The Daily Background
| Study: 1 in 3 Adults in Mississippi are obese
by Arlen Parsa
A frightening new study on the American health pandemic known as obesity:
_Mississippi had the highest rate of adult obesity, 32.5 percent, for the fifth year in a row.
_Three additional states now have adult obesity rates above 30 percent, including Alabama, 31.2 percent; West Virginia, 31.1 percent; and Tennessee, 30.2 percent.
_In 1991, no state had more than a 20 percent obesity rate. Today, the only state that doesn’t is Colorado, at 18.9 percent.
_The South is the fattest region. The Northeast and West are slightly slimmer than the rest of the country.
_Mississippi also had the highest rate of overweight and obese children, at 44.4 percent in total. It’s followed by Arkansas, 37.5 percent; and Georgia, 37.3 percent.
_Following Alabama, Michigan ranks No. 2 with fat boomers; 36 percent of its 55- to 64-year-olds are obese. Colorado has the lowest rate, 21.8 percent.
Phew, who would have believed 100 years ago that there would be a place on earth where one in three adults was obese?
“The South is the fattest region. The Northeast and West are slightly slimmer than the rest of the country.”
More fish, less corn-feed beef and pork?