America's Waist Size is Still Going Up

-
Americans' belt size continues to inch up, and women's waistlines are widening faster than men's, according to new government research.
The average waist size ballooned more than an inch -- from 37.6 inches to 38.8 inches -- between 1999 and 2012, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers found.
Based on their waist circumference, 54 percent of Americans were abdominally obese in 2012, up from 46 percent 13 years earlier.
"Waists are still expanding in the U.S., and particularly so among women," said study researcher Dr. Earl Ford, a medical officer at the CDC.
While men's waists increased less than an inch -- about 0.8 of an inch on average -- women's midriffs grew about twice that, or 1.5 inches, Ford said.
Waistlines larger than 35 inches for women and more than 40 inches for men are considered abdominal obesity, a risk factor for heart disease and diabetes.
Waist circumference is a simple tool that reflects the amount of total body fat and intra-abdominal body fat. Like body mass index (BMI), which is a calculation based on height to weight, it is used to predict heart disease risk.
For the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Ford and his colleagues used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) on nearly 33,000 men and women ages 20 and older.
The finding that waist sizes are still increasing was surprising, Ford said, since the prevalence of obesity seems to have reached a plateau recently. Even so, more than one-third of U.S. adults are obese, according to the CDC.
No single reason for the bulking up stood out. But the researchers speculated that sleep disruption, certain medications and everyday chemicals known to be endocrine disruptors may possibly play a role.
Why women's waist sizes are enlarging more than men's isn't clear, Ford said.
As baby boomers age, the natural decrease in muscle mass and slowing metabolism leads to more body fat. In addition, given the size of the baby boomer generation, these aging changes will impact statistics. Inadequate activity is probably a factor, too, as it leads to body fat gain.
Getting at least five or six hours of sleep nightly may help regulate hunger and help prevent more weight gain. Also, current guidelines call for at least 150 minutes of physical activity a week, "a figure few Americans achieve.
Children and teens in the United States may be faring better, according to another study published in July 2014. For that report, University of Minnesota researchers used the same NHANES data and found the proportion of children ages 2 to 18 classified as obese based on waist size held steady at nearly 18 percent from 2003 through 2012.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's the Mediterranean Diet?

-
Image
The Mediterranean diet is based on the traditional foods eaten by people living in the Mediterranean region, especially Greece. It's loaded with healthy foods and research findings suggest following this diet may help reduce some of the risk factors for heart disease.  According to the Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust, the Mediterranean diet was introduced in 1993 by Oldways, Harvard School of Public Health and the World Health Organization.  The diet includes: Olives and olive oil Whole grains, mostly in bread and cereal rather than pasta Very little red meat Fish and seafood Some cheese, but less milk Lots of vegetables and fruit Plenty of legumes and nuts A little red wine The Mediterranean diet is high in fiber and antioxidants from vegetables, legumes and nuts, far greater than the typical Western diet, and low in saturated fat. Very little red meat is eaten in this region, and milk consumption is limited as well, except for some cheese and yogurt
Read more

Changing Your Life To Lose Weight

-
Image
I can let you in on the ultimate secret for successfully making a change in your life. A century’s worth of psychological research reveals an interesting paradox in who we are. On the one hand, once we reach adulthood our basic personalities remain unchanged for the rest of our lives. We keep doing the same things—and feeling the same ways—over and over. But, on the other hand, every day we change our behavior drastically in response to different environments. Most of us are one person at work, for example, and another person at home. It is easier to change our environment than to change ourselves. So, if you want to change yourself, change your environment. Said differently: Whenever possible, don’t try to fight temptations – avoid them! The easiest way to make a change in your life is to modify the world around you in ways that will naturally drive you toward making, and maintaining, the change you want. There are many ways to change your environment, but let’s focus
Read more

Cancer and High Protein Diets

-
On the Fox TV Network the other night, one of the big stories was about high protein diets. A new study has shown a link between the over consumption of animal protein and how it can stimulate the growth of cancer cells. It seems we all have cancer cells but they don’t normally grow, unless we consume too much animal fat, dairy or fats from processed foods. Before I continue I want to explain about the link to cancer. After all, Man has been eating red meat for millions of years, right. That's true but todays red meat is not the same. Most red meat that we buy in the supermarket comes from Steers that have been raised in feed lots on a grain diet that is full of hormones and other chemicals that shorten the growing time and put more fat on the animal. These hormones and other chemicals stay in the meat and what you're buying will contain the chemicals that the animal ate. Normally a grass feed Steer that lives on the range in big herds will take 18 to 20 months to grow to
Read more