Why is obesity increasing in rural teens?
There is an urgency to educate rural America about the risk of obesity and the staggering numbers of preventable diseases associated with it. As Allison, Fontaine, Manson, Stevens and VanItallie (1999) reported “The estimated annual deaths attributable to obesity among U.S. adults was just over 300,000″ (p.1535). The alarming findings some nine years ago still ring true today. In the 2005 report to the Secretary of Rural Health and Human Service it was noted that “…obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death of Americans…. approximately 400,000 each year” (National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services, p.35). Three years later the numbers have continued to climb with an alarming decrease in the ages of those now affected. Rowley (2004) notes that “even more troubling is the fact that the obesity epidemic threatens our infants and toddlers” (p.2). In his article Rowley, quoting Susan Pac of Gerber, simplifies his point stating that “by the tender age of 15
