Study: U.S. obesity rates keep growing
By Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times
How do government agencies, private foundations, industry groups and professional societies squander hundreds of millions of dollars? By trying to fight America’s obesity epidemic.
Two new studies show that the best efforts of all these players – as well as schools, churches and individual healthcare providers – have largely failed to keep most Americans from getting fatter.
One report finds that 35 percent of men and 40 percent of women were obese as of 2014, the most recent year for which data were available. The other says that 17 percent of children and teens were obese as well, including nearly 6 percent who were morbidly obese.