As a longtime health journalist, I was invited to go to the CDC’s conference on obesity prevention and control, The Weight of the Nation, this week in DC. I couldn’t make it, but will, of course, bring you some of the highlights.

At the conference today, the CDC released a study that estimates the medical cost of obesity may be as high as $147 billion a year – about double what it was in 1998. Results show overall, obese people spent $1,429 (42 percent) more for medical care in 2006 than did those at a healthy weight. You can see a list of diseases linked to obesity here.

Researchers also talked about how it’s going to take a community effort to reverse the obesity epidemic rather than an individual one.

What do you think? Is going to “take a village” to change things?

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just launched LEANWorks! - a website designed to help businesses fight obesity. LEAN stands for Leading Employees to Activity and Nutrition.

The site was developed especially for small and mid-size companies because they usually have more limited resources to use to prevent obesity.

LEANWorks! can help businesses calculate how much obesity is costing them and how much they could save with different workplace interventions like fitness classes, lunchtime health education sessions, and weight management programs.

I hope LEANWorks! works.

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Out of the 501 people who have gotten sick during the salmonella/peanut butter outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says half of them are children – 280 victims are under 18 years old, including some infants.

FDA officials have found salmonella contamination at a Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, Georgia which has been linked to the food poisoning.

So far, the outbreak has caused the recall of more than 180 products – from crackers and cookies to pet food to treats from Starbucks. You can find a complete list of recalls at the FDA’s website or call 1-800-CDC-INFO for product recall information.

It’s not over yet, but the CDC says the number of new cases of illnesses has gone down over the last two weeks. The salmonella outbreak may have caused eight deaths.

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.A salmonella outbreak has now made 410 people in 43 states sick. It may also be linked to the deaths of three people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says peanut butter is the “likely source” of the nationwide infection.

And the Minnesota Department of Health says genetic testing shows the salmonella in a five-pound tub of peanut butter that infected nursing home residents there is the same strain as the one in the national outbreak.

Peanut Corporation of America, based in Lynchburg, Va., makes the spread. It is distributed nationally by Ohio-based King Nut Companies, which has recalled the products. The peanut butter is not sold in grocery stores – just to places like schools, hospitals, restaurants, and long-term-care facilities.

All the illnesses began between September 15 and January 7, but most people got sick after October 1. Below is a map from the CDC showing the spread of the outbreak across the U.S.

Salmonella symptoms

Symptoms of salmonella food poisoning include diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12-72 hours after you’re infected. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days. Most people recover without any treatment, but there can be severe infections especially in people with a weakened immune system, infants and the elderly.

More information

If you think you’ve gotten sick from eating peanut butter, contact your doctor right away. There is more information about this recall here on the FDA’s website.

[Photo Credit: stock.xchng]

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Congrats to Burlington, Vermont – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just named it the healthiest city in America. The CDC says Burlington is among the best in exercise and among the lowest in obesity, diabetes and several other diseases.

At the bottom of the pile – Huntington, West Virginia. The CDC dubs it the unhealthiest city in the U.S. Nearly half the adults there are obese – a lot higher percentage than the national average.

And Huntington leads in having a high number of other illnesses, too, including heart disease and diabetes. It’s even tops in the percentage of elderly people who have lost all their teeth – half of them have.

Interestingly, the entire states of Vermont and West Virginia held similar positions in another CDC report that came out in August – F as in Fat.

Photo Credit: City of Burlington

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Diabetes is skyrocketing in the United States. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the rate of new cases of diabetes has nearly doubled over the past 10 years. The main reasons? The growing number of obesity and sedentary lifestyles.

More than 23 million Americans have the disease. And the numbers keep soaring – the CDC says about 1.6 million new cases were diagnosed in people 20 or older last year. About 90-percent of the cases are type 2 diabetes – the form of the disease closely linked to obesity.

States with the highest rates of new cases were mainly in the South: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Minnesota had the lowest rate.

The CDC says losing modest amounts of weight and getting more exercise can help prevent diabetes but many people just aren’t doing that.

You can see the full report here.

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Jalapenos are not the only peppers definitely linked to the massive salmonella outbreak. The Food and Drug Administration has found contaminated serrano peppers and irrigation water on a farm in Mexico.

The FDA says we should avoid fresh serrano peppers from Mexico and products made with them. And we still should not eat fresh jalapeno peppers from Mexico, either.

The FDA’s theory is that several foods may be causing the outbreak, which has made 1,319 people sick nationwide since April.

In early June, the FDA believed tomatoes were causing the outbreak and warned us not to eat certain types. Then in July, it said all tomatoes were safe to eat again. But the agency still says tomatoes may have caused some of the illnesses.

Here is a map from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that shows where the outbreak has hit from state to state:

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It’s okay to eat any type of raw tomato again. After months of concern that tomatoes were linked to the salmonella outbreak, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lifts its alert because the farms that may have shipped tomatoes at the beginning of the outbreak are no longer harvesting them.

But the outbreak is not over – people are still getting sick. 1,220 people in 42 states have gotten sick so far. About 18 percent have been hospitalized.

So, what’s causing the outbreak? There’s no definite answer on that yet. But now food safety officials say there could have been cross-contamination between tomatoes and peppers at packing or washing stations before the foods got to restaurants and grocery stores.

The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are still looking into raw jalape̱o and raw serrano peppers as possible culprits. They are warning people at high risk Рlike the elderly, infants, and those with weak immune systems Рto avoid eating raw jalape̱o and raw serrano peppers.

Anyone else concerned that it’s taking so long to find out what’s causing the outbreak? What a big mess!

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The obesity epidemic is getting worse. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows about 25.6 percent of adults in the U.S. are obese – up nearly two-percent from 2005.

More sombering news – the CDC says no state has yet to meet the national goal to reduce obesity rates to 15 percent or lower by 2010.

The report shows obesity is more prominent in the South, coming in at 27-percent. In the Midwest, it’s 25.3 percent; it’s 23.3 percent in the Northeast, and 22.1 percent in the West.

The fattest states – Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee – are all battling obesity rates of more than 30 percent. Colorado has the lowest rate at 18.7 percent.

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The salmonella outbreak has now made 1,017 people sick, making it the worst foodborne outbreak in at least a decade. And the government is warning, hot peppers may be partly to blame.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says raw plum, Roma, and red round tomatoes are still the main suspects in the outbreak and we still shouldn’t eat them, but it’s also warning people at high risk of getting severely ill from salmonella (the elderly, infants, and those with a weak immune system) to avoid eating raw jalapeño and serrano peppers, too.

Investigators looking into the outbreak found jalapeños caused some of the illnesses. As for serrano peppers, they were included in the warning because they’re hard for a lot of people to tell apart.

The scary thing is the CDC says the outbreak is not showing any signs of slowing down – there have been about 25-40 cases reported every day since the outbreak began April 10, and it’s now hit 41 states (CDC map below).

More confusion – the CDC has found some people who got sick “were more likely to have recently consumed raw tomatoes, fresh jalapeño peppers, and fresh cilantro. These items were commonly, though not always, consumed together, so that study could not determine which item(s) caused the illnesses.”

So… now under investigation – raw tomatoes, jalapeños and serrano peppers, plus fresh cilantro. What a mess.

Photo Credit: stock.xchng

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