Among Hispanic adults, about 1 in 2 (42.6 percent) were considered to have obesity, and about 1 in 14 (7.1 percent) were considered to have extreme obesity. Among non-Hispanic Asian adults, about 1 in 8 (12.6 percent) were considered to have obesity. read more
His findings, published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2009, show that your odds of becoming obese rise by 57% if you have a friend who becomes obese and by 40% if your sibling becomes obese."We're social animals," Christakis says. read more
Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of preventable death. [Read guidelines] The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the U.S. was $147 billion in 2008 U.S. dollars; the medical cost for people who have obesity was $1,429 higher than those of normal weight. read more