Obesity: What's the Real News Here?

The Journal of the American Medical Association today reports on the latest obesity trends among Americans, based on a comparison of data collected in 1999-2000 and 2003-2004. Guess what the headline read in the Washington Post. "Obesity Among U.S. Women Leveling Off, Study Shows."

Guess what the 12th paragraph reported. "Obesity rates worsened for most groups, increasing from about 14 percent to 18 percent in boys ages 2 to 19 and from about 14 percent to 16 percent in girls of that age. The percentage of men age 20 and older who were overweight increased from about 67 to 71 percent."

Okay, overweight women stayed around 62 percent. But given those percentages, what do you think is the real story here?