Data show Millennials are bucking obesity trend

One of the advantages of being a youth is being able to eat and drink irresponsibly while your metabolism still works overtime to keep you slim.


Report shows that without a doubt, Millennials have an obesity rate of 20 percent, compared with 32 percent of Generation Xers and 33 percent of Baby Boomers.

However, researchers found that despite less obesity, Millennials are far from flawless health and most likely to have bad diets and habits.

23 percent said they smoked, compared with 22 percent of Generation X and 20 percent of Boomers.

13 percent said they had seven or more alcoholic drinks a week while Gen X and Boomers were below 12 percent.


 Millennials are also eating worse than their elders. Most Millennials do not see the big significance of eating fruits and vegetables anymore.

Twelve percent of Millennials live below the federal poverty and only 11 percent earn more than $90,000.

“Millennials have the least amount of disposal income. That can have the effect of moving them towards less expensive, quicker and more convenient, less nutritious food options,” said Dan Witters, research director for Gallup’s Well-Being Index.

The low obesity rate of Millennnials may be a function of age, yet Gallup is optimistic about the fact that Millennials are the only group to break trends in obesity, with a 0.6 decrease from 2008. Obesity rates for older groups all rose.

Dr. Hansa Bhargava, medical editor for WebMD, is less optimistic, citing research that found it is harder for Millennials to lose weight compared with other generations.


“The problem of obesity has not gone away. This group has to be aware of it,” Bhargava said.

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