Are We TRULY Getting Less Fat?

A new study has found that America may finally be tipping the scales the other way.

Say what? According to the Elk Valley Times (yes, really), "Obesity rates are leveling off — dropping, even."

The Fayetteville, Tenn. newspaper reported that both New York City and Philadelphia saw their obesity rates decrease last year, and studies recently compiled by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation showed similar progress elsewhere in the country.


  • A drop in Mississippi, three years after passage of a law that required public schools to provide more physical activity and health education
  • A reduction in eastern Massachusetts, and for kids in a region of Nebraska
  • A leveling off for New Mexico’s kindergarten and third graders, after years of increase.
What's driving this?  A small thing, but it's helping --  less fried foods and sugary sodas available in schools.  

As for New Jersey, 61 percent of adults in this state are considered overweight and 24 percent obese (but actually, there are less fat people than in other states), according to The Star-Ledger in New Jersey.


Statistics have shown that more than 35% of U.S. adults (78 million people) are obese, defined as having a body mass index of 30 or greater.  An additional third of adults are overweight, and almost 17% of children from birth to age 19 are obese and 32% are overweight or obese.

Sadly, the leveling off is not true for all racial ethnic groups. Rates have risen to 58.5% among non-Hispanic black women and to nearly 45% among Mexican American women since 2004, for example. And among children and teens, about 21% of Hispanics and 24% of blacks are obese compared with 14% of non-Hispanic whites.

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