"After three decades of climbing steadily, obesity rates appear to be stabilizing nationwide. Increases among certain demographic groups are still evident, however.
After a 30-year, record-shattering rise, U.S. obesity rates appear to be stabilizing.
New statistics cited in two papers report only a slight uptick since 2005 — leaving public health experts tentatively optimistic that they may be gaining some ground in their efforts to slim down the nation.
Many obesity specialists say the new data, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are a sign that efforts to address the obesity problem — such as placing nutritional information on food packaging and revising school lunch menus — are beginning to have an effect in a country where two-thirds of adults and one-third of children and teens are overweight or obese.
'A good first step is to stop the increase, so I think this is very positive news,' said James O. Hill, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. 'It may suggest our efforts are starting to make a difference. The bad news is we still have obesity rates that are just astronomical.' ------------------
The statistics showed that more than 35% of U.S. adults (78 million people) are obese, defined as having a body mass index of 30 or greater. That is similar to the 2005-06 rate. Calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared, the BMI is not a perfect measure of fatness but is still viewed as the gold standard in assessing population-wide trends.
An additional third of adults are overweight, the analysis found, also similar to the rates in 2005-06.
Likewise, data in children and teenagers from birth to age 19 reflect little change from the survey's 2007-08 data, according to the reports, which were published online Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Almost 17% are obese and 32% are overweight or obese.
But though obesity rates may be flattening overall, increases and disparities can still be found in specific racial and ethnic groups.
Rates have risen to 58.5% among non-Hispanic black women and to nearly 45% among Mexican American women since 2004, for example. And among children and teens, about 21% of Hispanics and 24% of blacks are obese compared with 14% of non-Hispanic whites.
The report also found that gender differences appear to be fading, with percentages of overweight males catching up with or even overtaking those of females. --------------------
The best hope for lowering rates, he said, is to stop people from getting fat to begin with: Experience and studies show that it is difficult for obese adults to permanently shed fat and that children who are already overweight or obese are highly likely to be overweight as adults. ------------------
Since obesity contributes to joint damage as well as diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers, the epidemic truly is a national crisis, said Patrick M. O'Neil, president of the Obesity Society and director of the weight management center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
'Even if the statistics stay at current prevalence rates, I see little good news in that,' O'Neil said. ---------------- "
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-obesity-20120118,0,3676687.story
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