The U.S. obesity rate is rising and a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that more than one-third of all adults and 17 percent of youth are considered obese.
The
CDC report released on Thursday noted that the obesity rate was higher for women than men and that African-Americans and Hispanics led racial groups.
"The prevalence of obesity among U.S. adults remains higher than the Healthy People 2020 goal of 30.5 percent," said the report. "Although the overall prevalence of childhood obesity is higher than the Healthy People 2020 goal of 14.5 percent, the prevalence of obesity among children aged 2–5 years is below the goal of 9.4 percent."
The report showed that the trends in obesity prevalence among adults and youth continued from 2011-12 through 2013-14. In adults the obesity prevalence increased from 34.9 to 37.7 percent, while only slightly in youth from 16.9 to 17.2 percent.
One challenge continues to be the way people eat, Lisa Cimperman, a registered dietitian at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, told
ABC News. While many have responded to stop eating certain foods, they failed to add healthy food to their diets, she added.
"The best example we have is we got this message out that we need to reduce fat consumption, they reduced their fat intake and replaced it with refined carbohydrates," said Cimperman. "The intake of refined carbohydrates was just as bad as a high fat diet."
Benjamin Gray, a registered dietitian with the University of Georgia, told Atlanta's public radio station
WABE-FM that thinking about meals in advance is a good weapon to use against obesity.
"Generally when we have a plan for what we're doing throughout the day or throughout the week, we end up making better decisions than if we are hungry at four in the afternoon and don't have an idea of what we are going to eat throughout the rest of the day," said Gray.
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