Americans eating fewer vegetables and getting fatter

The New York Times: "Despite two decades of public health initiatives, stricter government dietary guidelines, record growth of farmers' markets and the ease of products like salad in a bag, Americans still aren't eating enough vegetables. This month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a comprehensive nationwide behavioral study of fruit and vegetable consumption. Only 26 percent of the nation's adults eat vegetables three or more times a day, it concluded. (And no, that does not include French fries.) These results fell far short of health objectives set by the federal government a decade ago" (Severson, 9/24).

The Associated Press: "Citizens of the world's richest countries are getting fatter and fatter and the United States is leading the charge, an organization of leading economies said Thursday in its first ever obesity forecast. Three out of four Americans will be overweight or obese by 2020, and disease rates and health care spending will balloon, unless governments, individuals and industry cooperate on a comprehensive strategy to combat the epidemic, the study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said. ... The projection seems in line with those made by some American researchers. About 86 percent of U.S. adults would be overweight or obese by 2030 if current trends continue, according to a study led by a Johns Hopkins University researcher and published in 2008 in the journal Obesity. However, the most recent findings by U.S. government scientists indicate the obesity epidemic may be leveling off, with roughly two-thirds of adults overweight and holding steady in the last few years" (Keller, 9/24).

The Wall Street Journal: Obesity "tends to be concentrated among the poorer and less-educated parts of the population. These people, according to a new OECD report, are more vulnerable to a convergence of factors — including changes in processing technology, government subsidies and marketing — that have made fats and sugars cheaper and more easily accessible than healthier foods, particularly in the places where the poor tend to live." The Journal also points out, "Obesity has been a boon for parts of the health-care industry. Consider kidney disease, which according to a 2006 study is three times more likely among the obese. From 1991 to 2009, the share of U.S. workers employed at kidney dialysis centers has more than doubled, tracing a path similar to that of the obesity rate" (Whitehouse, 9/25).

---

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.