W.Va. City Tagged Nation's Unhealthiest

(AP)  As a portly woman plodded ahead of him on the sidewalk, the obese mayor of America's fattest and unhealthiest city explained why health is not a big local issue.

"It doesn't come up," said David Felinton, 5-foot-9 and 233 pounds, as he walked toward City Hall one recent morning. "We've got a lot of economic challenges here in Huntington. That's usually the focus."

Huntington's economy has withered, its poverty rate is worse than the national average, and vagrants haunt a downtown riverfront park. But this city's financial woes are not nearly as bad as its health.

Nearly half the adults in metropolitan Huntington are obese - an astounding percentage, far bigger than the national average in a country with a well-known weight problem.

Huntington leads in a half-dozen other illness measures, too, including heart disease and diabetes. It's even tops in the percentage of elderly people who have lost all their teeth (half of them have).

It's a sad situation, and a potential harbinger of what will happen to other U.S. communities, said Ken Thorpe, an Emory University health policy professor who is working with West Virginia officials on health reform legislation.

"They may be at the very top, but obesity and diabetes trends are very similar" in many other communities, particularly in the South, Thorpe said.

Huntington's health problems, cited in a U.S. health report, are a terrible distinction for the city, but the locals barely talk about it. Many don't even know how poorly the city ranks.

What's the healthiest city in America? It appears to be Burlington, Vt. The state's largest city is tops among U.S. metropolitan areas by having the largest proportion of people - 92 percent - who say they are in good or great health.

As for Huntington, culture and history are at least part of the problem, health officials say.

Diet Rich With Tradition, And Fat

This city on the Ohio River is surrounded by Appalachia's thinly populated hills. It has long been a blue-collar, white-skinned community - overwhelmingly people of English, Irish and German ancestry.

For decades, Huntington thrived with the coal mines to its south, as barges, trucks and trains loaded with the black fuel continually chugged into and past the city. There were plenty of manufacturing jobs in the chemical industry and in glassworks, steel and locomotive parts. Nearly 90,000 people lived in the city in 1950.

The traditional diet was heavy with fried foods, salt, gravy, sauces, and fattier meats - dense with calories burnt off through manual labor. Obesity was not a worry then. Workplace injuries were.

But as the coal industry modernized and the economy changed, manufacturing jobs left. The city's population is now fewer than 50,000, and chronic diseases - many of them connected to obesity - seem much more common.

Shari Wiley is a nurse at St. Mary's Regional Heart Institute in Huntington. She runs a program that identifies heavy school children and tries to teach them better eating and exercise habits. The effort began because of an alarming trend.

"A lot of the patients we were seeing were getting heart attacks in their 30s. They were requiring open heart surgery in their 30s. And we were concerned because it used to be you wouldn't see heart patients come in until they were in their 50s," Wiley said.

Huntington is essentially tied with a few other metropolitan areas for proportion of people who don't exercise (31 percent), have heart disease (22 percent) and diabetes (13 percent). The smoking rate is pretty high, too, although not the worst.

However, the Huntington area is a clear-cut leader in dental problems, with nearly half the people age 65 and older saying they have lost all their natural teeth. And no other city comes close to Huntington's adult obesity rate, according to the report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on data from 2006.

Perhaps fittingly, hospitals are now Huntington's largest employers. Another is Marshall University, home of the "Thundering Herd" football team depicted in the 2006 film "We Are Marshall" which dominates local sports conversations.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page »

[redtailstinger]

The article references the "fatty" foods eaten by residents, but it is far more likely that refined carbohydrates, by triggering an extreme insulin (the fat storage hormone) response, are the cause of obesity. These same refined carbohydrates are responsible for tooth decay, which these residents also suffer from. No matter how hard you try to cure the problem, if your cure is misguided, there will be no progress. Blaming the people, or trumpeting "activity level", will make no difference. Every study on exercise shows that people who exercise more have a greater appetite as a result. Exercise is certainly good for health, but is a non starter for weight loss. Calories in, calories out, is also way too simplistic. The body decides what to do with calories, and if insulin is present, these calories are stored as fat. Cut the carbs if you want to lose weight, bottom line. And I mean that for those who choose to do so- the government was the one responsible for the "fat causes obesity and heart disease" fraud, and consequently the resulting obesity epidemic, as we switched to eating refined carbohydrates and trans fats instead. The government is the LAST place to look for a solution- they caused the problem in the first place! It's good for the corn farmers, at least. The government wants to subsidize corn growers, but tax foods with HFCS, which comes from corn. It's madness.

[cat808]

People are unhealthy because of 1) cultural and 2) society. Growing up I had a cultural food that was very healthy but it was only until after highschool and college did I start to realize that my American cultural and the society in which I was in was really ridiculously unhealthy. I mean, of course people favor convenience, ease of food preparation and taste. BUT, c'mon America its time to educate yourself and change for the better. If your are unhealthy, overweight, have disease, nutrient deficient, that means what you are eating and they lifestyle that you are living right now is NOT working. So point-blank its time to change. A lot of people fall into defense like "leave Huntington alone" but guess what? If America's does, then one day the mortality rate is rise even further and Huntington along with other towns in the nation are going to pass away earlier than necessary. Why put our children into such a horrible lifestyle? More meds and surgery to prolong life doesn't not make up for that quality of life that fresh wholesome foods can bring.

[kansas1946]

Poor people without access to proper health care because they can not afford it and they voted for McCain. Amazing.

[displeased]

1. People have health condition caused by thyroids ever heard of it? Hey did some ignorant P.H.D write this article proving lack of intelligence is on planet earth?
Posted by ms1-1-1

Thyroid disease affects 4% of the US population. Nearly 50% of this town''s population is overweight. Can''t blame thyroid disease entirely. Eating too much craap and lack of movement are their problems. And poor nutrition is one of the causes of thyroid disease.

[lloydbest1]

"You simply do not know what you are talking about!

While it is true that many people choose to overeat, it is absolutely NOT true that most obese people choose to be obese. As a matter of fact, the calorie stats you cite prove it. SINCE IT TAKES SUCH A TINY AMOUNT OF "OVER EATING" TO ADD UP TO SERIOUS WEIGHT GAIN over time, the key factor must be how your body uses those calories..." Posted by IDNNSG at 08:35 PM : Nov 17, 2008

The above was a response (rebuttal?) to my previous post on 05:24 PM : Nov 17, 2008. The caps are my emphasis and the whole point I was trying to make. If it takes that little to turn an unfilled out teenager into the Michelin Tire Man, it then follows that it takes an equally small calorie deficit to reverse the weight gain.
So. This is what it takes to use 15 additional calories:
Walking about 200 yards.
Using a push-it-yourself type lawn mower instead of a powered one for 200 square feet of lawn.
Climbing three flights of stairs as opposed to using the elevator.
Hanging two large loads of laundry on the line rather than simply throwing them in the dryer.
Using a stick shift as opposed to an automatic for every day of normal commuting.
If you''re overweight and your weight is stable, doing even one of the above will drop your weight (a little, at least) - without even having to change your diet!

[displeased]

the key factor must be how your body uses those calories, not the precise number of calories that are consumed. Most thin people don''''t pay ANY attention to how many calories they consume, but they don''''t gain weight! Think about it.
Posted by IDNNSG

Are you referring to thin people who exercise or genetically thin people? You''re right though, as a normal weight person who exercises and plays sports, I don''t count calories, but I do watch what I eat...by avoiding processed, fried, and fast food restaurants. It does take a little self discipline to avoid the "good" stuff on a regular basis.

[runningralph]

Gluttons eat liberally no matter how they vote. Liberalism causes a system to erode from the inside.

[earache4]

Liberalism causes the collapse of a system. Obesity is a self inflicted disesase. It does not exist most parts of the world.

Posted by runningralph

Just one small hole in your theory there sparky, West Virginia is a red state....(unless they are overeating in protest of the last elections...)

[barbaram99]

I pity the children whose parents do force them to eat more then they should..I see it as child abouse. There are persons are on meds that cause them to gain,pERSONS WITH DIABETES, They what to lose the wt and try they just can''t..True some pig out. I eat one meal a day. Have for years. I knoe the rights things to eat. Have to mic my food. The poor we buy what we can afford.. The less costly. IS ALL i CAN AFFORD...bLEME IT ON THE HIGH COST OF OIL AND GREED.

[idnnsg]

"Seriously, though, weight control is a matter of choice ... and most who are obese choose to be." -- LloydBest1

You simply do not know what you are talking about!

While it is true that many people choose to overeat, it is absolutely NOT true that most obese people choose to be obese. As a matter of fact, the calorie stats you cite prove it. Since it takes such a tiny amount of "over eating" to add up to serious weight gain over time, the key factor must be how your body uses those calories, not the precise number of calories that are consumed. Most thin people don''t pay ANY attention to how many calories they consume, but they don''t gain weight! Think about it.