The average young adult in the USA is now overweight. An alarming evaluation.
The steep upward trend in obesity among children and adults has been known for a long time. But a recent analysis of the NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) published in the Journal of the American Medical Association highlights a dimension of the problem that startled the scientists themselves. In the 18-25 age group, the average BMI is now in the overweight range: It rose from 23.1 in 1976 to 27.7 in 2018. What this means becomes even clearer when one considers the explosion in obesity prevalences in the same collective. One in three young people in this age group is now obese. In this respect, there was an increase in the rate from 6.2% to 32.7%.1,2
The onset of adulthood could be a critical period for the prevention and treatment of obesity, as habits formed during this time often persist throughout life....
...emphasise the study authors from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.3 The 'NHANES' is a large, representative long-term study in the USA, from which we have already reported several times. Another quite recent evaluation (page only available in German) came to the conclusion that children and adolescents between 2 and 19 years of age now cover a good two-thirds of their daily energy intake with convenience foods.
The overweight rate among young adults seems to be higher than among children, but no direct comparisons can currently be made in detail because the same analysis has not yet been carried out for children.
Almost more shocking than the increase in obesity is the decline in normal weight (from 68.7% to 37.5%) and the fact that the discussions about this health crisis are the same over and over again. Shouldn't these developments cause us to fundamentally question our dietary guidelines and food industry?
1980 is the year in which the food pyramid was introduced. Since then, "dietary guidelines" have been published every five years. These blanket recommendations seem to be metabolically misguided for the majority of people. The obesity epidemic in the USA really took off with or shortly after the introduction of the dietary guidelines. Starting in 1980, we see this explosive rise in incidences, which has only gotten worse since then.4
While the list of other contributing factors is long, first and foremost, it cannot be that large parts of the food industry continue to advance in this direction as if there were no tomorrow. Consider, for example, such a political step backwards as the abolition of the law that limited the addition of corn syrup to at least 5% until 2017. This has an even more fatal effect on the metabolism than table sugar, but is cheaper because smaller quantities are already perceived as sweet. Without a cap, this cheap trick to replace a lack of taste is now leading to a veritable glut of sugar in savoury foods, from pickles to sauces to bread. Many people become so addicted to it that they can hardly get rid of cravings despite their energy needs being met, and especially from overconsumption of unhealthy foods. NHANES data also showed that even before the abolition of the quota system, the average 13-year-old ate his or her own body weight in sugar within two years, and more in socially disadvantaged families. An average three-year-old took only 1 year to do so.5,6
According to the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD), global deaths and DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) attributable to high BMI more than doubled between 1990 and 2017.7 In 2017, the six leading causes of BMI-related DALYs were ischaemic heart disease, stroke, diabetes mellitus, chronic renal insufficiency, hypertensive heart disease and lumbago.
References
1. Ellison-Barnes, A., Johnson, S. & Gudzune, K. Trends in Obesity Prevalence Among Adults Aged 18 Through 25 Years, 1976-2018. JAMA 326, 2073–2074 (2021).
2. Kelsey Bennett. Trends in Obesity Prevalence Among Adults Aged 18 Through 25 Years, 1976-2018 | Medicine Matters. https://medicine-matters.blogs.hopkinsmedicine.org/2021/11/trends-in-obesity-prevalence-among-adults-aged-18-through-25-years-1976-2018/ (2021).
3. U.S. obesity rates soar in early adulthood. https://www.mdedge.com/endocrinology/article/249157/obesity/us-obesity-rates-soar-early-adulthood.
4. Was können wir tun, um die MS-Inzidenz zu senken? https://www.esanum.de/blogs/neurologie-blog/feeds/today/posts/was-koennen-wir-tun-um-die-ms-inzidenz-zu-senken.
5. Daily added sugar intake by age groups. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/40ED/production/_88812661_2010623_daily_added_sugar_v4.gif.
6. Diabetes Typ 2: Ist es nie zu spät, umzukehren? https://www.esanum.de/blogs/diabetes-blog/feeds/today/posts/diabetes-typ-2-ist-es-nie-zu-spaet-umzukehren.
7. Dai, H. et al. The global burden of disease attributable to high body mass index in 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: An analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study. PLoS Med 17, e1003198 (2020).