even more concerning trend.”
In 25 years, it’s estimated that nearly 213 million adults and 43 million children and adolescents will have overweight or obesity. Put another way, one out […]
This data is not as up-to-date as the Lancet paper, only includes adults not children, and is based on having a BMI of 30 or more, which is not just fat but obese.
A normal body mass index (BMI) for adults is between 18.5 and 24.9
Underweight: BMI is below 18.5
Normal: BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9
Overweight: BMI is between 25 and 29.9
Obesity: BMI is 30 or greater
If your BMI is over 25 you should consider changing your diet, and increasing your exercise. You can calculate it here: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm
The 2023 Adult Obesity Prevalence Maps for 48 states, the District of Columbia (DC), and three U.S. territories show the proportion of adults with obesity. These maps are based on self-reported weight and height from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Maps are also presented by race/ethnicity and location. (Updated September 12, 2024)
Overview
The CDC 2023 Adult Obesity Prevalence Maps for 48 states, the District of Columbia, and 3 U.S. territories show the proportion of adults with a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 30 ( ≥30 kg/m2) based on self-reported weight and height. Data are presented by race/ethnicity and location. The data come from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, an ongoing state-based, telephone interview survey conducted by CDC and state health departments.
The 2023 maps show that obesity impacts some groups more than others. There are notable differences by race and ethnicity, as shown by combined data from 2021–2023.
Across states and territories
In 2023, all U.S. states and territories had an obesity prevalence higher than 20% (more than 1 in 5 adults). Overall, the Midwest (36.0%) and South […]
Diabetes is a growing trend in some countries, as this report describes. What is notable is where it is not going up. The rate of diabetes stayed the same or even fell in some wealthier countries, such as Japan, Canada, or Western European nations such as France and Denmark, the study said. “The burden of diabetes and untreated diabetes is increasingly borne by low-income and middle-income countries,” it added.
Blood sugar test Credit: Shutterstock
The percentage of adults suffering from diabetes across the world has doubled over the past three decades, the biggest rises coming in developing countries, a study said Wednesday.
The serious health condition affected around 14 percent of all adults worldwide in 2022, compared to seven percent in 1990, according to the new analysis in The Lancet journal.
Taking into account the growing global population, the team of researchers estimated that more than 800 million people are now diabetic, compared to less than 200 million in 1990.
These figures include both main types of diabetes. Type 1 affects patients from a young age and is more difficult to treat because it is caused by an insulin deficiency.
Type 2 mainly affects middle-aged or older people who lose their sensitivity to insulin.
Behind the global numbers, national figures varied widely.
The rate of diabetes stayed the same or even fell in some wealthier countries, such as Japan, Canada or Western European nations such as France and Denmark, the study said.
“The burden of diabetes and untreated diabetes is increasingly borne by low-income […]
If you have been paying any attention to the news, many Americans reportedly do not but I assume SR readers do, you have seen Trump appoint one incompetent weirdo after another. That’s not why I am running this story. I am doing it because, I think, we are watching the first step in a trend Trump wants that is going to devastate our national parks and forests, as well as sabotage our progress in leaving the carbon energy era. The long-term consequences that will flow from this trend if Burgum’s is confirmed will change the physical landscape of America forever.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum speaks to reporters in the spin room following the CNN Presidential Debate on June 27 at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Credit: Andrew Harnik / Getty
President-elect Donald Trump said he plans to nominate North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a one-time rival for the Republican presidential nomination, to run the Interior Department and help steer the energy policy he’s pledged will drive up oil and gas drilling.
“We’re going do things with energy and with land — Interior — that is going to be incredible,” Trump told an audience at Mar A Lago. Bergum “is going to head the Department of Interior and he’s going to be fantastic.”
Burgum became wealthy from selling his software company, a factor that helped him create a relationship with Trump, who considered Burgum as a potential 2024 running mate.
If confirmed by the Senate, Burgum would manage the more than 500 million acres of federal land as well as the fossil fuels and minerals that lie beneath the surface — making him a […]
Jake Johnson, Senior Editor and Staff Writer - Common Dreams
Stephan:
First, there was Viet Nam, then Iraq and Afghanistan, then inadequate support for Ukraine, and over support of Israel carrying out what the U.N. now openly calls a genocide. In each case the United States chose to carry out either utterly wrong or grossly inferior geopolitical policies that have resulted in the death of millions and have kept America at war unceasingly. Why is this happening? I think there are two reasons, and I was involved with the best intentions in the world, creating one of them. The first is that for fifty years the U.S. economy has been taken over by the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower, a Republican, warned us in urgent terms about. We spend more on the military than all the European countries combined. War is very profitable particularly if you don’t have American lives at risk. And that is the second reason. Because we eliminated the draft and created an all-volunteer armed forces these endless wars have very little impact on American society, except to provide a lot of jobs in this country. As a result, and I can tell you this with authority no one saw this coming, active-duty service members now comprise less than 1% of all U.S. adults. So the corporations get to have their profitable wars, but very few Americans have to get involved and be at risk.
People mourn victims of an Israeli attack in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on November 14, 2024. Credit: Ashraf Amra / Anadolu / Getty
“Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation, and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war, and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population.”
Less than 48 hours after the Biden administration said it does not believe Israel is unlawfully obstructing humanitarian assistance in Gaza, a United Nations special committee issued a report Thursday arguing that the Israeli military’s actions in the Palestinian enclave bear “the characteristics of genocide.”
“Since the beginning of the war, Israeli officials have publicly supported policies that strip Palestinians of the very necessities required to sustain life—food, water, and fuel,” said the U.N. committee. “These statements, along with the systematic and unlawful interference of humanitarian aid, make clear Israel’s intent to instrumentalize lifesaving supplies for political and military gains.”
“Through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated U.N. appeals, binding orders from the […]
By Kaitlan Collins, Kristen Holmes and Aaron Pellish, Reporters - CNN
Stephan:
Not a single man or woman Trump is appointing for high office is either competent or ethical. They remind me of cartoons in a comic book. But Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointment may end up killing you or one of your children. Never forget his role in Samoa in killing children by getting the government to stop measles vaccinations. Here will oversee medicare and Medicaid, essential to about half the children in America, and almost all of the elderly. I would not have thought it possible that such a weirdo could take over U.S. healthcare.
Trump victory gives RFK Jr. free rein to shape public health Credit: The Seattle Times
President-elect Donald Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a source familiar with the move told CNN, a choice that would add to Trump’s list of provocative picks whose confirmation processes will test the loyalty of Senate Republicans.
The source said Kennedy accepted the offer Thursday, and multiple sources told CNN that Trump could announce the choice later in the day. Kennedy has been in Palm Beach for several days following the election.
The move is a notable one given that only days before the election, Trump’s transition co-chair Howard Lutnick told CNN that Kennedy was “not getting a job for HHS.”
“He would not be in charge of HHS?” he was asked on “The Source with Kaitlan Collins.”
“No,” Lutnick said, “of course not.”
That answer set off an internal uproar in Trump’s orbit, with Trump making clear to Kennedy […]
Can’t buy things you used to buy at a store where you usually look for somewthing? Well, if it wasn’t sufficiently profitable, as this article describes, it’s probably because the company that produced it stopped making it. Once again greed is shaping our culture. American society is dominated by greed, it is the only social priority that seems to matter. Wellbeing is rarely a factor.
Dollar General is cutting about 1,000 products from shelves. Credit: Scott Olson / Getty
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Pepperoni was getting out of hand at Hormel.
The food giant last year was selling 71 different versions of its Hormel Pepperoni brand. There was diced pepperoni. Turkey pepperoni. Mini-slices of turkey pepperoni. Pepperoni sticks. Pepperoni with 50% less sodium. Pepperoni with 25% less fat. Thick-sliced pepperoni. The list goes on.
But Hormel is removing, consolidating or repackaging 25% of the items as part of a company-wide strategy to prune unprofitable items across dozens of its brands like Spam, Applegate and Jennie-O, the company said in June. Around 80% of Hormel’s profit comes from a small number of products, like Hormel Bacon and Fire Braised-brand meats, while the rest of its tens of thousands of items often drive up costs and sit untouched in warehouses and on shelves for long periods.
Hormel is reviewing its product lineup to invest in items with higher profit margins, improve lower-performing items and “remove production complexity,” a […]
The scientists of the world who study the climate are screaming at the politicians, and you, that we are not doing anything close to what we should be doing to preserve human civilizations as they exist today. Your children, and their children are going to condemn us for this failure. In my remote viewing project it is clear that the civilization changing crisis will reach a peak in 15 years.
Existing policies and actions taken by world governments put the world on track for a median estimate of 2.7°C of warming by the end of the century, Climate Action Tracker revealed on Thursday at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.
If global leaders make no further effort to reduce emissions, temperatures have a 33% chance of spiking past 3°C of warming by 2100 and a 10% chance of overtaking 3.6°C, which report lead author Sofia Gonzales-Zuniga called “an absolutely catastrophic level of warming.”
“The combined global effect of government action on climate change has flatlined over the last three years, underscoring a critical disconnect between the reality of climate change and the lack of urgency on policies to cut emissions,” Climate Action Tracker (CAT) announced during its annual update at COP29.
The report attributes the lack of progress to the fact that few governments announced new climate targets in 2024 while they continued to facilitate the increased burning of fossil fuels, despite the pledge made at last year’s COP28 to transition away from oil, gas, and coal.
