Health Information and Statistics

According to the World Health Organization, the global epidemic of overweight and obesity - "globesity" - is rapidly becoming a major public health problem in many parts of the world. Paradoxically coexisting with undernutrition in developing countries, the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity is associated with many diet-related chronic diseases including diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, stroke, hypertension and certain cancers.

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For up to one-third of the world's population, vitamin and mineral deficiencies are keeping children from reaching their full physical and intellectual potential, according to two reports by UNICEF, reports USA Today.

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Obese adolescents have the same risk of premature death in adulthood as people who smoke more than 10 cigarettes a day, while those who are overweight have the same risk as less heavy smokers, according to research published on the British Medical Journal website.

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Being moderately overweight or obese appears to increase the risk for developing coronary heart disease events independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors, according to a meta-analysis of previously published studies in the September 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

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A study presented at the North American Association for the Study of Obesity showed that people who followed a meal-replacement plan for 10 years weighed, on average, about 33 pounds less than people who didn't use a meal-replacement plan.

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One of the more serious aspects of the obesity epidemic is the dramatic increase in the incidence of overweight among children and adolescents. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), it appears that overweight prevalence among our nation's children and adolescents doubled between 1980 and 1994. At the beginning of the 1990s, approximately 14% of children in the U.S. were overweight, increasing to about 20% of adolescents. Preliminary findings from the most recent NHANES suggest that childhood overweight continues to increase.