During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in
obesity in the United States. In 2009, only Colorado and the
District of Columbia had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%,
according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Thirty-three
states had an obesity rate of 25% or more. The obesity rate in
California in 2009 (the latest figure available), was 24.8 %.
Obsesity results from an energy imbalance. This involves eating
too many calories and not getting enough physical activity.
Maintaining a healthy weight is all about balancing the number of
calories you take in with the number you burn off through
exercise.
It’s all over the news. Americans weigh more now than ever
before. Do you worry about yourself or a family member? Do you
have high blood pressure or high cholesterol? It may be time to
assess your weight, your diet and how much you exercise.
Something seems to be going right in San Diego County when it
comes to kids and food.
A new study this week shows that although more than a third of
California children in fifth, seventh and ninth grades are
overweight or obese, the rate appears to be leveling off
statewide and dropping in some counties, including San Diego.
California could be gaining control over its childhood obesity
struggle, even though more than half the state’s counties,
including San Bernardino County, still show increases in children
being overweight and obese.
The rate of overweight or obese children in Orange County fell by
3 percent from 2005 to 2010, but one-third of local children
still weigh too much, according to a new UCLA report.
High obesity rates among low-income individuals are not solely
the result of fast food, according to a study by the UC-Davis
Center for Healthcare Policy and Research, the Sacramento Bee
reports.
Here’s another health risk associated with carrying extra pounds:
People who are obese get less protection from the annual flu
shot, according to a study released Tuesday. But the authors said
that people who are overweight or obese should get a seasonal flu
shot anyway.
The study involved 461 patients who were vaccinated in 2009 at a
clinic in Chapel Hill, N.C. By several measures, the vaccine
appeared to wear off faster in people who were overweight or
obese than it did in people of healthy weight.
Rates of diabetes and severe obesity are about one-fifth lower
for women who relocated to high-income communities from
low-income areas compared with women who did not, according to
a study published in the New England Journal of
Medicine, CNN reports.
Two Riverside planners beginning Thursday [September 22,
2011] will lead a UC Riverside Extension course to teach the
importance of considering health when designing communities.
Health care providers in California increasingly are focusing on
ways to manage patients’ chronic health conditions by using
team-based initiatives to engage patients in their own health,
HealthyCal
reports.
More than 16 million Californians, or 44% of the state’s
population, have chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart
disease or obesity. About half of them have more than one such
condition.
Kaiser Permanente said Wednesday [August 3, 2011] it is
committing $10 million to fighting obesity in Northern
California, including making seven grants of $1 million each to
help poor communities tackle the disease.
In a bid to fight childhood obesity and change eating habits on
the local level, First Lady Michelle Obama is expected to
announce a healthful food financing initiative Wednesday [July
20, 2011] that aims to draw grocery stores into so-called food
desert areas in California.
The $200-million program, dubbed the California FreshWorks Fund,
is a joint effort by the California Endowment and a team of
grocery industry groups, healthcare organizations and leading
Wall Street banks.
Modeled after similar funds launched in New York City and
Pennsylvania, the idea for the California
5 easy, inexpensive apps that help you count
calories
Smartphones are spreading fast throughout American life, and
we’re now using them to slow our own spread, too. Calorie
counting has never been easier. Powerful handheld computers can
quickly calculate the nutritional value — or lack thereof — of
our favorite foods and track it over time.
The apps are easy to learn and use. Some only need the snap of a
photo or the scanning of a bar code to do their work. None
requires us to do more than lift a finger, though most also
encourage and can track exercise, as well.
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Scientists have developed a new way to
measure whether a person is too fat without having people step on
the scale.
The new measure, called the Body Adiposity Index, or BAI, relies
on height and hip measurements, and it is meant to offer a more
flexible alternative to body mass index, or BMI, a ratio of
height and weight, U.S. researchers said on Thursday [March 3,
2011].
BMI has been used to measure body fat for the past 200 years, but
it is not without flaws, Richard Bergman of the University of
Southern California, Los Angeles, and colleagues wrote in the
journal Obesity.
Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese and,
according to a growing body of evidence, at greater risk of
getting, and dying of, cancer. ‘Obesity is almost like the new
smoking,’ says one expert.
Two out of three adult Americans are at greater risk for getting
cancer — and for dying of it — than they need to be. Not because
of smog in their air or radon in their basements. Not because of
tobacco in their cigarettes or mutations in their genes.
No, the particular cancer risk shared by these 150 million or so
Americans comes from having too many calories in their diet and
too little exercise in their daily lives.
In other words, from being overweight.
Surprised?
It’s widely known that simply being overweight, let alone obese,
dramatically increases the risk for high blood pressure, heart
attacks, strokes and diabetes. But according to a 2009 survey by
the American Institute for Cancer Research, only about 50% of
Americans know that size also matters when it comes to cancer.
The risk is not trivial. The same institute estimates that every
year about 100,000 Americans get a cancer they wouldn’t have
gotten if they had kept their weight in check. And researchers
have estimated that about 14% of cancer deaths in men and 20% in
women could be avoided by this same restraint.
A new poll finds growing concern about childhood
obesity, so much so that 61% support banning sugary drinks from
schools.
A growing number of Californians consider obesity to be a “very
serious” problem facing children in the state and believe
unhealthy fare in schools should be restricted, according to a
statewide poll released Feb. 8, 2011.
“They recognize the seriousness of the childhood obesity epidemic
and understand that changing public policies is the key to
creating healthier communities,” said Dr. Robert K. Ross,
president and chief executive of the California Endowment the Los
Angeles-based nonprofit that funded the Field Poll survey.
Nearly 60% of those polled, up from 46% eight years ago, called
childhood obesity a “very serious” problem, according to the
survey of 1,005 registered voters. In addition, one in three
cited unhealthy eating habits more than any other factor —
including illegal drug use and violence — as the “greatest health
risk” for children in California. More than half said they would
support a tax on soda and soft drinks to fund the fight against
childhood obesity, and 61% said all drinks with added sugars
should be banned from schools.
A year after San Diego County received a $16 million two-year
federal grant to reduce obesity rates and promote healthy living,
public officials held a kick-off ceremony in Balboa Park on
Wednesday to showcase programs they’ve developed.
The initiative, called Healthy Works, includes projects that will
focus on promoting physical activity, better access to healthy
food, and healthy school environments.
“Obesity is a national threat that we’re taking on,” said Nick
Macchione, director of the county Health and Human Services
Agency.
