Description
Presenter: Richard B. Elder and Alison Esser (presenter) International Food Information Council Foundation (IFIC)
Rates of overweight and obesity in the United States have grown to epidemic proportions over the last 20 years. In 1988, the Surgeon General estimated that one-fourth of American adults were overweight. The latest government data indicate that approximately 64 percent of adults are either overweight or obese. Data from the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Data show the dramatic rise in the prevalence of obesity in U.S. adults over the last 11 years (Figure 1). As of 2002, there were three states with obesity rates greater than 25 percent. According to Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC, “obesity is quickly catching up to tobacco as the leading actual cause of death.”
