Exton, Pennsylvania, July 18, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Data from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) suggests just over seventy percent of American adults are overweight, including 40% being clinically obese. Nearly twenty percent of children are obese, rising from 12% of those 2-5 years of age to over 22% of those 12-19 years of age.
Analysis from the NIH identified the origin of the US obesity epidemic starting in the late seventies, when the prevalence was roughly 15%, rising steadily through the turn of the century to 30% and continuing to present day. Worldwide, the rise of obesity has seen similar growth, with the World Health Organization (WHO) citing a tripling of prevalence since 1975. Shockingly, the WHO data shows most of the world’s population live in countries where excess weight and obesity kill more people than underweight conditions.