Obesity Rate Ballooning, Report Says
Americans are continuing to supersize adult obesity rates increased in 16 states last year and did not go down in a single state raising health risks and ultimately adding to the cost of health care, according to a study out today.
Just four years ago, only one state had obesity rates above 30 percent. Now 12 states do, say the Trust for Americas Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in a titled: F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America‘s Future 2011 .
Obesity rates have doubled in seven states since 1995 and increased by at least 90 percent in 10 others. Rates grew fastest in Oklahoma, Alabama and Tennessee. Thereport contains a state-by-state ranking.
Today, the state with the lowest obesity rate would have had the highest rate in 1995, the trusts Executive Director Jeff Levisaid in a of the report.“There was a clear tipping point in our national weight gain over the last twenty years, and we cant afford to ignore the impact obesity has on our health and corresponding health care spending.
Excess weight can lead to a host of health problems, including diabetes, researchers say. They add thatthe United Statesalready spends more than $150 billion each year on health care costs linked to obesity — an amount that is expected to grow.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as having a body mass indexof 30 or higher, and provides a .
Today’s report calls for restoration of some federal nutrition programs and urges Congress not to cut back on the $15 billion promised to the Public Health and Prevention Fund over the next decade, part of the federal health care overhaul law.
