HHS HealthBeat (February 9, 2010)

Not worse is not better

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

If there is good news in this, it’s that the tidal wave of obesity is not sweeping up a larger proportion of Americans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the big numbers of too-big people seem to have stabilized.

But stability does not mean healthy. Even though the widening trend toward obesity has halted, the CDC survey data for 2007-2008 say about one-third of Americans are obese.

At the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, researcher Cynthia Ogden:

[Cynthia Ogden speaks] ``I don’t think there’s any cause for complacency right now. We haven’t seen a decrease in the rate of obesity.’’

Ogden says the obesity rate is at least double the federal target for obesity.

The research is in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss. 

Last revised: May 7, 2011