The problem of overeating (March 27, 2004)

Last update: February 14, 2006 - 8:55 AM

Almost 130 million U.S. adults are overweight, or almost two-thirds of the adult population.

That includes more than 61 million, or more than a third of the adult population, who are obese, according to the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Charles Billington, co-director of the Minnesota Obesity Center at the Veterans Administration Hospital, places the number even higher - at 70 percent. How many are compulsive overeaters is difficult to tell.

In studies of some of the older obesity programs, it was found that 30 percent of the people were binge eaters, according to Dr. Scott Crow, a psychiatrist at the University of Minnesota.

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