>Dr. Friedman points to careful statistical analyses of the
>changes in Americans' body weights from 1991 to today by
>Dr. Katherine Flegal of the National Center for Health
>Statistics. At the lower end of the weight distribution,
>nothing has changed, not even by a few pounds. As you move
>up the scale, a few additional pounds start to show up, but
>even at midrange, people today are just 6 or 7 pounds
>heavier than they were in 1991. Only with the massively
>obese, the very top of the distribution, is there a
>substantial increase in weight, about 25 to 30 pounds, Dr.
>Flegal reported.
>
>As a result, the curve of body weight has been pulled
>slightly to the right, with more people shifting up a few
>pounds to cross the line that experts use to divide normal
>from obese. In 1991, 23 percent of Americans fell into the
>obese category; now 31 percent do, a more than 30 percent
>increase. But the average weight of the population has
>increased by just 7 to 10 pounds since 1991.
And these aren't significant increases in 10 years? The median weight up 6-7 pounds, and the share of the pop obese up by more than a third?
Doug