Overweight Oregon

I just spotted a really troubling headline:

(See the full story here)

According to a new series of reports in the medical journal The Lancet , researchers:

• Project 65 million more obese adults in the USA by 2030
• This will cause an additional 6 to 8.5 million cases of diabetes
• It will lead to 5.7 to 7.3 million cases of heart disease and stroke
• It will create 492,000 to 669,000 additional cases of cancer
• It will also cause 26 to 55 million quality-adjusted life years forgone for USA and UK combined.
• The combined medical costs associated with treatment of these preventable diseases are estimated to increase by $48 to 66 billion/year in the USA

Clearly, a lot needs to be done in Oregon and across the nation to stop the trend.

Part of the solution is societal change…but another big part of the solution is research that informs these changes.

For instance, to what degree are processed foods part of the problem?

Researchers like OHSU’s John Purnell have been looking at that very question.

Here’s what he had to say in a recent interview.

Another question is how a mother’s eating habits can impact future generations. OHSU’s Kevin Grove has been looking at that problem. We also spoke with him.