Posted on 10/03/2005 3:21:09 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BALTIMORE - Just when we thought we couldn't get any fatter, a new study that followed Americans for three decades suggests that over the long haul, 9 out of 10 men and 7 out of 10 women will become overweight.
Even if you are one of the lucky few who made it to middle age without getting fat, don't congratulate yourself — keep watching that waistline.
Half of the men and women in the study who had made it well into adulthood without a weight problem ultimately became overweight. A third of those women and a quarter of the men became obese.
"You cannot become complacent, because you are at risk of becoming overweight," said Ramachandran Vasan, an associate professor of medicine at Boston University and the study's lead author.
He and other researchers studied data gathered from 4,000 white adults over 30 years. Participants were between the ages of 30 and 59 at the start, and were examined every four years. By the end of the study, more than 1 in 3 had become obese.
The findings, published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, show obesity may be a greater problem than indicated by studies that look at a cross-section of the population at one point in time. Those so-called "snapshots" of obesity have found about 6 in 10 are overweight and about 1 in 3 are obese, Vasan said.
The findings also re-emphasize that people must continually watch their weight, Vasan said.
The research subjects were the children of participants in the long-running and often-cited Framingham Heart Study, which has been following the health of generations of Massachusetts residents.
Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which supported the study, said the findings show "we could have an even more serious degree of overweight and obesity over the next few decades."
Susan Bartlett, an assistant professor of medicine and an obesity researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said the study was one of the first to look at the risk of becoming overweight.
"The results are pretty sobering, really," said Bartlett, who was not involved in the research.
While the health risks of being obese are much more severe than being overweight, those who are overweight are much more likely to go on to become obese, Bartlett said.
The study shows Americans live in an "environment in which it's hard not to become overweight or obese. Unless people actively work against that, that's what's most likely to happen to them."
Obesity raises the risk of heart disease, some cancers, diabetes and arthritis, and being overweight raises blood pressure and cholesterol, which in turn can raise the risk of heart disease.
The number of deaths linked to obesity has been heavily debated. Earlier this year the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said obesity caused only about 25,814 deaths annually in the United States — far fewer than the 365,000 deaths the agency had earlier reported. Other scientists have disagreed with the revised conclusion, while organizations representing the food and restaurant industry think weight-related ills have been overstated.
As for the Framingham study, Mark Vander Weg, a Mayo Clinic psychologist who researches obesity but was not involved in the study, said it is one of a few to track a group of individuals over an extended period.
"What's particularly concerning is that these results actually may underestimate the risk of becoming overweight or obese among the general population" because minorities, who are at increased risk for obesity, were not included in the study, Vander Weg said.
Recent trends also suggest that people currently coming into middle age may be even more likely to become overweight or obese than those who were studied, Vander Weg said.
While more studies that include more diverse populations are needed, he said, the results "add to a growing body of evidence that makes it increasingly apparent that more effective prevention and treatment strategies are urgently needed."
The people whom they are calling overweight ar the healthiest people on earth.
Isn't it also the poorest state in the nation?
How cheap are Carbs (sugars)? Cheaper than foods that are high in protein? Cheaper than foods with the "healthy" fats?
I suspect that the culprit is that the poorest people tend to eat the cheapest foods and tend to overeat in case the next meal isn't a sure thing.
There are also probably some other factors, like traditional foods in certain areas, that are "bad news" (Fried stuff down south. Anything from a street vendor in NY. Seven donut shops per block in MA. etc) These are usually not indicative of staple foods, however.
Being skinny is the best way to live a long time. You notice how when they interview the 100-year-old man or lady that it's never a chubby person who lives that long?
Guys stay thin to chase women. As you get older that gets less urgent.
So, you've got to eat like a rabbit to live forever. I think I'll eat the rabbit instead. Living to an over ripe old age is not a top priority.
May I come and eat dinner at your house?
Ditto your insightful comments at # 18.
Politically correct, but devoid of fact or reason.
Yeah, but don't tell the Liberals this: they'll start pushing bills to tax the crap out of our food just like our cigarettes. (here in Mass. a pack of Marbs. is probably about 5 and a half bucks) I subscribe to the John Wayne theory: he ate steak three meals a day every day, but I'll bet his steak was damn enjoyable. Maybe he died at 62 or so, but he had fun on the way.
That's why I'm going to lose all the weight I can before I get married. Once those kids come, I don't wanna find out if I'm going to be able to shake a leg ;-)
maybe I shouldn't comment on this one.......
Not all of them. Genetics has a lot to do with it in most cases. Eating healthy is a way to cheat genetics, but I have known 90 something people who are chubby. Some of them smoked for over seventy years too.
Is this considered fat for a 40 year old man?
Your comment does not support your position. Can you explain?
Very interesting. The same study also found that 10 out of 10 men and 10 out of 10 women will become dead.
No, WVA isn't the poorest state. It's close, but not like MS, MO, etc.
And the buffets we saw had a good selection of healthy food, as well as fatty stuff. The buffet costs the same whether you eat a ton of fatty stuff, or a reasonable amount of healthy food.
If people are going to go out for a buffet dinner, what is their reason for eating a huge amount of food? More for their money, even though it is bad for them in the end?
(I love buffets, because I am a grazer. I like having just a bit of a lot of things. But I know that most buffet goers are there for quantity. And they get fat.)
Perhaps you misunderstood my position. 90% of the people that the medical establishment wish to describe as 'overweight' are not overweight. The medical establishment has sought to describe everything as a treatable malady, and the pharmaceutical poison manufacturers are goading them along to enrich themselves.
Anyone here who has not yet read Kevin Trudeau's "Natural Cures," and Moynihan and Cassels "Selling Sickness" is ill-equipped to even dabble in this kind of discussion.
You're confused!
Few people live passed 80 who were not 'chubby' when they were 60. most of the skinnies die in their 60's and 70's (those who didn't have massive heart attacks in their 30's, 40's, and 50's)
I knew it! It's the foods fault!
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