From the November issue of <span style=”font-style: italic;”>Washingtonian</span>:<br/><br/><font size=”2″><span style=”font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;”>”Some 24 percent of Americans were overweight in the early 1960s; the figure inched up to 25 percent in the ate 1970s. By the late 1990s, it had increased to 33 percent, about where it is today.</span><br style=”font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;”/><br style=”font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;”/><span style=”font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;”>American men are now 17 pounds heavier on average than they were in the late 1970s, and women are 19 pounds heavier. African-Americans have a 50-percent higher prevalence of obesity than whites, Hispanics 20-percent higher rate.</span><br style=”font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;”/><br style=”font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;”/><span style=”font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;”>There are now 32 states where more than 25 of adults are obese; six states, among the country’s poorest and most rural, have rates over 30 percent. The rate is 31 percent in West Virginia, 26 percent in Maryland, 25 percent in Virginia, and 22 percent in DC.<br/><br/>The proportion of overweight children age 6 to 11 has doubled over the past 25 years, and the number of overweight adolescents has tripled.”<br/><br/></span></font>No, going to the grocery store does not count. Find an activity that you like, that makes you sweat, and find some time to do it. If sweating isn’t your thing, eat less.<br/>