Health Information and Statistics
According to the National Institutes of Health, obesity and overweight together are the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States, close behind tobacco use. An estimated 300,000 deaths per year are due to the obesity epidemic.
For up to one-third of the world's population, vitamin and mineral deficiencies are keeping children from reaching their full physical and intellectual potential, according to two reports by UNICEF, reports USA Today.
Obesity can be classified as a worldwide epidemic, with the United States the undisputed leader in obesity prevalence. It is currently estimated that 97 million adults are overweight or obese in this country alone. With the spread of obesity has come an increasing incidence of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, certain cancers, and other obesity-related morbidities.
The economic costs of obesity are tremendous. The National Institutes of Health have estimated the total cost of overweight and obesity to the U.S. economy in 1995 dollars at $99.2 billion, approximately $51.6 billion in direct health care costs and $47.6 billion in indirect costs. Data from the National Health Interview Surveys suggest that nationally 39.3 million workdays are lost annually to obesity-related causes.
The ShapeWorks™ Nutritional Index found that 66% of people in the U.S., Italy, France, Germany and Russia consider themselves to be overweight. Surprisingly, only 37% of these people think they'll be overweight in five years.
A study presented at the North American Association for the Study of Obesity showed that people who followed a meal-replacement plan for 10 years weighed, on average, about 33 pounds less than people who didn't use a meal-replacement plan.
One of the more serious aspects of the obesity epidemic is the dramatic increase in the incidence of overweight among children and adolescents. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), it appears that overweight prevalence among our nation's children and adolescents doubled between 1980 and 1994. At the beginning of the 1990s, approximately 14% of children in the U.S. were overweight, increasing to about 20% of adolescents. Preliminary findings from the most recent NHANES suggest that childhood overweight continues to increase.
Reuters News Service reported that the ever-increasing waistlines of young adults in the U.S. have led to more and more cases of Type 2 diabetes in young people. And new research suggests that these young people are having far too many heart attacks and strokes.
