The Fat Are Getting Fatter
Determining if a person is overweight or obese is usually based on a person’s body mass index, which factors in height with weight. A person with a BMI of 25 or above is considered overweight. Obesity starts at a BMI of 30, but is subdivided into three stages:
The first level of obesity occurs at BMIs of 30 to 34.9
The second level of obesity occurs between 35 and 39.9
The third level, known as morbid or severe obesity, occurs at BMIs of 40 or greater.
Morbid obesity is increasing the fastest. According to a 2003 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, in 1986 about one in 10 people were obese; by 2000, one in five were obese.
But the prevalence of morbid obesity quadrupled. In 1986, one in 200 adults had BMIs of 40 or above, and the numbers had increased to one in 50 by the year 2000. Worse, the numbers of people with a BMI of 50 or greater (Think Johnny Depp’s invalid mother in the movie What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?) increased five times, from one in 2000 people to one in 400.
---Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness
That is scary! An increase of five times!!!! That was almost ten years ago already and we have not adjusted our waist size down yet. It is ever expanding. Now widely considered an epidemic throughout the medical field. Our youth faces many health challenges simply because they are living on fast foods, diet sodas, simple carbohydrates, highly caffeinated drinks and limited exercise. Most youth today get their exercise in front of the television or video game. This is not what our bodies were created for.
Look in the middle schools and high schools. Many new schools have a smorgasbord of fast food and coffee houses within their very walls. Children are not being offered nutritious meals but instead meals made from chemicals and white flour. The average child today does not eat even three pieces of fruit in a week. Why is this? Who's fault is this?
We parents have to make a stand and help our children change. Provide healthier options at home, send lunch not cash to school with them, educate them and be active with our families.
“The world’s not going to change, you have to change.”
Jared Fogle, Subway spokesperson
From the Supersize Me Movie
In the year 2010
"Imagine this, your walking down the street in the year 2010. You come to a schoolyard where there are lots of young children playing. You stop at the fence to watch and you notice that two of the three kids swinging are very overweight, a kindergarten aged girl slides down the curved slide, she too is overweight for her height. There are some young boys playing kick ball on the field to the right of you, there must be about ten of them. Half are over weight and very out of breath. There are some girls sitting in the shade in the grass chatting, one is thin the other, you guessed it, overweight. You decide to continue on your walk. You stop in your local grocery store to grab a cool drink. You’re standing in front of the refrigerated section looking over your options when a group of teen-age girls come chattering up behind you. One of them says, ”Excuse me,” she reaches in to the refrigerator in front of you and grabs a diet soda, asking her friends what they would like the other girls reply with varied responses, The same as you, I’ll take a sports drink and the last one says a water. Shocked at the last girl’s response you look at her and notice that she’s the only one in the group that seems to not have weight problems.
This might seem a little far fetched that so many of the children in this story are over weight, but according to a study done by the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity, by the year 2010 half of the children in North and South America will be overweight, one in five children in China will suffer from weight problems and 38% of all kids in Europe." --quoted from The Elephant in the Kitchen
This might seem a little far fetched that so many of the children in this story are over weight, but according to a study done by the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity, by the year 2010 half of the children in North and South America will be overweight, one in five children in China will suffer from weight problems and 38% of all kids in Europe." --quoted from The Elephant in the Kitchen
In these pages I will share with you what the statistic's are, the truths of how our children are getting fat and how we as parnets can help prevent and even reverse this epidemic. Please vist this page often for up to date articles, research and stories from other parnets who are concerned about the beltline of our world.
* Do have a comment or short story to share about your thoughts or views on obesity in America? Do you want to see it posted on this blog? Email me direct and I will be choosing three to five comments each quarter to post on this page.
Page Under Construction!
* Do have a comment or short story to share about your thoughts or views on obesity in America? Do you want to see it posted on this blog? Email me direct and I will be choosing three to five comments each quarter to post on this page.
Page Under Construction!
The Epidemic of Our Children's Life Time, and Ours!
"Experts predict that nearly 100 percent of the population will be overweight in our lifetime."
The stats are staggering.
The number of obese adults has doubled in just 20 years, with 67 percent of the adult population overweight or obese, according to recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control.
And things appear to be getting worse. Back in 1995, when researchers started to notice the changing landscape, one doctor sounded an alarm in The Lancet, a British medical journal. After studying the rise in obesity that had occurred over the 30-year period between 1960 and 1991, Dr. John Foreyt at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston predicted that 100 percent of Americans would be overweight by the year 2230.
Upon seeing more recent data, Foreyt bumped up his projection by almost two centuries: “We’re gaining by 1 percentage point every year. Assuming that trend continues, 100 percent of the population will be overweight or obese by 2040.”
A recent report in the journal Epidemiologic Reviews suggests that this estimate is right on track. Researchers studied obesity prevalence rates from 1990 to 2006 and concluded that 75 percent of the population will be overweight, and 41 percent will be obese, by the year 2015— or by the time today’s crop of grade-school age kids get to high school. --MSN Health & Fitness
The stats are staggering.
The number of obese adults has doubled in just 20 years, with 67 percent of the adult population overweight or obese, according to recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control.
And things appear to be getting worse. Back in 1995, when researchers started to notice the changing landscape, one doctor sounded an alarm in The Lancet, a British medical journal. After studying the rise in obesity that had occurred over the 30-year period between 1960 and 1991, Dr. John Foreyt at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston predicted that 100 percent of Americans would be overweight by the year 2230.
Upon seeing more recent data, Foreyt bumped up his projection by almost two centuries: “We’re gaining by 1 percentage point every year. Assuming that trend continues, 100 percent of the population will be overweight or obese by 2040.”
A recent report in the journal Epidemiologic Reviews suggests that this estimate is right on track. Researchers studied obesity prevalence rates from 1990 to 2006 and concluded that 75 percent of the population will be overweight, and 41 percent will be obese, by the year 2015— or by the time today’s crop of grade-school age kids get to high school. --MSN Health & Fitness
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
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