More than one-third of adult Americans — 36 percent — are obese and so are 17 percent of youth, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a “Data Brief,” the agency says there was no significant change in rates over the past couple of years after a steep climb in the early 2000s. Obesity is associated with chronic disease such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. CDC researchers noted the obesity rate for adults and youth is well above the government’s Healthy People 2020 goal but “the prevalance of obesity among children aged 2-5 years is below the goal of 9.4 percent.”
In general, obesity rates increase with age, said the Data Brief. A much larger portion of middle-aged and elderly Americans are obese than younger adults. And teenagers are much more likely to be obese than younger children. The obesity rate among women is higher than men for all age groups. Overall, 34 percent of men and 38 percent of women are obese.
“Health experts had hoped that gradual improvements in the American diet in recent years might have moved the needle on obesity. Consumption of full-calorie soda has dropped by a quarter since the late 1990s, and there is evidence that calorie intake has dropped for adults and children,” said the New York Times. Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health said diets are improving among educated Americans but not among lower-income and less educated people.