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A study by the RAND corporation revealed that the number of severely obese Americans has grown by nearly 50% from the same period last year. In short, America is becoming severly obese and lives are at stake. Doctors once thought that severe obesity was a rare occurence, but studies are showing that this life-threatening trend is on the rise at an alarming rate.  The U.S. obesity rate is growing fast — but the rate of extreme, morbid obesity is growing three times faster, a RAND study shows. Doctors, Sturm says, tend to think of morbid obesity as a relatively rare problem that affects a consistently small percentage of the population. But the new findings suggest this isn't so.
"Car-friendly (and bike/pedestrian-hostile) urban developments, desk jobs, television viewing, and relatively cheap, calorie-dense foods" are major factors in the U.S. obesity epidemic, Sturm says. "Environmental interventions to counter the obesity epidemic, similar to tobacco and alcohol policy, would be needed."
(cbsnews)References: dimensionsmagazine, cbsnews Filed In: |
