Obesity Statistics And What This Obesity Epidemic Is Doing To Us

We are a fat country! Adults are overweight and we are making our children fatter than ever. Sadly, these obese children tend to become obese adults.

* In 1980 the national average for adult obesity was 15% of the population and in 1991, no state had an adult obesity rate above 20%.
* By 2010 - 38 states had adult obesity rates above 25 percent and for 28 of the states there was an increase in the level of obesity. The rest maintained tier high level [except for Washington, D.C., which had the only decline in obesity.]
* And in the same timeframe [since 1980] childhood obesity rates in the U.S. have more than doubled.

We are fat and getting fatter!

According the CDC [Center for Disease Control] these are the definitions of overweight and obese:

For adults, overweight and obesity ranges are determined by using weight and height to calculate a number called the "body mass index" (BMI). BMI is used because, for most people, it correlates with their amount of body fat. * An adult who has a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight. * An adult who has a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.

You can find many BMI calculators online by searching for the term.

What is obesity doing to us?

* Obesity leads to many illnesses
* Obesity makes many illnesses worse
* Childhood obesity is a leading cause of young children having heart problems and diabetes - once considered diseases of adulthood
* Obesity leads to an increase in healthcare costs for everyone

We have an obesity epidemic and we need to do something to curtail the situation but the most typical solutions pushed are the various diets, diet pills and surgery.

Diets do not usually work because if your body is starved it holds onto every gram of fat as that is the way the body is designed to work. Our body needs an amount of fat to work and - yes - it IS possible to do this in moderation.

Our body is smart - it knows what it needs - but our food is no longer nutritious and so we tend then to eat more and more "foods" because we do not understand which nutrient our body is needing. And many of the "foods" are filled with chemicals.

Yet - no matter how much, or how little, we eat - if we do not provide our body with the needed nutrient or nutrients - all we are doing is adding calories.

Our body is pretty smart but it has been fooled by the alleged "foods" we eat and my guess is that it has a harder time knowing what it truly needs in terms of nutrition. That's why we now need to take supplements to make up for what's not in our food anymore. And who knows, it may just help with the obesity epidemic.

From Lynn Dorman, Ph.D. who is 70+ and has, for many decades, advocated for good nutrition and food supplements - except now she is not considered weird for saying these things.