Obesity epidemic in US under-estimated by up to 50 percent: study

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060426/hl_afp/healthobesityus

PARIS (AFP) - The prevalence of obesity in the US states has been under-estimated by as much as 50 percent, according to a study.

In 2002, 28.7 percent of adult American men and 34.5 percent of American women were clinically obese, compared to the conventional estimates for that year of 21.9 percent and 21.2 percent respectively, it says.

The research, published in Britain's Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine by Harvard School of Public Health specialists, blames the discrepancy on low-cost data-collection -- and human nature.

The main tool for measuring obesity in the United States is the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which uses telephone interviews with a cross-section of the population to get its data.

But the researchers say that, in these phone interviews, women of all ages often under-report their weight, and young and middle-aged men often over-report their height.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

1. Doesn't Surprise Me, Sadly

We are a very overweight country.

DTH

[partylessinOhio]

2. Face the fact: obesity in America is caused by the growth hormones

in the food we are eating. We are harming our cattle and chickens and killing ourselves. Another result of agribusiness greed.

[frankenforpres]

3. BMI is silly though

for most people, i guess bmi is ok. but i am 6' tall 195 lbs, i just googled a bmi calculator and by their standard i am overweight. however, my body fat percentage is approx 12%. anybody that is athletic(save for enduerance athletes) may have a screwed up bmi


but, i like their main point that survey data is garbage

[SoCalDem]

4. and don't forget the "soda-addiction"

Most people today probably don't even remember when a "soda-pop" was a special treat...not a "lifeline" to be carried with one at all times.. Same with snacks like chips. Potato chips in our house would actually go stale, since they were not an every day thing. I have seen kids walking around with big ole bags of Doritos, just munching away.. When I was a kid, chips were served with a sandwich..and only a few too.

Ice cream was also a special treat, not a birthright..

We drank unsweetened iced tea with lemon or water..koolaid in the summer.. (made with sugar)

I just don't think our bodies are "ready" for the onslaught of all the chemi-foods we are putting in them..

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Both Law&Order and BostonLegal has episodes last night that mentioned this

They focused on the increased use of High Fructose Corn Syrup, Obesity and DiabetesII in young people.