SAN FRANCISCO, Jun 14 (Reuters) - California, once home of the itsy-bitsy
bikini, is losing the fight against flab with more than half of the state's
adult population now classified as obese or overweight for the first time,
according to a study released on Tuesday.
"We are in real trouble," Carmen Nevarez, vice president of the
Berkeley-based Public Health Institute, said in a release announcing the new
figures. "Having a culture bombarded with rushed lifestyles, fast foods, and
physical inactivity has caught up with us."
The study, part of an ongoing health survey of some 4,000 Californian
adults, found that in 1999 nearly 53% were overweight or obese, increasing the
risk of heart attack, diabetes, stroke, arthritis, cancer and other chronic
disease.
This compares with 44.6% in 1990, and reflects a steady upward trend since
the study started in 1984, when 38.2% of California adults were reported to be
overweight.
Nationally, some 63% of men and 55% of women are classified as overweight or
obese under the same national Body Mass Index guidelines used in the California
study, which rates anyone with a BMI of more than 25 as overweight, according to
previous health studies.
To calculate BMI, a person's weight in pounds is multiplied by 703 and then
divided by height in inches squared.
The new figures showed that 60% of Californian men were now overweight,
compared with 45% of women--but waistlines were found to be expanding across all
racial and ethnic groups and at all education and income levels.
Nevarez said the figures were ironic given California's fair weather and its
abundant supply of fruits and vegetables.
The Public Health Institute and a coalition of other health groups called on
Gov. Gray Davis to address a health crisis they say could prematurely claim the
lives of more than 33,000 Californians each year. "It's a health crisis that no
one wants to deal with, but we can't afford to sweep it under the rug," Nevarez
said. "This is an epidemic, and it demands an immediate response."
