Monday, April 13, 2009

New York gets larger; follows national trend

(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

To put it bluntly, people are getting fat.

In New York, 56% of adults are considered either overweight or obese, with that number rising to 60% in Syracuse.

“Whenever you have a community at large that’s overweight, the community at large has got a tendency to have too many calories in and not enough calories burned," says Rachael Murphy, registered dietician with the Onondaga County Health Department.

Murphy says even worse is that fact that overweight and obesity is largely preventable.

But New Yorkers aren't alone. Studies from the CDC show a troubling trend across the United States. From 1985-2007, obesity rates have skyrocketed across the country. In 2007, only Colorado had an obesity rate below 20%, while 30 states had an obesity rate between 20 and 25%t. Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee all had obesity rates over 30%.

The news is especially troubling to Annette Marchbanks, SCSD Assistant Director of Food Services. She's well aware that one in four children are overweight or obese in New York State and says you have to get to them early.

“If you get them in kindergarten, first, second, third grade...anything you say to them they truly listen and they take it to heart. Once you get into high school, they are not nearly as receptive as our younger children are,” she says.

And you may want to take it to heart.

Of the children who are currently overweight in New York, statistics say 70% of them will become overweight or obese adults. That number rises to 80% if at least one parent is overweight or obese as well.

"Once you are obese as a child it is much, much, much harder to lose that weight as an adult," Marchbanks says.



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