This page is divided into three sections. Click on the buttons below to jump to a section, or just scroll down: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost 65% of American adults are overweight or obese up from 47% in 1980. Approximately 1.7 billion people worldwide should lose weight, according to the International Obesity Task Force. Approximately $117 billion a year is spent on obesity-related diseases for about 129 million adults in the U.S. who are overweight or obese, according to a report issued by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. By the year 2010, it is estimated that 40% of all Americans or 68 million people will be classified as obese, meaning that they weigh 30 pounds or more over their healthy weight. Currently, that figure is 31%. Expenses from obese Americans totaled $75 billion in 2003. Half of this or about $39 billion was paid for by taxpayers through Medicare and Medicaid, according to a study published in Obesity Research. This adds up to about $175 per taxpayer. Approximately 400,000 deaths or about 16.6% of total deaths in 2000 were related to excess weight and/or lack of physical activity, according to the CDC. Obesity is expected overtake tobacco as the number one cause of preventable deaths by the year 2005, according to Ali Mokdad, CDC epidemiologist. The Federal Government spends approximately $9 million on obesity prevention and healthy eating education while a new ad campaign for Milky Way bars has a budget of $25 million, according to Ellen Ruppel Shell, author of The Hungry Gene. According to the World Health Organization, diseases related to obesity cause more than half of all deaths worldwide outpacing those caused by malnutrition. As Grace Kreulen, assistant professor at Michigan State University’s College of Nursing points out, “20 to 40 percent of overweight cases are genetic, and 60 to 80 percent are due to lifestyle.” Fifteen percent of children 6 to 19 years old or nearly 9 million youths are seriously overweight, according to a measurement-based survey published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. This number has tripled since 1980. According to a July 2002 article in the magazine Natural Health, “In 1999, only 29 percent of students nationwide attended a daily physical education class, down from 42 percent just eight years earlier” Vending machines are in 98% of all high schools, 74% of all middle schools, and 43% of all elementary schools. Students can freely access them. Approximately $750 million is spent annually to sell snacks and processed foods in schools. “Children ages 2 to 18 spend an average of 5 1/2 hours a day watching television or videotapes, playing video games, using the computer, listening to music or using print media,” according to an April 29, 2002 article in the Detroit Free Press by Wendy Wendland-Bowyer and Lori Higgins. Approximately that 22 million children in the world under the age of 5 are overweight or obese, according to obesity expert Mary Bellizzi with the International Obesity Task Force. According to July 22, 2001 Los Angeles Times article by Greg Critser, “…Ours is a world where at least a billion dollars a year is spent by just one fast-food chain to convince families to visit a crazy-looking clown with his own playground and purchase a thousand supersize calories for a mere $2.50” Women eat 335 more calories now than in the early 1970s while men eat about 168 more a day, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. According to the Surgeon General, only 1 in 5 U.S. adults get the recommended 30 minutes per most days of exercise, one in four adults admits to being completely sedentary during their free time, and 40 percent rarely exercise. Americans spend $30 billion annually on weight loss programs. Overall sales of diet books jumped to 9% in 2003, up over 4% the previous year, according to the USA TODAY Best-Selling Books list. Over 98 percent of all Americans who begin diets re-gain the weight back plus more within 5 years. Approximately 8 million Americans join diet programs every year. Over 125 million tons of sugar are consumed worldwide, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Return to Top