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Adult obesity rates increased in 28 states in the past year, and declined only in the District of Columbia (D.C.), according to F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2010, a report from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). More than two-thirds of states (38) have adult obesity rates above 25 percent. In 1991, no state had an obesity rate above 20 percent.
Map of Obesity in U.S. 2010
Seeded on Sat Jul 3, 2010 11:07 AM EDT
Article Source: healthyamericans.org- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
- Public Discussion (57)
"Obesity is one of the biggest public health challenges the country has ever faced, and troubling disparities exist based on race, ethnicity, region, and income," said Jeffrey Levi, PhD, executive director of TFAH. "This report shows that the country has taken bold steps to address the obesity crisis in recent years, but the nation's response has yet to fully match the magnitude of the problem. Millions of Americans still face barriers - like the high cost of healthy foods and lack of access to safe places to be physically active - that make healthy choices challenging."
- 4 votes
#1 - Sat Jul 3, 2010 11:17 AM EDT
Speaking on income:
If you're on welfare and have 2 kids to support, I can bet my life that you're gonna worry about keeping their bellies full over how much fat, processed food, sodium, or sugar they're getting.
Consider you are on welfare, have limited funds or are not paid very much. Or heck, consider our recession and unemployment rate. You have 2 kids. Make your choice:
1.] Cheese doodles and peanut butter and jelly on white bread [estimate < $1.00 per meal; based on what I pay for bread, peanut butter, jelly and guesstimate price on serving of cheese doodles since i do not eat them. even cheaper if one buys store brands for any of the above and cheaper if one buys white bread as opposed to whole grain bread .]
2.] Happy Meal from McDonald's [includes, burger or nuggets and fries and soda and toy] $3.50 - $4.50
3.] Baby spinach salad with [canned] black beans, [frozen] lima beans, cucumbers, cottage cheese and a salmon packet. [estimates from my recent jaunt to grocery hitting specials = .80 + .35 + .50 + .50 + .90 + 2.00 = $5.05 {these prices are considering how much i would serve an 8 yr old. Adults would require more quantity for a decent fuel-providing and nutritiously sound meal.}
#3 Considering the labor intensive work when i make this for me and my beloved, i cannot imagine doing this in addition for two kids. But for all four of us to eat would be $20 and that's just one meal at home.
#2 McDonald's. By far the easiest & worse choice. If two kids of Happy Meal age were with us let's go conservative and say $7.00 for them to eat and then $12 for us to eat cause we'll pretend for this that my beloved and I wouldn't go large but would order a double quarter pounder combo. That's $19.00 not including tax. With tax where we live we're over $20.00 now.
#1 PB & J and cheese doodles. Hey, at least there is some protein in there. But this is the cheapest and could arguably be more healthy than McDonald's. Less filling than McDonald's due to less grease and volume of food but it's a lot cheaper so two PB&J's and two doodles could be had still less than McDonald's. Will not get the kind of vitamins, minerals, fiber, calcium and protein that #3 offers, but they won't starve and Mom will still have money left over to feed them tomorrow.
And also, it's real easy to NOT be nourished and crave sweets. So then so many of the poor eaters or parents by the cheap Little Debbies. It's cheaper to buy Little Debbie's for an after school snack than to buy low sugar yogurts or fresh fruit.
Next time you go shopping, see how it works.
It's difficult for even "regular" people to shop within budget and buy sound foods.
- 8 votes
Not only that digits, but that same family in your example would likely be on the "free and reduced lunch" program in school where the government is serving them heaping piles of processed, non-nutrient, sugar-filled garbage; and where their P.E. classes have been budget cut and they only get about a 15 minute recess time.
Much of the government subsidized foods (like formula and baby food) given out through entitlements is not at all nutritionally sound. There are large amounts of soy based products (and not the good kinds of soy). There is some good research that indicates this insane over abundance of processed soy is contributing to the issues of early puberty, and childhood obesity.
I think this is also why we are seeing such disparity between ethnic and socio-economic groups. Those receiving government assistance have been and are been "helped" with horrible foods.
- 5 votes
True Gwen. Watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution was a real eye opener.
Even kids not on the free or reduced food lunch program...just eating at school [paying full price] are exposed to non-healthy food! So even if the kids normally have nutritiously sound breakfasts and dinners at home, there are 5 days a week for lunch they get to eat the crap the school shovels on them.
So what happened when Jamie's Food Revolution was met with resistance from the kids parents? Kids were then bringing their lunches. Some people might then think, "Hey great idea." But sweets and processed foods were in THEIR bags, then. In other words, processed and junk food and sugar-laden foods are not only addictive but the parents need to remember this as they try to wean their kids off. And keep the faith it IS possible.
It's ignorance. I really think that for an activity most of us engage in two to five times a day it would be the ONE area we WOULD concentrate on becoming educated in. These days if I find myself not feeling great, I do not look toward going to a doctor or taking a pill, I look at what I'm eating.
- 3 votes
This is going to sound terrible... but since I had heard that 25% (approx) were obese, one day, I when I was at the mall, I did a mental count. 1-2-3-4! Every third or fourth person was overweight. It was quite eye-opening. If you just look around, and mentally think that one in four, one in three are overweight, you can't deny it.
It is a serious issue... we are eating way too much, not experiencing enough active activities and simply being ok with it. I get the barriers.... it is safer to stay indoors and play video games than go to the park in lower income neighborhoods. It is cheaper and easier to go get a happy meal for lunch rather than make a whole grain bread and turkey sandwich with apple slices for lunch.
My daughter struggles with weight, my hubby and son, not at all (active thyroid runs in his family)so they can eat higher calorie stuff while my daughter and I eat less ... but it is tough to have that balance at dinners. I feel like a short order cook! :)
Thanks for posting this!
E
- 5 votes
#3 - Sat Jul 3, 2010 12:24 PM EDTWhat's weird is that I have the exact opposite experience. I don't see these obese people anywhere, and God knows I don't live in Hollywood (I live outside of Philadelphia). Maybe they just stay in their houses all the time? I'd like to know where all these fat people are, because they're not in Pennsylvania!
I've been noticing it too ERich but even before this study. EVERYWHERE I go I see overweight people.
TWO of these overweight people [in the well overfat category] thought they knew me well enough to approach me - two in two consecutive days - and tell me, "Girl, you are too skinny. You need to eat."
- I am NOT skinny. I am toned. I do have curves and I have the healthy range of fat on me. I am disposed to a higher muscle mass than most other females due to genetics. I burn faster than other females who have a similar body size.
- I AM a recovering anorexic [these women did not know this about me] where, when I DID eat, it was only sugar.
- When obesity becomes mainstay, healthy sized people may look "skinny."
- It would never be kind for me to go up to a person and say, "Girl, you are too fat. You need to quit eating."
Sorry I went on a tangent, ERich, but thinking about people-watching coupled with people *wearing* their malnutrition on their bodies [obesity & anorexia both], but like you said, it IS a serious issue and I think made even more complicated when "looks" come into it.
Frankly, it may be a gift. I know that my attention wasn't captured that I was even anorexic until I got sober in program where I happened to gain the support of a sponsor who was bulimic+anorexic+sugar addicted too. It was during this time I learned everything I could about food because I was, quite frankly, scared of it.
I realized, also, at this time that I had ZIP knowledge about how to feed myself. I was no longer living with my family and trying to take care of myself was making myself sick - emotionally, mentally, physically.
Once I got off sugar, everything else fell into place. [ This article tells how I did it.] But for me it was a process. AS I learned to quit eating sugar I had to learn to eat nutritionally sound foods and (in trying to recover from anorexic malnutrition) this meant having FAITH that others knew what they were talking about; I was sick of waking up mad. I was tired of sleeping after I ate. I was tired of my mood swings. Tired of brain fog.
My life just hasn't been the same. It's been brilliant. The point is, one doesn't need to be fat or skinny to want to change their eating habits and that "wearing the crimescene" may actually be a gift...whereas those "normal sized folks" might be nuts in the head due to their bad nutrition but because their bodies look fine, they justify THEY must be.
If I can get off sugar and garbage, anyone can.
AND I make muffins once in a while. :-)
- 3 votes
One of the biggest sources of extra sugar is fruit juice.
The juice of one orange is about 2 ounces. (They used to squeeze them fresh in restaurants - the glass was SMALL). A glass of orange juice is 8 ounces. That is 4 oranges. How many can eat 4 oranges (or more) at one sitting?
In the glow of eating and drinking "healthy" we are being duped.
Read the labels of most foods containing ANY fruit filling. Most are really apples with flavoring added AND a lot of -OSES. Anything that ends in -ose is a sugar.
- 3 votes
I have struggled with my weight for almost a decade - and have been clinically obese for about 5 years. This weekend I was out for lunch* with a friend and noticed I was surrounded by people just like me - I used to feel like an outcast, now I'm just one of the many. Sad. (I'm working on it - whole 'nother topic!)
* fyi: I had broiled salmon and a salad (no dressing); my skinny friend had a huge bacon-cheese burger, fries, and at least 5 coke refills. (I had water.) She also had a "death by chocolate" type cake for dessert; I had a tiny taste - not worth the calories at all! Life is not fair. :^(
- 4 votes
Kate - If it is any consolation, I do not eat sugar these days - at all. And I am [what some 'might' say as skinny. I would never say it but some might!] LOL :)
I had broiled salmon and a salad (no dressing); my skinny friend had a huge bacon-cheese burger, fries, and at least 5 coke refills. (I had water.) She also had a "death by chocolate" type cake for dessert; I had a tiny taste - not worth the calories at all! Life is not fair. :^(
That is so awesome! I am so proud for you! Broiled [or grilled] salmon is EXACTLY what I eat when I have the opportunity. I do have salad dressing though - usually a vinaigrette or lite something or other. That is so cool for you. Keep it up!
::wild applause::
- 3 votes
I had broiled salmon and a salad (no dressing); my skinny friend had a huge bacon-cheese burger, fries, and at least 5 coke refills. (I had water.) She also had a "death by chocolate" type cake for dessert; I had a tiny taste - not worth the calories at all! Life is not fair. :^(
Kate, try going unprocessed. And lose your fear of eating fat. Fat is not bad for you, not even saturated fat. The only fats I avoid are polyunsatrated fats. They are highly unstable, and are usually rancid on the store shelf. They actually add deodorants to vegetable oils to remove their rancid smell.
Eating low fat has caused so many health issues for so many people. Unprocessed is where it's at. Granted, that means cooking almost all your own meals. But it's worth it. Lost 130 lbs in just over a year simply by giving up processed foods.
- 5 votes
Lost 130 lbs in just over a year simply by giving up processed foods.
Wow! Congratulations - that is fantastic.
- 3 votes
Thanks Kate. I started a new job about 2 years ago, and within the first 10 months I had gained back 30 lbs just because it became less convenient to prepare all of my own food, and there was a ny deli style sandwich shop next door.
But I've made my health my number one priority, convenience be damned. I've now lost 20 of the 30 I gained back. Can't wait to lose the last 10 lbs of my regain and get started on the last 40 lbs I had wanted to lose in the first place.
- 5 votes
Very interesting. I'm trying very hard to fall out of this category (6'0 197lbs).
My biggest problem is nutrition, after tracking I found that I'm actually starving myself (800-900cal average)and it has been a pain to find healthy food that fits in my budget (about 30.00/wk). Also there is so much conflicting information out there that it is so confusing. For example fruits, I was told not to eat fruits that much because of the carbs and sugar, but then I read another book that says fruits are ok because the sugar is Fructose and the carbs are considered good carbs.
I do go to the gym which I actually really enjoy now, went 20x last week and managed to double how much I can bench :D
- 7 votes
#4 - Sat Jul 3, 2010 1:06 PM EDTI'm struggling too.
On the fruit question: my nutritionist friend says eat fruit but don't drink fruit juice. He also says high fructose corn syrup is the nectar of Satan (he's a bit dramatic!). Now that I think about it, he advises against drinking anything other than water or unsweetened coffe or tea - and an occassional glass of wine!
- 4 votes
high fructose corn syrup is the nectar of Satan
i love your nutritionist. tell him i will be stealing this line. thanks. haha.
I buy ketchup and peanut butter w/o HFC's. [I say this because that's the only thing I noticed we use that had it in there.] Kind of a shame I have to read the labels and hunt it down to buy it w/o it.
ps. i will not give up my Lipton diet green tea w/ citrus OR my sprite zero cause i do not drink alcohol as i am allergic. next time you speak with him, ask him about the green tea...what he thinks of it. do not ask him about the sprite zero as i know about the badness of artificial sweeteners and i choose not to care. ;)
- 4 votes
He loves and recommends green tea. I can't get it past my lips. (I'm not a fan of tea in any variety, but green tea I find especially nasty.)
- 3 votes
Have you tried the Diet Lipton Green Tea w/ Citrus? [Sold in big jugs or 12 packs in bottles] It tastes like white grape juice to me. About $3.00 - $4.00 per jug. At Dollar Store here in SC it's $3 flush I think. I have gotten addicted. It's bad. I notice I am not drinking Sprite Zero like I used to. LOL
- 3 votes
I highly recommend a book titled Natural Health and Weight Loss by Barry Groves. Debunks a lot of the bull@!$%# we've been fed about dietary fat being bad for you.
- 4 votes
hey mark. thanks! my thing has been just avoiding sugar but admittedly I do not pay attention to fat primarily because i have sensed so much bull@!$%#. so yes i will definitely look for this. thank you for this recommendation!
- 4 votes
Yeah, sugar is hard to avoid if you're not cooking all of your own food, because they add sugar to everything. Even things you wouldn't think need sugar. This is a big reason why over 50% of Americans consume over half a pound of sugar a day!
And sugar really is one of the worst ingredients you can consume. They may as well put crack in our food since our bodies react to sugar just like a drug. We actually have withdrawal symptoms when we try to cut back on sugar.
It can suppress your immune system, interfere with the absorption of important vitamins and minerals, cause a loss in skin elasticity (premature aging), weakens your eyesight, the list goes on and on. And worst of all, cancer loves sugar.
- 5 votes
Speaking of Sugar - This is how and why I got off of sugar despite the fact I have never been overweight; I wrote this August 2006: Sugar is Addictive! I also compared it to drugs and showed some studies and effects on rats - like a drug! In my last comment [5.1], I also compared it to crack. LOL
So yes, you speak the truth I am familiar with.
- 4 votes
I have to remind myself of this from time to time, when I'm visiting friends or at a work function and get offered a sweet treat. I just have to think of it as cancer food.
- 3 votes
Oh, btw, I just started a new book by Gary Taubes, the guy that wrote Good Calories, Bad Calories. It's called Why We Get Fat, and What to Do About It. GCBC was a very dry, technical read. But WWGF is much more accessible.
- 2 votes
Things that cannot be directly addressed because of "Political Correctness"
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.
- 6 votes
#6 - Sat Jul 3, 2010 1:59 PM EDTso whats that mean??
I've always thought that the hate directed against the fat was a substitute for racism it looks like those numbers back that up
- 3 votes
No - I think the hate (if you want to call it that) directed against the obese is at least partially a function of the skyrocketing health care costs associated with this condition. And be thee not deceived - we all pay for it.
Good seed, Digits - I can now understand why the "Red States" always vote Republican.
Apparently, all that lard has gone to their brains...
- 6 votes
The report highlights troubling racial and ethnic disparities in obesity rates. For instance, adult obesity rates for Blacks and Latinos were higher than for Whites in at least 40 states and the District of Columbia.
In Alabama, the adult obesity rate was 41.7 percent among Blacks and 33.2 percent among Latinos, compared with 28.3 percent among Whites.
The rate of obesity in "Blacks" in Alabama is 147% that of "Whites".
How does that gibe with your characterization of the "Red States"?
- 2 votes
The rate of obesity in "Blacks" in Alabama is 147% that of "Whites".
Any stats on rates of obesity by income level? It's quite likely that "blacks" (wtf - why is that in quotes?)in Alabama are a disportionate amount of the poor.
- 3 votes
Well the Great State of Abalamer, AKA: The Heart of Dixie is where I was raised up. Seems to be quite the Lardly state these days. I don't think it is the Deep Fat Fried Raccoon but rather poverty and ignorance, mebbe hopeless, that leads to obesity in the deep south.
I don't feel comfortable unless elevation exceeds population and up here in the hills and hollers it seems to be a different story. Lots of lanky, steely eyed, slouching, leaning hill folk that don't care if the sun don't shine and would no doubt slit yer throat for a dime in the places I dwell. Think Uncle Teardrop. Anyhow, great folks if you don't cross em and certainly folks I'd want at my back were the poop to hit the blades. As it were.
A pretty skinny group though. Maybe it's the pigs ears. Pig knuckles. Ginseng. Shine. Lack of crappy american zippy marts or grocery store chains. Maybe it's just a life of hard knocks and unintentional exercise. Maybe it's the runnin from Law Dawgs.....
Me? I'm so skinny it hurts to sit down. A pard once told me a fambly of monkeys could live in the seat of my jeans and nobody'd ever notice. I eat in the style of deep south southern cooking. I just do what my Paw called Push Backs. I push back from the trough after one helping. On the other hand, my kin to the hot south have what Paw called Dunlops Disease. "His belly done lopped over his belt" I get the feeling Beer has much to do with that one....
Dang. That was a ramble. Too much caffeine in my blood stream. Brain sullied by images of Vampires. A serious case of Gumbo Ya Ya.......
Best to all....
Steve Goodman: The Chicken Cordon Blues..
- 6 votes
Dennis P McCann:
Yup. It's as old as the hills, but then again, so am I.
Have a most reasonable and pleasant day......
- 3 votes
I used to go see Steve at the Earl of Old Town and the Quiet Knight in Chicago in the 70s. Great guy. Funny as hell, and I've never seen anyone else who could play a guitar like him.
- 4 votes
Steve Goodman or Steve Earle?
I never got a chance to see Steve Goodman and regret it. Sad he left us too early.
Last time I caught Steve Earle was in a benefit series at 12th and Porter over in Nashville. Justin Townes played with him and he looked like he was about 12. He could sho nuff pick though.......
best atcha
- 2 votes
Dennis P:
You are a lucky camper. Wish I'd had the wherewithal to travel to Chicago back in the day. Goodman didn't do many tours in backwoods Alabama back then.
Still a ton of good music coming out of Chicago. Bloodshot Records is still there as well as mucho blues......
have a fine one
However if we regulate the food industry a little more and cut out the cheeseburgers that people are forced to buy at McDonald's or other fast food joints, and get those damn food shows off the television (Television poisons minds) in about 20 years we will have solved the obesity problem...I am a little overweight..but it's nobody's fault but my own...Not Government's, not my wife's, and not my cats...with the exclusion of thyroid and other problems that contribute to it
- 1 vote
#7 - Sat Jul 3, 2010 2:21 PM EDTso you can get all kinds of junk food with food stamps...kinda sad really that potato chips and sodas are on the ebt card unlimited...I wouldn't care if there was a limit but no limit on junk food ...sorry the food stamps need to be spent on healthy food. Bet the soda and chip corps have a lobby just for ebt cards....
- 1 vote
#8 - Sat Jul 3, 2010 4:32 PM EDTYou're probably right about the soda and chip lobby.
On the other hand, healthy food tends to be much more expensive than junk food. Likewise, "convenience" foods tend to be less expensive than fresh foods - and far less nutritious.
Like most problems, this isn't one with an easy, one-dimensional answer.
- 2 votes
A large part of the problem with A) eating healthy and B) doing it on a budget is how far most of society has moved away from the basic staples. You aren't going to find foods much cheaper than those, and they are also far healthier than the foods making up the foundation of most diets in this country.
- 1 vote
#9 - Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:33 PM EDTNotice the worst states are in the south. They fry everything.
You know you're in the south when the sign says "Chicken Fried Chicken" and it makes sense.
- 4 votes
#10 - Fri Jul 8, 2011 9:21 PM EDTI live here. It's the truth. I eat the fried okra. It's my weakness. Well and the KFC sometimes. ;)
- 2 votes
I'm an odd southerner - I don't care for fried foods (except potatoes - shhh) and I can't imagine anything that could be done to okra to make it edible.
OTOH, my brother has been telling me I have to try the fried cheesecake at a local restaurant - I'm still trying to figure out why anyone would risk hurting a piece of cheesecake.
- 3 votes
I'm still trying to figure out why anyone would risk hurting a piece of cheesecake.
LOLOLOL
and LOL @ Wheel. I do love okra - fried or slimey with snot, I don't care.
- 3 votes
Something I haven't seen addressed is the 'flight' of real grocery stores from inner cities and decaying neighborhoods. For a lot of people, the only food they can find to buy is convenience store food. Insanely high prices and poor nutritional value all rolled into one.
- 4 votes
#11 - Fri Jul 8, 2011 9:32 PM EDTI can't believe you said this.
I was at the indigent looking [as 'inner city' as we have here] IGA about a month ago. Their prices are reasonable and you can tell it's been there since at LEAST the 60's so I try to patronize the smaller stores. ANYway, I was there buying my produce and meat and bought some cream cheese thinking bagels would be fine for a breakfast treat. Not the best nutritionally but I do get the ones with higher protein and as whole grain as i can find.
They had no bagels. As if you can believe it. They do not sell bagels.
What they sure DID have was - I @!$%# you not and I need to get a photo of it some time - an entire stand of Krispy Kreme donuts, sticky buns, little debbie's, chocolate donuts, etc, etc. I swear there were junk foods I'd never even heard of.
I put the cream cheese back.
- 4 votes
Digits, it's not that necessarily that they don't care about their customers health. It's a business, they have to turn a profit and those things you mention carry a good profit margin.
- 3 votes
Digits, it's not that necessarily that they don't care about their customers health. It's a business, they have to turn a profit and those things you mention carry a good profit margin.
Oh abso-freaking-lutely. PLUS, if the majority of customers are low-income [and they are based on the locale and the amount of EBT cards I see being pulled out], then it seems reasonable they would cater to them. If I want my fancy schmancy bagels or my fancy schmancy diet green tea, i have to go to the Bi-Lo. Hah.
An 'inner city' convenience store I cannot stop at, no matter how convenient it is to where I am going, sells no diet soda except diet coke. Remember, this is the south, and diet/healthy foods is not exactly priority according to this report.
I have to go to Super Wal-Mart to get even a remote selection of organic food. And some say Wal-Mart is evil so you know...? I have to pick my battles.
- 2 votes
Am I the only one to see a very close correlation to the electoral map?
Does anyone have an explanation? ;-)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
- 4 votes
#12 - Sat Jul 9, 2011 9:50 AM EDT- 4 votes
#13 - Sat Jul 9, 2011 10:49 AM EDTLots of great food documentaries available on NetFlix. Another one I recommend is Food, Inc.
- 3 votes
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