All U.S. adults could be overweight in 40 years

Source: Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - If the trends of the past three decades continue, it's possible that every American adult could be overweight 40 years from now, a government-funded study projects.

The figure might sound alarming, or impossible, but researchers say that even if the actual rate never reaches the 100-percent mark, any upward movement is worrying; two-thirds of the population is already overweight.

"Genetically and physiologically, it should be impossible" for all U.S. adults to become overweight, said Dr. Lan Liang of the federal government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, one of the researchers on the study.

<snip>

Already, she and her colleagues point out, some groups of U.S. adults have extremely high rates of overweight and obesity; among African- American women, for instance, 78 percent are currently overweight or obese.

The new projections, published in the journal Obesity, are based on government survey data collected between the 1970s and 2004.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSCOL66909620080806?sp=true

Seriously, why are so many Americans (and Canadians - I don't exempt my own country!) so huge? Is it the crappy food most people eat? The sedentary lifestyles? Or is there a larger cultural reason behind all that?

;-)

However, I wouldn't be surprised if 3 out of 4 are in a few decades. I think we might have to put in place taxes on high calorie, low cost food to save people from themselves on this one.

They know no self-restraint.

We need more shaming and blaming to get to a normal weight!

Those Fatty McFattersons should just put down their forks and shove back from the table. They're offensive to the thin and beautiful, aren't they?

Julie

I'm well aware of those that have poor metabolisms. I've had many very large friends, but the simple truth is that most fat people made themselves like that. Some of my fatter friends just eat all the time. Any chance to eat, they do and they eat cheap, bad crap.

When have you lost more than thirty pounds and kept it off for more than five years?

Do your friends know what a poor opinion you have of them?

Julie

parading their superior morals around in an attempt to make themselves feel better and the rest of us feel like shit.

Obesity in this country is following a classic pattern of an epidemic disease. There is something at work besides the lax morals of the majority.

Obesity is concentrated in the Southeast. It would be interesting to check out ALL the factors, not just the regular "diet, income, race, sex, age" ones.

More. Many. Most. maybe... but not all.

100% will be overweight. Even assuming no one cared about their diets (untrue), no one exercised (very untrue) and no one moved to this country from a different culture that wasn't so unhealthy (untrue) there would still be a few people who just stay thin. Everyone knows someone like this. I have a friend who eats little besides fast food, and lots of it, and she stays stick thin. Some people just have a fast metabolism (great in times like this, terrible in times of famine, so it balances out).

I call shenanigans on any study that says 100% of a large group of people (like 300 million) will be one way. There are always outliers.

in 50 years, 110% of American adults will be overweight.

nt

But I wouldn't be surprised if it kept rising, albeit at a slower rate. The current weak economy certainly doesn't help, since it leads to people eating greater quantities of low-cost, fattening food. And yeah, taxing "junk" sounds like a good idea in theory, but it would lead to some people not eating anything at all. And that opens up a whole 'nother can of worms...

Controlling your weight will be a lot easier in the future.

Not everyone is incapable of moderating their intake to match their energy expenditure. :eyes: Many of us simply refuse to allow ourselves to get to such a state.

...When I got to a certain age... My "refusal" or lack therof never entered into it...But you keep on being condescending and perfect, and the rest of us mere mortals will try not to disturb...

>Many of us simply refuse to allow ourselves to get to such a state.

Hope you never sustain some kind of accident that doesn't allow you to exercise at the rate you do now, you don't suffer an auto-immune disease that destroys your metabolism, or you simply get older.

The smug, supercilious HWP's on this website just slay me.

Julie

As long as we get the cool floating La-Z-Boys, though, I won't complain.

Sadly, I think that Wall-E will be right about a lot of things.

..oh wait...that's a bad thing?

dammit....

They're the ones who invented the obesity "epidemic". Them and nutrition/health snobs.

we already know that trace elements of drugs like prozac, birth control pills, and other hormones are found in water

i know a man on prozac who gained over 100 lbs from this drug, he does not have the choice to stop taking it or a similar drug because of the severity of his illness

i look at how soft-bodied men are these days and i wonder how much of it is the female hormones and/or anti-depressants that are pretty much not just making them fat but neutering them unless they also pop viagra or a similar pill

it was so rare to see a fat teen boy in my youth, now, it's quite common, and it isn't because teens ate terrific food in the 70s

You took the words right out of my mouth. Mainly drinking water Drug residue, water additives and some food additives. For example up until the early to mid 70's Iodine was added to breads, but then they took it out and added Bromine instead, which creates hardened cellulite fat which is hard to get rid of. And now everyone's popping fattening Pharmaceuticals.

C'mon people, you can DO it! :D

There are people who have high metabolisms who will never be overweight, at least until they get older. There are people with eating disorders who get thin in an unhealthy way. There are people who exercise heavily, have decent metabolisms, and eat "healthy" who usually aren't overweight. There are people with diseases that make it hard to eat or absorb enough calories to be overweight. Although many poor people are overweight, some people respond to a low food budget by eating few calories at all. As gas becomes more expensive, I expect that some people will be walking or biking more preventing some of them from becoming overweight who might have been otherwise.

Why not let everyone enjoy it now?