Consumption of Added Sugars

Increased consumption of added sugars, which are sweeteners added to processed and prepared foods, has been linked to a decrease in intake of essential micronutrients and an increase in body weight.  The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 recommends limiting total intake of discretionary calories, including both added sugars and solid fats, to 5%–15% per day. Recent analyses indicate that children and adolescents obtain approximately 16% of their total caloric intake from added sugars.

NCHS has put out a new report that presents results for consumption of added sugars among U.S. adults for 2005–2010.

Key findings from the report:

• Approximately 13% of adults’ total caloric intakes came from added sugars between 2005 and 2010.
• The mean percentage of total calories from added sugars decreased with increasing age and increasing income.
• Non-Hispanic black men and women consumed a larger percentage of their total calories from added sugars than non-Hispanic white and Mexican-American men and women.
• More of the calories from added sugars came from foods rather than beverages.
• More of the calories from added sugars were consumed at home rather than away from home.

COMMENT:
The somewhat counter-intuitive finding in this report is that most calories from added sugars come from foods rather than beverages. However, other research has shown that when looking at individual items – either specific food items or specific beverages – regular sodas are the leading food source of added sugars for adults aged 18-54.

More Adults taking using Cholesterol-Lowering Medicine

Each year, more than 2 million Americans suffer from acute cardiovascular events that account for approximately one-fourth of the total cost of inpatient hospital care.  Control of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL–C) has been shown to substantially reduce cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality.  It can be managed with lifestyle changes, medications, or a combination of these approaches. A diet low in saturated fat is recognized as one of the most effective lifestyle changes to decrease high LDL–C. 

NCHS has released a report that evaluates the trends in high LDL–C, use of cholesterol-lowering medication, and low dietary saturated-fat intake from 1976–1980 through 2007–2010 among adults aged 40–74.

Key findings from the report:

• The prevalence of high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or LDL–C, decreased from 59% to 27% from the late 1970s through 2007–2010.
• The percentage of adults using cholesterol-lowering medication increased from 5% to 23% from the late 1980s through 2007–2010. 
• The percentage of adults consuming a diet low in saturated fat increased from 25% to 41% from the late 1970s through 1988–1994.  
• No significant changes in the percentage of adults consuming a diet low in saturated fat were observed from 1988–1994 through 2007–2010.

Cigarette smoking linked to depression in adults

Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (2005-2008) has found that adults ages 20 and over with depression were more likely to be cigarette smokers than those without depression.  This key finding is the focus of a new report from NCHS, “Depression and Smoking in the U.S. Household Population Aged 20 and Over, 2005-2008.” This report also found the following:                        

• Women with depression had smoking rates similar to men with depression, while women without depression smoked less than men.
• Over one-half of men with depression ages 40–54 were current smokers compared with 26 percent of men without depression of the same age.
• Among women ages 40–54, of those with depression, 43 percent were smokers compared with 22 percent of those without depression.
• Among adult smokers, those with depression smoked more heavily than those without depression. They were more likely to smoke their first cigarette within 5 minutes of awakening and to smoke more than one pack of cigarettes per day.
• Adults with depression were less likely to quit smoking than those without depression.

The graph below shows the percentage of adult smokers with depression from 2005-2008:

 For more, visit: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db34.pdf

Adults’ daily protein intake much more than recommended

March is National Nutrition month, making it a great time to look at where America stands in its nutrition and diet.  One important nutrient is protein, which is essential to the human body because it is part of every cell, issue, and organ, allowing them to grow and repair. Proteins can be found in a variety of foods that we eat on a regular basis and the table below displays the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended daily protein intake.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; “Nutrition for Everyone”-Protein

However, according to the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), both men and women ages 20 and over were taking in much more than the recommended amount of protein. The recommended daily amount of protein is 46 grams for women and 56 grams for men. The NHANES results showed that men were taking in 101.9 grams and women were taking in 70.1 grams. Protein intake contributes to calorie intake: therefore, if you eat more protein than is needed, your overall calorie intake could be greater and potentially lead to weight gain.

For more, visit USDA’s “What We Eat in America.”

High cholesterol? It could be happening to you…

In 2005–2006, 16% of adults had serum total cholesterol levels of 240 mg/dL or greater (high cholesterol). The good news is that generally, for Americans 20 years of age and over, cholesterol levels are declining. However, this decline was seen for men 40 years and over and for women 60 years and over, with little change between 1999 and 2006 for all other age-sex groups.

What may be most disconcerting is the fact that many U.S. adults may not even know they have high cholesterol, with data from the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey finding that 8% of U.S. adults had high cholesterol but had never been told by a health care provider that their cholesterol levels were high. For more data concerning high cholesterol, see the NCHS Data Brief on High Cholesterol. For more information on combating high cholesterol, visit the CDC Webpage on Cholesterol.

Obesity – Americans still growing, but not as fast

New data in the latest Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) from NCHS statisticians show that the increasing rate of obesity may be slowing, although the prevalence of adults who are obese is still high. The numbers from 2007-2008 show that 33.8% of U.S. adults are obese (32.2% for men, 35.5% for women). The growth of the obesity rate in the U.S. over the past 40 years is depicted below.

Obesity by age, United States, 1971-1974 through 2005-2006:

For the data table, visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus08.pdf and see Trend Table 75.

Obesity information-it starts with the letters NHANES

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released information concerning the prevalence and costs of the growing epidemic of obesity in the United States. Some of the most critical information concerning the weight of the nation is collected in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which takes actual measurements of a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population.

For the most recent information on obesity and overweight, please visit the Health E-Stat report at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/overweight/overweight_adult.htm.

For a more general overview, visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm.

As always, the NCHS press office can be reached at 301-458-4800.

Underweight older adults, children decrease in U.S.

Poor nutrition or underlying health conditions can sometimes cause a person to be underweight. Data from the 2003-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) showed that an estimated 1.8% of U.S. adults are underweight. Between 1988-1994 and 2003-2006, a statistically significant decrease in the percentage of those underweight was found only among those aged 60 and over. In this age group, the percentage underweight was 2.3% in 1988-1994 and 1.2% in 2003-2006.

For more, visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/underweight_adults.htm.

Results from the 2003-2006 NHANES showed that about 3.3% of children and adolescents aged 2-19 years are underweight. Trends from 1971-1974 to 2003-2006 show that there has been an overall significant decrease in underweight children and adolescents, from 5.1% to 3.3%. Underweight significantly decreased from 5.8% to 2.8% among 2-5 year olds and from 5.3% to 2.7% among 6-11 year olds. Among adolescents aged 12-19, underweight decreased, although not significantly, from 4.7% to 3.8% during the same time period.

For more, visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/underweight_children.htm.

A brief look at heart disease

As a farewell to “American Heart Month,” here’s a brief synopsis of why the heart and its health affects so many of us:

• Heart disease is the nation’s leading cause of death, responsible for 629,191 deaths in 2006 (National Vital Statistics System, 2006).
• Heart disease is the nation’s leading diagnosis for hospitalization, at 4.2 million (National Hospital Discharge Survey, 2006).
• Over 24 million visits to physician offices in 2006 resulted in a diagnoses of heart disease (National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2006).
• About 11% of U.S. adults have ever been told by a doctor or other health professional they had heart disease (National Health Interview Survey, 2007).
• About one in six Americans aged 20 years and over has elevated blood pressure and one in four has hypertension (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001-2004).

New Health E-Stat integrates obesity and overweight prevalence data

Results from the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), using measured heights and weights, indicate that an estimated 32.7 percent of U.S. adults 20 years and older are overweight, 34.3 percent are obese and 5.9 percent are extremely obese. Additional data as well as figures and tables can be found by visiting the following Web addres: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/overweight/overweight_adult.htm