Obesity remains a threat to more than 70 million Americans and to more than one in four Onondaga County residents.
“It’s still a problem,” says Tom Dennison, a professor and director of the health services management and policy program at Syracuse University.
Dennison is among the health care professionals who consider obesity an epidemic and a major health concern. Nationally, obesity is the leading lifestyle-related cause of death and disease after smoking, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Illnesses linked to obesity like heart disease cost the United States an estimated $117 billion and New York State more than $6 billion, according to the New York State Department of Health.
For adults, obesity is defined by the CDC as having 30 pounds or more of excess body fat and a “body mass index” of 30 or higher based upon the person’s height and weight. Obesity can lead to the development of other health risks such as type II diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and cancer.
“It’s a top concern,” says Karen Ansel, a registered dietitian and spokesperson representative for the New York State Dietetic Association. “This affects all people of all ages, all socioeconomic classes. So it’s not just affecting one area of society.”
Obesity afflicts so many, say health officials, because of a too little spending on treatment and education and social trends that include too little exercise and too-large servings of food in restaurants and homes.
Consider these statistics on obesity from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
- Nationally, more than 26 percent of adults are obese.
- In New York, more than 24 percent of adults are obese.
- In Onondaga County, the number is 27 percent.
- Adults age 55-64 are among the most vulnerable.
- Blacks have the highest number of obese adults with over 50 percent.
Obesity is on the rise because of several factors, says Ansel, the dietitian and New York State Dietetic Association representative. The average American is influenced by marketing on television, the computer, as well as societal trends like increasing plate sizes and eating out more, she said.
“If you look back to the fifties and sixties,” said Ansel, “people ate at home most of the time and had much control over the amount they were eating and what they were eating. Now the average American eats out many, many times a week.”
Young people are of high concern, Ansel says. Obesity is setting records among the young, she said. “This means that they are expected to for the first time in generations to have a shorter life span than their parents,” said Ansel.
She calls for more nutritional education for younger people so they grow up knowing how to eat properly. “You have a generation of people where eating out has become so common,” said Ansel. “Many of these people won’t even know as adults how to cook for themselves, how to prepare a simple meal.”
And the diet of many New Yorkers is not particularly healthy, she and others say. In New York, a little more than 25 percent of the population eats the recommended daily number of fruits and vegetables required for a healthy diet, according to state health statistics.And many get too little exercise. One quarter of New Yorkers do not exercise in their leisure time, according to state health statistics.
A special focus on obesity is on children, say health officials. Obese children are more likely to develop high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type II diabetes, according to the CDC. Children battling obesity are more likely to become obese adults as well.
New York state funds several county programs like Eat Well, Play Hard and Just Say Yes to Fruits and Vegetables Nutrition Education Program. Both programs focus on healthy eating as a step towards controlling obesity.
“We discourage whole milk — go with low or non-fat milk,” says Tom Malacca, public affairs representative for the New York State Department of Health. “We discourage fast-food in general, and snacking.”
(Shardé Edwards is a graduate student majoring in broadcast digital journalism.)
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