Before the ‘rona’ lockdowns half of Americans were expected to be obese by 2030. “Nearly one out of every two U.S. adults will be obese by 2030, and nearly one in four will be severely obese,” according to new estimates published in 2019 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Keep in mind this is before the lockdowns and ‘stay at home’ orders issued in 2020.
Now with so many people stuck at home with high stress levels and increased compulsive eating patterns it appears the predicted 50% obesity rate will hit America long before 2030, perhaps by 2021.
How The Covid-19 Has Affected The Obesity Crisis In America
A report from Nature Reviews Endocrinology explains: “A key measure used worldwide to combat the COVID-19 pandemic has been the rapid and strict enforcement of physical distancing. To facilitate this measure, governments have imposed pervasive societal interventions, such as lockdowns, in the public and private sectors. While the intended consequence was to isolate millions of individuals, thereby containing viral transmission, an unintended consequence has been an economic crisis as companies are pushed into bankruptcy and unemployment rates increase rapdily. Here, we discuss the possibility that the combination of imposed isolation and subsequent socioeconomic hardship and deterioration of psychosocial health might result in long-lasting effects on metabolic health. In societies with obesogenic environments, this effect might worsen rates of obesity and obesity-linked metabolic comorbidities”
America’s Road To Obesity
A study from 2012 claims 42% of Americans Obese by 2030. ABC News reports, “About 32 million more Americans will become obese by 2030, upping obesity rates to 42 percent of the U.S. population, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report also predicts that the proportion of Americans who are severely obese, meaning more than 100 pounds overweight, will reach 11 percent, about double the current rate. The report’s authors give a sobering price tag for these predictions: such an increase would create $550 billion of obesity-related health care costs.”
That 42% obesity rate came sooner than the report above predicted. The CDC reports that “the prevalence of obesity was 42.4% in 2017~2018“. The CDC goes on to say, “From 1999–2000 through 2017–2018, the prevalence of obesity increased from 30.5% to 42.4%, and the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%.”
So almost half of Americans were obese before the Coronavirus lockdowns even began. Do you think theses numbers have improved with most people in America being stuck in house for months at a time?
There are tons of reports out that suggest childhood obesity has increased or will increase dramatically because of the lockdowns. One study found on Wiley Online Library claims, “The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic is causing substantial morbidity and mortality, straining health care systems, shutting down economies, and closing school districts. While it is a priority to mitigate its immediate impact, we want to call attention to the pandemic’s longer‐term effect on children’s health; COVID‐19, via these school closures, may exacerbate the epidemic of childhood obesity and increase disparities in obesity risk. In many areas of the United States, the COVID‐19 pandemic has closed schools, and some of these school systems are not expected to reopen this school year.”
It may sound harsh, but obese kids will more than likely turn into obese adults. It’s not because they have ‘fat’ genetics, it’s because they have particular eating patterns engraved into their nervous system by the time they’ve reached adult which become incredibly difficult to change as time goes on.
Conclusion
America currently has the ‘fattest’ population on planet earth. Men’s Journal reported, “The United States is home to 13% of the world’s fat population, the largest percentage of any other country in the world, according a new study published in the Lancet. Researchers found more than 2 billion people worldwide are heavy. The U.S. leads the pack, while China and India combined for 15% of the world’s overweight population, according to the report.”
The predicted 50% obesity rate is creeping up American adults and children faster than expected due to lockdowns and increased stress levels in conjunction with incredible access to unhealthy foods. Trends are showing at least half of Americans will be obese within the next few years, perhaps by 2021.
