Posted on 06/29/2010 11:38:36 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
TUESDAY, June 29 (HealthDay News) -- Americans are continuing to get fat, with obesity rates nudging upwards in 28 states over the past year, a new report shows.
"More than two-thirds of states now have adult obesity rates above 25 percent," Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust for America's Health, said during a Tuesday news conference. "Back in 1991, not that long ago, not a single state had an obesity rate above 20 percent. There's been a dramatic change in a relatively short period."
"Obesity is one of the biggest public health crises in the country," Levi added. "Rising rates of obesity over past decades is one of the major factors behind skyrocketing health care costs in the U.S., one-quarter of which are related to obesity."
Mississippi weighed in for the sixth year in a row as the fattest state, with 33.8 percent of its adults obese, while Alabama and Tennessee tied for second (31.6 percent). The other top 10, also concentrated in the south, were West Virginia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas, South Carolina and Michigan tying with North Carolina for 10th place (29.4 percent).
Michigan was the only state in the top 11 not in the South, an anomaly perhaps explained by the state's economy.
"Michigan certainly has been very hard hit, not just in the recent recession, but in the last decade or so," Levi explained.
And, as the report also shows, income is a major driver of the obesity epidemic. More than 35 percent of adults bringing in less than $15,000 a year were obese, vs. only 24.5 percent in the over-$50,000 income bracket.
The healthiest states in terms of weight were congregated in the Northeast and West.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Please! It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how fat Americans are getting. Just look around.
Them hefty South Side Chicago folks are at a disadvantage when a drive-by goes down.. hard to scramble out of the way
Hard times -> more obesity, I guess. Healthy food seems to be more expensive than unhealthy food (if Whole Foods is anything to go by), and people dealing with debt and unemployment probably don’t have exercise and healthy eating as priorities.
When you don’t get the answer you want, manipulate the data.
Example:
http://econlog.econlib.org/GQE/gqe142.html
According to a food industry spokesman, obesity has been redefined more than it has increased.
In 1998, the U.S. Government changed the standards by which body mass index is measured. As a result, close to 30 million Americans were shifted from a government-approved weight to the overweight and obese category, without gaining an ounce, Burrita said.
William Quick adds this analysis:
According to an American Medical Association report, 14.5 % of Americans in 1980 were obese, a total of 32,700,000 (based on a population of 226,000,000). If, as the above article states, the numbers of obese Americans have “doubled” in the past twenty years, this would mean there are now about 66 million of them. But thirty million of those fatties were created by a change in definition, so by the standards of 1980 [we would calculate an] obesity percentage of 12.85 percent, an actual decrease in obesity percentage since 1980.
Not necessarily a bad thang since I’m a fan of corpulent womerns...
And the South thinks they will rise again? Huh! What are they going to do eat??? lol. I suppose it is sarcasm.
All species bulk up when they know winter’s coming.
—
Must be one nasty early winter coming then .. ice ages can occur on the snap of a hand .. maybe with enough insulation.. who knows. ;-)
Much of this may be a function of changing demograpics and class structure.
Trust for America’s Health
http://healthyamericans.org/
F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2010
http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2010/
state map showing levels..
Additional key findings include:
* Adult obesity rates for Blacks topped 40 percent in nine states, 35 percent in 34 states, and 30 percent in 43 states and D.C.
* Rates of adult obesity for Latinos were above 35 percent in two states (North Dakota and Tennessee) and at 30 percent and above in 19 states.
* Ten of the 11 states with the highest rates of diabetes are in the South, as are the 10 states with the highest rates of hypertension.
* No state had rates of adult obesity above 35 percent for Whites. Only one state-West Virginia-had an adult obesity rate for Whites greater than 30 percent.
* The number of states where adult obesity rates exceed 30 percent doubled in the past year, from four to eight —Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia.
* Northeastern and Western states had the lowest adult obesity rates; Colorado remained the lowest at 19.1 percent.
The report found that the federal government and many states are undertaking a wide range of policy initiatives to address the obesity crisis. Some key findings include that:
At the federal level:
* The new health reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, has the potential to address the obesity epidemic through a number of prevention and wellness provisions, expand coverage to millions of uninsured Americans, and create a reliable funding stream through the creation of the Prevention and Public Health Fund;
* Community Transformation grants have the potential to help leverage the success of existing evidence-based disease prevention programs;
* President Barack Obama created a White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity, which issued a new national obesity strategy that contained concrete measures and roles for every agency in the federal government; and.
* First Lady Michelle Obama launched the “Let’s Move” initiative to solve childhood obesity within a generation.
And at the state level:
* Twenty states and D.C. set nutritional standards for school lunches, breakfasts and snacks that are stricter than current United States Department of Agriculture requirements. Five years ago, only four states had legislation requiring stricter standards.
* Twenty-eight states and D.C. have nutritional standards for competitive foods sold in schools on à la carte lines, in vending machines, in school stores, or through school bake sales. Five years ago, only six states had nutritional standards for competitive foods.
* Every state has some form of physical education requirement for schools, but these requirements are often limited, not enforced or do not meet adequate quality standards.
* Twenty states have passed requirements for body mass index screenings of children and adolescents or have passed legislation requiring other forms of weight and/or fitness related assessments in schools. Five years ago, only four states had passed screening requirements.
BS!!! It is the fat southern state of Mississippi! Why are you lying????
I discovered the solution this year. I had a medical problem and the medication they put me on made everything I ate taste like dirty sox and metal. I have lost about 25 lbs since April 1. Seriously. If I could market a pill that made everything taste disgusting I would be rich.
Don’t let that twit give you the wrong information. Mississippi is the fattest state. Illinois is number six.
post 30 has some more info re: findings ,stats , links to states data, etc..
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2543843/posts?page=30#30
Calorie-dense foods are also the least expensive. Pasta, corn, bread, potatoes, fried chicken, etc. Likewise, the ubiquitous high-fructose corn syrup. Although it contains the same number of calories as regular sugar, HFCS causes proportionately greater insulin release, thereby increasing hunger and decreasing the feeling of satiety.
California is 41st..
wow.. considering some of the heifers I see at malls and such.. I guess all the calorically challenged ones offset ‘em
Does anyone know where/how they come up with these numbers?
Eating, smoking, drinking are ALL up! When losing liberties and freedoms on a daily basis, some tend to imbibe and forget.
Yeah riiiiiiiiight! They weigh everyone for this report? Pfffffffttt!!!
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