Increasing Weight in the US

I found it interesting that in today's time we have more and more people dieting in the history of time however, the rates of obesity and being overweight are now the leading causes of health problems (such as diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, and stroke)... so I wonder what's going on here?

In 1996 11% of individuals ages 13-18 were obese, 5 years later that number doubled to 22%.

Some more recent statistics of:

Individuals who are either overweight or obese

• Ages 20 or over, 67%

Individuals who are obese

• Ages 20 or over, 34%

Individuals who are over weight

• Ages 20 or over, 18%
• Ages 6-11, 15%
• Ages 2-5, 11%

Statistics from the CDC

Does it even make sense that we now have more and more people dieting and making an effort to get in shape, however that's clearly not that case? It doesn't to me. Why is that? I don't have the answer to that. However, there is a clear relationship between the public's source of motivation to diet and get into shape and the advertisements that the diet industry so heavily promotes. One possibility to look into is the the decreasing quality of our food supply and increase in processed foods. However, that's an area that I won't get into.

www.dartmouth.edu
www.nlm.nih.gov