America fatter than previously thought

The AFP reports:

PARIS (AFP) - The prevalence of obesity in the US states has been under-estimated by as much as 50 percent, according to a study.

In 2002, 28.7 percent of adult American men and 34.5 percent of American women were clinically obese, compared to the conventional estimates for that year of 21.9 percent and 21.2 percent respectively, it says.

The research, published in Britain's Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine by Harvard School of Public Health specialists, blames the discrepancy on low-cost data-collection -- and human nature.