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More than 50 percent of adults don't get enough physical activity to provide health benefits, and more than a third of young people in grades 9-12 do not regularly engage in vigorous physical activity. Two-thirds of young people exceed dietary guidelines recommendations for fat intake, and only 20 percent of high school students report eating fruits and vegetables five or more times daily. These factors are contributing to an obesity epidemic that is significantly impacting every state. Two-thirds of all U.S. adults and 15 percent of all children and adolescents are either overweight or obese. Medical expenses attributable to obesity were estimated at $75 billion in 2003.
But many state policymakers today are involved in helping to promote regular physical activity and healthy eating and helping to provide more opportunities for people to engage in active and healthy lifestyles. Efforts include everything from increasing the number of community bike and walking trails to establishing school nutrition standards. States are also setting standards for physical education in the schools, debating whether restaurants should be required to post nutritional information, and sending students home with report cards that calculate their Body Mass Index, a measure of an individual's weight in proportion to their height.
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