Annual Obesity Report Released, Two-Thirds of Adults and Nearly One-Third of Children and Adolescents Overweight or Obese

Trust for America’s Health, with a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has released its annual obesity report. Titled F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing America, the sixth annual edition finds, among other matters, that adult obesity rates continued to rise in nearly half the states and that the states with the highest rates of adult, child and adolescent obesity are in the South. The report, which charts obesity-related diseases, physical activity and income level by state, also tracks trends in state legislation addressing nutritional standards for school meals and vending machines as well as laws requiring BMI screenings for school age children, health education, and farm-to-school programs.

The report acknowledges “the current economic crisis,” suggesting that it will increase the cost of nutritious food; overextend safety-net programs and services and increase levels of depression, anxiety and stress, “which often can be linked to obesity.” To combat the problem, the report recommends making obesity prevention and control a high priority of health care reform and launching a national strategy to combat obesity.

Among the specific recommendations are to (i) designate an official in every Cabinet-level agency to focus on obesity-related policies, (ii) update and increase Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program obesity-related coverage, (iii) eliminate junk food advertising to children, (iv) adopt a federal law to require retail food outlets to provide menu labeling, (v) impose state and local menu
labeling requirements, and (vi) use local zoning laws to balance the ratio of fast-food restaurants to grocers and farmers’ markets.