Bad news for America. Good news for weight-control industries. A brand-new government study just released says it’s not unforeseeable that all U.S. adults could be overweight inside of 40 years.
Scary thought, predicated on the fact that two-thirds of Americans are already overweight.
Researcher Lan Liang told Reuters:
“Genetically and physiologically, it should be impossible” for all U.S. adults to become overweight (but) … if the trends of the past 30 years persist, “that is the direction we’re going.”
In the sad-but-true category, the news should bode well for certain industries such as weigh-loss clinics (which are booming around Wichita) and the fitness industry.
Even Commercial Fitness Today blog editor Marc Onigman sees the potential:
Forget the economy. If you can’t make a go of a commercial fitness facility in this environment, you really ought to consider another industry.
2 Comments
One just needs to watch the episode of Penn @ Teller’s BS on obesity to get the scoop on the history of the Body Mass Index and etc.
While BMI may have some problems, just go anywhere in public to see the truth about how fat Americans have become.
OTOH, I don’t see 100% of adults becoming overweight… Time magazine had an article a few months ago about how childhood obesity rates have already leveled off:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1809829,00.html