More Americans on diets from a decade ago, report finds

NEW YORK (AP) — If it seems like more and more people are on diets these days, you might not be imagining it.

A higher percentage of Americans said they’re on a special diet to lose weight or for other health reasons compared with a decade ago, according to a report Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The increase comes as obesity rates have continued to climb. The CDC report found that 17% of Americans said they were on diets during the 2017-2018 survey period, up from 14% a decade earlier. Over the same period obesity rates rose in the U.S. to 42% of Americans, up from 34%.

The percentage of Americans who said they’re on a diet is lower than expected given prevalence of diet-related diseases in the country, said Dana Hunnes, a professor of public health and nutrition at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The report notes that about half of American adults have diet-related chronic conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, and that special diets are a way many people try to manage them. Hunnes cautioned, though, that many people might not consider the way they eat to be a diet.

The report also looked at responses between 2015 and 2018 to determine other characteristics of people on special diets:

—The heavier and more educated people were, the more likely they were to report being on a special diet. The report found 23% of Americans who are obese said they were on diets, compared with 17% of overweight people and 8% of people who were normal weight or underweight.

—More women reported being on a diet than men.

—18% of non-Hispanic white Americans, 16% of Hispanic Americans and 15% of Asian and Black Americans said they were diets.

—A higher percentage of people 40 and older said they were on diets than those...