A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has unveiled since the late 1970s, rates of obesity among children and teenagers in the US have increased alarmingly more than in Canada. It is a concerning revelation and demands immediate attention from authorities concerned.

Study’s lead author Cynthia L. Ogden, an epidemiologist at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, said that obesity is known epidemic in the US. But the new report highlights the nation’s condition when compared with other countries.

As per the report, there was no change in the obesity rate in both the nations when it came to children aged between 3 and 19 in the late 1970s. But in 2012, the obesity rate was 17.5% in the US and 13% in Canada by 2013.

In the recent years, the difference was the highest among girls aged between 7 and 12. In the US, 19% of the girls in this age group are obese and 9% in Canada. Prof. Barry Popkin from the University of North Carolina said that certain changes have happened in the US in the 1970s that have put the nation to face rise in obesity rate.

Popkin said that children have started to drink a lot of fizzy drinks. There has been a decline, but then also the rate remains twice when compared to children intake in Canada. Another factor is ‘we are snacking nation’ said Popkin.

Popkin thinks marketing has a big role to play in the US. Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington School of Public Health, said that obesity gap between the two nations could also be due to differences among minority and poor groups in the US.