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During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States and rates remain high. About 35 percent of adults and approximately 17 percent of children and adolescents aged 2-19 years are obese.

According to research presented at the 120^th installment of the American Psychological Association's annual convention, overweight and obese individuals can achieve a decade's worth of important health benefits by losing just 20 pounds, even if they regain the weight later that decade.

Researchers studied 3,000 overweight people with impaired glucose tolerance and a change in behavior was encouraged rather than taking drugs.

Participants in the program practiced basic behavioral strategies to help them lose weight, including tracking everything they ate and reducing the amount of unhealthy foods they kept in their home, she said. They also met with coaches frequently and increased their physical activity over the course of the study.

The results showed that even modest weight loss, an average of 14 pounds, reduced people's risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 58 percent. Researchers said the health benefits of the weight loss lasted up to 10 years, even if people gained the weight back over this time.

Researchers said they are trying to show that behavior changes not only make people healthier in terms of reducing heart disease risk factors, but actually can make them live longer.

 "Helping people find ways to change their eating and activity behaviors and developing interventions other than medication to reinforce a healthy lifestyle have made a huge difference in preventing one of the major health problems in this country," Rena Wing, director of the Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center at The Miriam Hospital in Providence, R.I., said. "Weight losses of just 10 percent of a person's body weight (or about 20 pounds in those who weigh 200 pounds) have also been shown to have a long-term impact on sleep apnea, hypertension and quality of life, and to slow the decline in mobility that occurs as people age."

Wing is leading a 13-year trial of 5,000 people with Type 2 diabetes. This study is testing whether an intensive behavioral intervention can decrease the risk of heart disease and heart attacks.

Researchers say changing food policy is another prevention approach to the U.S. obesity epidemic.

"We need to be courageous in establishing policies that address obesity and we need to use science to better inform public policy," Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, said. "The primary question is whether foods, particularly those high in sugar, act on the brain in ways that create signs of addiction. Craving and withdrawal signs can be seen in animal and human brain imaging studies conducted by investigators around the world. This could fundamentally change the debate about diet, nutrition and obesity in this country. If foods have addictive properties, policymakers might be spurred to create laws that would set limits on certain nutrients in food and curtail advertising of these types of foods to children."