One third of Americans are obese
The American Medical Association says that
over 30% of all adults in the USA are classified as
obese.
The Body Mass Index of over sixty million adults
over the age of twenty is thirty or greater. Add to
this a large waist measurement and other high risk
factors, millions of adult Americans are in danger
of dying because they are too fat. And it’s getting
worse.
And
children continue to get fatter too. Over nine
million children and teenagers between the ages of
six and nineteen are overweight. That’s THREE TIMES
the amount of overweight children in 1980!
Amongst obese adults, thirty-three per cent are
women and twenty-eight per cent are men. Here are
the percentages…
Women
-
White women
(non-Hispanic) – 31 %
-
Mexican American
women – 38 %
-
Black women
(non-Hispanic) – 49 %
Men
Interestingly the percentage of obese men is roughly
the same for men of all race and/or ethnic groups –
an average of about 28 %.
Children aged 12 to 19
-
White children
(non-Hispanic) – 14 %
-
Black children
(non-Hispanic) – 21 %
-
Mexican American
children – 23 %
Children aged 6 to 11
-
White children
(non-Hispanic) – 14 %
-
Black children
(non-Hispanic) – 20 %
-
Mexican American
children – 22 %
Over and above the children between the ages of six
and nineteen that are already obese (sixteen per
cent), fifteen per cent more children are at risk of
becoming obese.
Our
children are getting fatter
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