MUSIC: "Our World" theme
This week on Our World: The high cost of obesity and what we can do about it ... how carbon dioxide in the air is making the ocean more acidic ... and setting a goal for the next step in human spaceflight ...
ZUBRIN: "We're much better prepared today for humans to Mars than they were to be able to send men to the Moon in 1961, and they were there eight years later."
Those stories, a network of instruments that could provide life-saving earthquake warnings, and more.
I'm Art Chimes. Welcome to VOA's science and technology magazine, "Our World."
Americans are known for a lot of things around the world, but love us or hate us, you probably think we weigh too much.
And we do.
Two-thirds of adults in the United States, and one out of five children, are above what doctors consider a healthy weight for their size, and those numbers have been increasing. And people who are above their healthy weight are, not surprisingly, not as healthy.
It's no wonder experts talk about an "epidemic" of obesity.
FRIEDEN: "Obesity and with it, diabetes, are the only major health problems that are getting worse in this country, and they're getting worse rapidly."
Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - the CDC - says the rate of obesity has doubled over the past generation.
A new study published this week puts a dollar estimate on that epidemic of obesity - $140 billion a year in extra medical costs.
Obese people spend, on average, $1,500 per year more for their medical care than a person of healthy weight.
And of course, says Frieden, the financial burden is only part of the story.
FRIEDEN: "Beyond the economic costs are the disability, the suffering and the early deaths caused by obesity. And this is something that we as a society need to take more action to address."
We should explain our terms here. Obesity is defined based on a body mass index of 30 or higher. For example, if you weigh 100 kilograms and your height is 180 centimeters, your BMI is 31, which is considered obese. A separate category - overweight - applies to people who are above what is considered a healthy BMI, but not so much that it's classified as obese.
The new study on the costs of obesity is published online by the journal Health Affairs. Lead author Erik Finkelstein says those costs have nearly doubled over the past decade. About half of those costs are paid for by government programs like Medicare, which insures older Americans.
FINKELSTEIN: "Their average expenditures are about $4,700 [per year] if they're normal weight, and if they're obese that number rises to about $6,400."
Finkelstein is affiliated with RTI International, a North Carolina research institute.
He says obese, older Americans are more likely to have chronic disease requiring medication, which drives up their medical costs.
He discussed his study in Washington this week at the CDC's first ever national conference on obesity control and prevention.
A report published in a CDC publication outlines a variety of ways to head off the spiraling obesity epidemic. William Dietz, head of CDC's obesity unit, says there are a number of strategies to get the weight off, or keep people from gaining weight in the first place.
DIETZ: "Strategies to support choices of healthy food and beverages, strategies to encourage breastfeeding, strategies to encourage physical activity or to limit sedentary behavior, or strategies to create communities that support physical activity."
Some of the recommendations include smaller portion sizes in restaurants, discouraging beverages sweetened with sugar, increased physical activities in school, improved access to walking and mass transit.
Eric Finkelstein, the researcher who quantified the financial costs, says we have to do something.
FINKELSTEIN: "So many differentials are involved that the only thing we do know is that in the absence of action, it's unlikely that costs associated with obesity are going to decrease."
One approach could be taxing some unhealthy foods, which would raise prices and maybe encourage people to make healthier eating choices. CDC Director Thomas Frieden cites the success of higher taxes in reducing smoking by half among teenagers in New York.
FRIEDEN: "In the case of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages, evidence from a couple of sources, including industry sources, suggests that higher prices will strongly discourage people from consuming soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages."