WASHINTON, D.C. — Adult obesity rates went up in six states last year but declined in none – while obesity rates among children started to level off for the first time since tracking began about 20 years ago.

Those are the main conclusions of an analysis completed by officials with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and by Trust for America’s Health, released earlier this month.

Results of the analysis disappointed both groups, and a nutritionist at Southern Illinois University Carbondale said while eating habits and a lack of exercise play a significant role in an individual’s makeup, the manufacturers and marketers of many everyday products share part of the responsibility.

"Look, you have simple products like ketchup loaded with high fructose corn syrup to make it sweet. Do we really need that much sugar? Do we really need to buy that super-sized soda that costs the same as a smaller size? Of course we don’t," said Sharon Peterson, a dietician who also owns Southern Illinois Nutrition Therapy in Carterville.

"The typical American is consuming 162 pounds of added sugars to products each year, and people wonder why we have an obesity problem. Just look at the labels of most processed foods everyone buys and you’ll see why."

From 2011 to 2012, adult obesity rates went up in only one state. In this most recent analysis, they went up in six states between 2012 and 2013 – Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, New Jersey, Tennessee and Wyoming.

And for the first time, adult obesity rates topped the 35 percent mark in two states, in West Virginia and Mississippi.

"Obesity rates are unacceptably high, and the disparities in rates are profoundly troubling," said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America’s Health. "We need to intensify prevention efforts starting in early childhood, and do a better job of implementing effective policies and programs in all communities, so every American has the greatest opportunity to have a healthy weight and live a healthy life."

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, the foundation’s CEO, highlighted one of the positives from the report – that child obesity rates remained stable and did not increase in any state for the first time.

"While adult rates are stabilizing in many states, these data suggest that our overall progress in reversing America’s obesity epidemic is uneven and fragile," Lavizzo-Mourey said.

"A growing number of cities and states have reported decreases in obesity among children, showing that when we make comprehensive changes to policies and community environments, we can build a culture of health that makes healthy choices the easy and obvious choices for kids and adults alike."

At a minimum, according to the analysis, at least one in five adults in every state is consider obese, which is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more, where BMI is calculated by dividing weight (in kilograms) by height (in meters) squared. Overweight is defined as a BMI of 25-29.9.

The analysis can be accessed online at http://healthyamericans.org/report