According to the study taken by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD on September 23, 2010, the United States leads the number of fat people in the world. US residents are much less physically active than in the past, thus overweight increased from 50% in 1980 to approximately 70% in 2010.

Apparently, these rates have doubled, even tripled in almost half of developed countries including the United State. With 34% of obesity, the United States is leading the rank of the world's richest countries getting fatter and fatter, and three out of four Americans will be obese within 10 years. If governments, individuals and industries including the United States do not cooperate to combat the epidemic, disease rates and health care expenditures will have been out of control by 2020. Let's have a look at the statistics by OECD of overweight of the United States in particular and the world's other richest countries in general.

Obesity is currently among the greatest issues becoming popular in the world's most-developed countries including America, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia and so on

The fat rise with 34% population in the US have direct effects on national issues of , health, development, and some other great aspects

It's amazing that the US is forecast to be ranked "the fattest country in the OECD" with a full 75% of obese Americans in 10 years by 2020

There are many factors causing overweight in the US in particular and in some richest countries in general such as much less physically active activities, or much cheaper foods, lifestyle changes

Because of less time to prepare meals at home, people more and more eat out in restaurants, use fast foot harming their health and lifestyles

Countries ranking after the US of obesity are Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, UK, Canada, Ireland with 30%, 27%, 25%, 24% 23% respectively

According to the Economic Cooperation and Development, the BMI of 30 or greater. BMI is a calculation of body fat based on height and weight applying to adult men and women

ezineseeker.com

-->Read more...

Community-based programs to halt childhood obesity are gaining popularity as schools, local governments, parents and health clubs work together to help children slim down and eat more healthfully.

First lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign has helped push the issue to the forefront.

But some interventions may be working better than others, according to a study presented this week at the International Congress on Obesity in Stockholm. Researchers studied the success of three three-year community intervention programs, each targeting a different age group of more than 1,000 children — those younger than 5, primary school-age children and teens. Each group had a similar control population that received no intervention.

The interventions targeted healthful eating and physical activity, and included strategies to continue the community programs once after the study.

Children younger than 5 had the best results. This group included 12,000 children in preschools, day care facilities, homes and maternal and child health services. After three years, the prevalence of overweight or obese children was about 3 percent lower than in the control group.

Children in the primary school group didn't see any reductions in overweight or obesity levels, but weight gain rates did slow. After three years, the children gained about 2 pounds less on average than their intervention-less counterparts.

Interventions in the teen group, which were done in Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand, had varying results. Australian teens (who were mostly of European ancestry) lost weight, but those in other countries who were from the Pacific Islands or were of Indian heritage showed mixed outcomes.

"Once you get to high school-aged children, trying to implement an intervention at the whole community level becomes more difficult," Boyd Swinburn, the director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University in Australia, who presented the study, said in a statement.

chicagotribune.com

-->Read more...