Obesity is a 'big' (pardon the pun) problem in the Pacific Islands. In fact, a recent World Bank study found that over half the adult population in 16 of the 17 Pacific Island countries and territories were obese while over 75% of the population was obese in 11 of those counties.
Two recent reports from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show that efforts to encourage Americans to lose weight aren't working.
In one study of more than 5,400 adults, the results show that 33% of US adults are overweight, and 38% of US adults are obese. Breaking the data down a bit further, the report writes that "the age-adjusted prevalence of obesity in 2013-2014 was 35% among men, and 40.4% among women." Additionally, more than 5% of men and nearly 10% of women came in morbidly obese.
Americans have never been fatter, but beneath the surface of the 'union', some states and ethnicities are more obese than others...
At 18.5%, Hawaii has the lowest adult obesity rate in the U.S., closely followed by Colorado at 19.8%. As Gallup reports, they are the only two states in which the obesity rate is below 20%. West Virginia has the highest adult obesity rate, at 37.0%. In addition to West Virginia, at least one in three adults are obese in Mississippi, Delaware, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Scientists have announced that they have found the trigger and potentially the “cure” for obesity. According to a study published in the Science journal – obesity can be easily controlled by clicking a switch in the brain. An enzyme found in the brains of mice and humans, O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) appears to control our ability to determine whether or not we feel full. Researchers removed this enzyme from one group of mice in a study – and found that the mice ended up eating twice their normal amount of food, becoming much fatter in the process.
Submitted by Mark Tovey via The Mises Institute,