The level of obesity in this country appears to have peaked, said Joe Derochowski, director of business development for NPD Foodworld at the 2006 Prepared Foods New Products Conference. (See “Forecasting Foods’ Future” in Prepared Foods, January 2007.) His statement is supported both by NPD Group research that found the percentage of overweight adults has held steady from 2002 to 2005 and by objective, in-person measurement data from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) “National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.” The latter study, which compares data from slightly earlier time periods of 1999-2000 and 2003-2004, shows the percent of overweight women holding steady at 62% with the subgroup of obese women at a constant 33%.
Now the bad news: Some 66% of U.S. adults and 17% of U.S. children are overweight or obese, according to the CDC data as reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2006, pp 1577-1578). Additionally, at least through 2003-2004, men and children had continued to gain weight. However, it is hoped that the leveling in weight gain shown in women may signal a turning point in the nation’s obesity epidemic. “Women have always been more responsible about health than the general population,” says William Dietz, director of the CDC’s Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity. “I’d like to think this shows women are leading the way in recognizing obesity as a health threat.”