Alabama health care burdens will soar if rates of obesity continue on their present trajectory, according to a policy report released this morning by two nonprofit organizations focused on improving health.

By 2030, 62.6 percent of adult Alabamians would be obese, nearly double the 32 percent in 2011, according to "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future," produced by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

That increase would contribute to an estimated 661,673 new cases of type 2 diabetes, 1,458,880 new cases of coronary heart disease and stroke, 1,286,270 new cases of hypertension, 818,339 new cases of arthritis, and 200,226 new cases of obesity-related cancer in Alabama, the report found. Alabama would be one of 16 states -- mostly in the South and Midwest -- with more than 60 percent rates of obesity.

"The rise in health care costs could be staggering," Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, said in a telephone news conference. "That's a huge impact on our society. Overall, our states are on track for even worse health and significantly higher health care costs."

"But," Levi said, "that's not the way it has to be."

If Alabama adults could reduce their body mass indexes -- a measure of obesity that uses height and weight -- by 5 percent, the report says, the state would save 7.1 percent in health care costs for a cumulative savings of $9.4 billion in Alabama by 2030. That 5 percent would be equivalent to a 200-pound, 6-foot-tall person losing 10 pounds.

The report recommends making investments in obesity prevention to match the health and financial toll that the obesity epidemic is making on the nation.