Category: Obesity Research

One in three adults could have diabetes by 2050

New research by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) projects that one third of our population could have diabetes by the year 2050. The encouraging part of this story is that nearly all of the spread of diabetes will be of the Type 2 variety, which is largely preventable.  Want to take action now?  Start today [...]
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The cost of obesity is double previous estimates

A recent research study conducted by researchers at Cornell and Lehigh universities and  has analyzed the economic impact of obesity.  The findings show obesity's annual cost of approximately $168B in the United States. Previous studies found that obese individuals incurred $1,400 in additional medical costs each year.  The new studies put that number at over $2,800. [...]
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USDA releases preview of Food Pyramid changes for 2011

USDA Food Pyramid The USDA has released preliminary information about the next round of changes coming to the Food Pyramid.  First published in 1980, the Dietary Guidelines are mandated by Congress to be reviewed, updated and released by USDA and HHS every five years. Based on the material being released, it is clear that obesity is [...]
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Interesting visualization of obesity prevalence in the U.S.

Jeffrey Heer, a professor at Stanford, has a some neat data visualizations on his web site.  They are part of a nice story he co-wrote in the June issue of the Communications of the ACM about different ways to visualize data.  On his site, you can manipulate this graph below and see the rise in obesity [...]
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Obesity isn’t just a U.S. challenge: European Obesity Day 2010

It often seems that obesity is an entirely American phenomenon.  May 22, 2010 is European Obesity Day.  While the U.S. tips the scales at 67% of the population being overweight or obese, European citizens measure in at around 50%.  Watching the international obesity trends, you can see how the spread of sedentary lifestyles (more and more of us are [...]
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New research quantifies the impact of obesity on cancer

Researchers with the American Institute for Cancer Research have found that more than 100,000 cases of cancer each year are caused by excess body fat.  It's bad enough that obesity increases an individual's chance of getting cancer, but the damage caused by obesity continues once the cancer has begun to affect the body.  Obese cancer patients [...]
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