Obesity levels stable but still worrisome in state

National childhood obesity rates may have peaked after climbing for 25 years, today's report said, based on federal figures previously made public. Levels for Massachusetts children have stayed the same, dating to 2003. But public health specialists are not cheering the status quo.

"We are holding steady at an unacceptably high rate," said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, a public-health advocacy group.

Dr. David Ludwig of Children's Hospital Boston, an obesity specialist, also sounded a note of caution.

"It remains too soon to tell whether obesity prevalence in children has truly plateaued, and current data suggest that the obesity epidemic among adults continues to grow," he said.

Today's report, called "F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing America 2009," said no states saw decreases in adult obesity, while levels in 23 states increased in the past year. Mississippi has the highest level of adult obesity, at 32.5 percent, and also tops the list for obese and overweight children, at 44.4 percent.

Eight of the 10 states with the highest proportion of obese adults or obese and overweight children are in the South. Minnesota and Utah are tied for the lowest rate of obese and overweight children.

In Massachusetts, a major campaign to reduce obesity was introduced earlier this year by Governor Deval Patrick. One cornerstone of that effort begins in the fall: School children will have their body mass index measured and reported to their parents.

And in November of next year, restaurants with 20 or more locations in the state will be required to post calories on their menus. Other programs, under the Mass in Motion campaign, encourage eating a healthy diet and being more physically active. School breakfasts and lunches are mandated to be more nutritious.

"Some of these interventions may have modest effects in and of themselves but synergistic effects when combined. We know that the obesity epidemic is the result of many factors," Ludwig said. "It's not just poor school lunch programs, and it's not just cutbacks in physical education classes. It's also junk food advertising to kids, it's the physical layout of towns that make walking and bike riding cumbersome or dangerous. The challenge is to work on many fronts to fight this obesity epidemic."

The Trust for America's Health report also singles out Baby Boomers as more obese than their elders, a worrying trend as they approach old age. In Massachusetts, 1 in 4 Baby Boomers is obese, compared to almost 1 in 5 people over 65.

"What obesity does is add layers on all sorts of chronic conditions or exacerbates existing conditions associated with age," Levi said, giving arthritis and diabetes as examples.

Ludwig said a comprehensive national strategy could reduce obesity among all age groups, including Baby Boomers, which he calls the first generation raised with fast food as daily fare.

"Humans are not biologically programmed to get heavier and heavier with successive generations," he said. "If we reverse those forces that have produced the obesity epidemic, we have every reason to believe that prevalence will decline, potentially at a rapid rate."