Obesity rates in the United States have reached highs beyond belief. It seems like Americans go from one extreme to another. Either we are way too big or excessively skinny! Statistics show that while about 58 million people in the world are just overweight alone, another 40 million are obese. According to the 1999–2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) more than half of the US adults are either overweight or obese. This gives evidence to a 14% increase in five years. Louisiana alone provides 6.4% of the county’s population in obesity. In 2003, Louisiana spent $1,373 in medical expenses related to obesity. It is estimated that 8 million Americans have an eating disorder, seven million of them being women. One in every two hundred American women suffer from anorexia, two to three in every one hundred women suffer from bulimia. Of all the known mental illnesses, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders about five to ten percent of the people suffering from anorexia die within ten years. The morality rates dealing with anorexia is twelve times higher than any other cause of death for women between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. 95% of adolescents with eating disorders are between the ages of twelve and twenty-five.

SOURCES:
 www.naaso.org/statistics/obesity
 South Carolina Department of Mental Health www.state.sc.us/dmh/anorexia/statistics.htm
References:
1. US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, Division of Data Services, Hyattsville, MD
2. Calle, EE, et al. (1999) Body mass index and mortality in a prospective cohort of US adults, N. Eng. J Med, 341, 1097-1105
3. Dyer, AR, et al, (1990) Body mass index versus height and weight in relation to blood pressure. Finding for the 10,079 persons in the INTERSALT Study, Am J Epidemiol. 131, 589-596
4. Aronne, LJ, Segal, KR (2002) Adiposity and fat distribution outcome measures: assessment and clinical implications, Obes Res 10: 14S-21S
5. MacMahon, SW, et al. (1984) Obesity, alcohol consumption and blood pressure in Australian men and women. The National Foundation of Australia Risk Factor Prevalence Study, J. Hyperten 2, 85-91
6. Garrison, RJ, et al (1987) Incidence and precursors of hypertension in young adults: The Framingham Offspring Study, Prev Med 16, 235-25
7. Huang, Z et al (1998) Body weight, weight change, and risk for hypertension in women, Ann Intern Med 128, 81-88
8. Brown, CD et al, (2000) Body mass index and the prevalence of hypertension and dyslipidemia, Obes Res. 8, 605-619
9. Harris, MI, et al (1998) Prevalence of diabetes, impaired fasting glucose, and impaired glucose tolerance in US adults. The Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 19988-1994 Diabetes Care, 21, 518-524
10. National Task Force on the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity (2000), Overweight, obesity, and health risk, Arch Intern Med 160, 898-904
11. Colditz, GA et al, (1990) Weight as a risk factor for clinical diabetes in women AM J Epedemiol. 132, 501-513
12. Colditz, GA, et al, (1995) Weight gain as a risk factor for clinical diabetes mellitus in women Ann Intern Med, 122, 481-486
13. Chan JM, et al, (1994) Obesity, fat distribution and weight gain as risk factors for clinical diabetes in men, Diabetes Care 17, 961-969

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