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Mississippi weighs in as obesity champ
For the third year in a row, Mississippi is the fattest state in the country and Colorado the leanest, but the obesity rate is increasing in all states, according to a report released today.
Mississippi this year became the first state to have more than 30% of its residents classified as obese, but 47 states are now above 20%. Just 15 years ago, no state was above 15%, according to officials from the Trust for America's Health, which prepared the report using federal statistics obtained through telephone interviews.
For the first time, the annual report included state-by-state figures on childhood obesity, showing that Washington, D.C., was first with 22.8% of its children overweight and Utah was last with 8.5%.
California had the 36th-highest rate of adult obesity with 22.7% and the 32nd-highest rate among children with 13.2%.
The report is "a devastating indictment," said Jim Marks, a senior vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which sponsored the study. "The nation is in the middle of a public health crisis that is deteriorating rapidly, and we are treating it like an inconvenience."
Marks found the data for youth particularly discouraging.
"These children could be the first generation to live sicker and die younger than their parents," he said.
For the third year in a row, Mississippi is the fattest state in the country and Colorado the leanest, but the obesity rate is increasing in all states, according to a report released today.
Mississippi this year became the first state to have more than 30% of its residents classified as obese, but 47 states are now above 20%. Just 15 years ago, no state was above 15%, according to officials from the Trust for America's Health, which prepared the report using federal statistics obtained through telephone interviews.
For the first time, the annual report included state-by-state figures on childhood obesity, showing that Washington, D.C., was first with 22.8% of its children overweight and Utah was last with 8.5%.
California had the 36th-highest rate of adult obesity with 22.7% and the 32nd-highest rate among children with 13.2%.
The report is "a devastating indictment," said Jim Marks, a senior vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which sponsored the study. "The nation is in the middle of a public health crisis that is deteriorating rapidly, and we are treating it like an inconvenience."
Marks found the data for youth particularly discouraging.
"These children could be the first generation to live sicker and die younger than their parents," he said.