Obesity in the U.S. is a deadly epidemic. 100 million adults are obese

  • 12 years ago
Obesity in the U.S. is a deadly epidemic.

It causes about 300 thousand deaths each year. About 100 million adults are obese, so are twelve million children.
From 1971 to 2000 obesity rates increased from 14 to 31 percent. A grossly overweight person has a body mass index, a comparison of weight and height, of over 30 kilograms/meters squared. People with a body mass index greater than 40 are morbidly overweight.
The condition increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and cancer. In 2010, no state had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. In twelve states, 30 percent or more of the population was obese.
In the United States the condition costs $150 billion per year in direct medical outlays, which is about nine percent of all medical spending.

The average adult American consumes about 657,000 calories a year, or 1,800 a day. The body, through a balancing mechanism called homeostasis, knows when it should eat and and when to stop eating.
Increased calorie int

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