AMERICANS GETTING EVEN FATTER, RESEARCH SHOWS

Americans continue to put on the pounds. New data show that nearly 40 per cent of U.S. adults were obese in 2015 and 2016, a sharp increase from a decade earlier, federal health officials reported Friday. The prevalence of severe obesity is also rising (7.7 per cent in the same period), heightening risks of developing heart disease, diabetes and various cancers. The data measured trends in obesity from 2015 and 2016 back to 2007 and 2008, when 5.7 per cent of U.S. adults were severely obese and 33.7 per cent were obese. The survey counted people with a body mass index of 30 or more as obese, and those with a BMI of 40 or more as severely obese. Public health experts said that they were alarmed by the continuing rise and by the fact that efforts to educate do not seem to be working.