Summary

A new Lancet study reveals nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, a sharp rise from just over half in 1990.

Obesity among adults doubled to over 40%, while rates among girls and women aged 15–24 nearly tripled to 29%.

The study highlights significant health risks, including diabetes, heart disease, and shortened life expectancy, alongside projected medical costs of up to $9.1 trillion over the next decade.

Experts stress obesity’s complex causes—genetic, environmental, and social—and call for structural reforms like food subsidies, taxes on sugary drinks, and expanded treatment access.

Non-paywall link

  • stetech@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    I’m positive the Lancet will manage to produce a representative sample and sample size sufficient to ensure this

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      Ok so I looked in to their sources and boy, you’re under selling it.

      They used 130+ sources of 10’s of thousands of surveyed people, each. Typical sample sizes were 70,000+.

      This is a meta analysis. The number of people contributing to this analysis is wide enough to put to rest any doubt that it’s a representative sample ten times over.

      Arrogantly appending “polled” to those figures is like proudly proclaiming that teen pregnancies drop off sharply after age 19.