KPHO – Steven Reinberg
“Although obesity rates continued to climb among U.S. adults over the past decade, they stabilized for children and teens, federal health officials reported Thursday…Adult obesity rates climbed from slightly over 32 percent in 2003-04 to almost 38 percent by 2013-14, said lead researcher Cynthia Ogden, an epidemiologist in the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Among youths aged 2 to 19, she said, 17.2 percent of children were obese in 2014, compared with 17.1 percent in 2003. “There is basically no difference [in the obesity rate in this group],” she said…Dr. David Katz, who is also president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, wasn’t overwhelmed youth obesity statistics. “Stable obesity rates over much of the past decade is the proverbial glass half-full or half-empty, depending on one’s perspective,” he said. The glass is half-full because stabilization is an improvement over obesity increases seen for decades, he said. “The glass is half-empty, because stable rates are not falling rates, and obesity prevalence remains alarmingly high,” Katz said.”(more)