
THE PROBLEM
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The United States is currently facing a health crisis of unprecedented proportions. Unhealthy diet is a major cause of health problems such as obesity and chronic disease, which are now increasingly beginning in childhood.
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The youth of today are the first generation predicted to have a lower life expectancy than their parents.
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Children as young as 7 years old have diseases formerly classed as those of adulthood, such as heart disease, type-2 diabetes and many forms of cancer.
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The number of children who are overweight or obese has more than tripled since 1980, being now more than 16% - that's over 9 million children in the U.S. As adults, over 30% of Americans are obese, 60 million people.
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The U.S. spends more on health care than any other industrialized country, yet has one of the highest rates of life threatening disease. This cost totaled $1.5 trillion in 2002 and is still rising at an alarming rate.1
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The impact of chronic disease is not restricted to the U.S. - it is global in reach.
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60% of deaths are due to chronic disease and 80% of these deaths are now thought to occur in low and middle income countries.
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An estimated 1 billion people worldwide are overweight; that includes 22 million children under the age of five.
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Each year, 2.6 million people die as a result of being overweight or obese; 4.4 million due to raised total cholesterol levels; and 7.1 million due to raised blood pressure - many of these deaths could be avoided with improvements to diet.2
1 Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/
2 World Health Organization, 'Preventing Chronic Disease: A Vital Investment', 05 October 2005, http://www.who.int/chp/chronic_disease_report/full_report.pdf