CDC Reports Obesity Rates In U.S. Level Off

Bloomberg: U.S. Obesity Rates Plateau Since ’00: CDC
The prevalence of obesity in the U.S. largely leveled off over the last decade, even as some individual groups, such as boys from ages 6 to 19, saw increases, according to government data. Obesity rates in adults rose slightly to 35.7 percent from 30.5 percent between 1999 and 2010, compared with rates that nearly doubled in the two previous decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported today. The rate among boys climbed 29 percent, surpassing girls for the first time, according to the Atlanta-based health agency (Flinn, Langreth and Cortez, 1/17).

The Associated Press: US Obesity Epidemic Shows No Hint Of Shrinking
America's obesity epidemic is proving to be as stubborn as those maddening love handles, and shows no sign of reversing course. More than one-third of adults and almost 17 percent of children were obese in 2009-2010, echoing results since 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. "It's good that we didn't see increases. On the other hand, we didn't see any decreases in any group," said CDC researcher Cynthia Ogden (Tanner, 1/17).

NPR's SHOTS blog: Obesity Epidemic May Have Peaked In U.S.
The latest data come from 2009-2010 installment of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. ... The proportion of adult Americans who are obese held steady at about 35 percent, marking the second time that had happened between installments of the survey. ... experts speculate that at least part of it is all the attention the problem has been getting (Stein, 1/18).

CNN: U.S. Obesity Rates Unchanged
The prevalence of obesity in the United States seems to have plateaued, according to data released Tuesday.  The numbers show 35.7% of U.S. adults and almost 17% of U.S. children and teens are obese. "There's been no change in the prevalence of obesity in recent years in children or adults," says Cynthia L Ogden, Ph.D, an epidemiologist with the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics and the leading author of the report.  "But I think looking over the last decade, it's interesting to see how the prevalence of obesity in men has caught up with the prevalence of obesity in women (Hagen, 1/17).

Medscape: 1 in 3 US Adults, 1 in 6 US Children Obese
"[Obesity prevalence] increased significantly over the 12-year period from 1999 through 2010 for men and for non-Hispanic black and Mexican American women, but did not change between 2003-2009 and 2010 for men or women," write Katherine M. Flegal, PhD, distinguished consultant from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues (Newman, 1/17).