If you take your own weight as an analogy for what's happening to the country, we might be able to understand some of the dynamics at play here. If you're newly married or just got a nice job, you will likely have more access to food, eat out a bit more, and have less time to exercise like you did before you had a partner or were expected to show up somewhere on time. The adjustment to this new lifestyle can take some time. In the meanwhile, you put on a few pounds until your new level of activity balances with the new pattern of eating you've established. This might be where we are as a country. Our new lifestyles, filled with computer screens, mobile phones, 3D televisions, and food anytime and anywhere, have caused us to put on some weight while we're reaching that new balance. Perhaps, that leveling off time has occurred.
However, the natural course of weight gain suggests that we shouldn't become content. We know that kids who are overweight grow up with a higher chance of being overweight as adults. We also know that we continue to gain weight with age; this is already evident in the fact that median body mass index is shifting higher already. And, we know that the environment will continue to produce more devices that promote sitting and highly palatable foods.
Two things buried in this story that most concern me: a lot of the health consequences are yet to be realized and not everyone has leveled off at the same spot. The pending diabetes epidemic that is soon to follow because of obesity will blow the lid off of health care costs in this country, and unfortunately, a lot of that burden will be in low-income and/or minority communities where obesity rates are as high as 56%, nearly 20% higher than the general population.
We've still got work to do.
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