A New England Journal of Medicine study predicts nearly half of all Americans will obese by the end of the next decade.
Pennington Biomedical director of the Metabolism-Body Composition Laboratory Dr. Steven Heymsfield says those numbers are disproportionately high in people making under 50,000 dollars a year, and…
“Women, in general, are slightly more prone to obesity than men, and non-Hispanic blacks are more prone to obesity than whites and Hispanics,” says Heysmfield.
The numbers are particularly notable for people making under 20,000 dollars a year.
An estimated 40 percent of adults are already obese, with 18 percent being severely obese. Heymsfield says this growing problem is set to send healthcare costs spiraling out of control.
“It is a pretty staggering number if they are correct, but even if they are not correct, and the numbers are only up by a little bit, the number is still large,” says Heymsfield.
Obesity is defined as an individual with a body mass index of 30 or higher. BMI is a person’s weight divided by their height.
Heymsfield says the best way to stop the epidemic from progressing is by making sure children don’t develop habits that lead to obesity.
“By the time a child or a person is 10-years-old they have already had a huge exposure to their environment, and whatever genetic background they have could largely be set,” says Heymsfield.
The study was conducted by Harvard researchers.
