Obesity rates are rising in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a recent report.
According to the CDC, more than a third of the American adult population and 17 percent of youth (19 years old and below) were found to be obese according to data from 2011 to 2014. The information was based on the data collected from 5,000 individuals who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Interestingly, there are now more obese adult women than men. About a decade ago, there was no significant difference between the number of obese men and women. However, the recent survey showed that the obesity rate during that time frame was 38.3 percent for women and 34.3 percent for men.
Blacks and Hispanics also tended to be more obese in recent years, with 48.1 and 42.5 percent obesity prevalence, respectively. Additionally, there is a significant gender gap in obesity prevalence among blacks and Hispanics: 57 percent black women are obese compared to 38 percent black men, and 46 percent Hispanic women are obese compared to 39 percent Hispanic men.
But there is some good news in the report. Obese children ages two to five decreased in obesity prevalence from 14 percent in 2000 to just eight percent from 2011 to 2012.
Experts have varying opinions regarding the new report from CDC. Barry Popkin from the University of North Carolina said the study's reliability was questionable because the study was quite small; the sample size was only 5,000 participants, the Christian Science Monitor reported.
Lisa Cimperman, a dietitian from University Hospitals Case Medical Center, emphasized how important it is for medical providers to communicate with ther patients about having a healthy overall lifestyle. She noted how some people only remove certain kinds of food from their diet, but do not increase the amount of healthy food they eat.
"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," Cimperman told ABC News. "The intake of refined carbohydrates was just as bad as a high fat diet."
