HUNTINGTON, W.Va., Nov. 17, 2008
W.Va. City Tagged Nation's Unhealthiest
Nearly Half Of Huntington's Adults Are Obese In Poverty-Plagued Town
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Ashley Potter, at left, an Exercise Physiologist with the H.E.A.R.T. Champions program at St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington, W.Va., uses a tape to measure around the waistline of a program participant. (AP Photo/Howie McCormick)
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The river runs along the edge of town, but it's not a focal point. Marshall and one of the city's remaining factories sit to the east with several blocks of hotels and office buildings farther west. A new complex called Pullman Square - which includes a movie theater and a Starbucks - is trying to become a retail and dining center and illustrates a transition to a service economy.
The area's unemployment rate was about 5 percent in September, actually a bit better than the 6.1 percent national average that month. But often the jobs are not high-paying. Many workers lack health insurance, and corporate wellness programs - common at large national companies - are rare.
Poverty hovers, with the area rate at 19 percent, much higher than the national average. In the hilly coal fields to the South, people still live in houses or trailers with drooping, battered roofs. They stare hard at any stranger in a new car. In Huntington and its outskirts, many people think of exercise and healthy eating as luxuries.
The economy needs to pick up "so people can afford to get healthy," said Ronnie Adkins, 67, a retired policeman, as he sat one recent morning on the smoking porch of the Jolly Pirate Donuts shop on U.S. 60.
Doughnut shops don't help either, of course. But breakfast pastry shops aren't the most common outlets for fatty food. Pizza joints are. They are seemingly on every block in some parts of the city. The Huntington phone book lists more pizza places (nearly 200) than the entire state of West Virginia has gyms and health clubs (149).
Hot dog places also abound, with the city hosting an annual hot dog festival every summer. "I've never seen so many places that are hot dog oriented. I guess it's a cultural thing. Appalachian," said Mayor Felinton, who grew up in Maryland and moved to Huntington to attend Marshall University and stayed put.
Fast food has become a staple, with many residents convinced they can't afford to buy healthier foods, said Keri Kennedy, manager of the state health department's Office of Healthy Lifestyles.
Kennedy said she had just seen a commercial that presented "The KFC $10 Challenge." The fried-chicken chain placed a family in a grocery store and challenged them to put together a dinner for $10 or less that was comparable to KFC's seven-piece, $9.99 value meal.
"This is what we're up against," said Kennedy, noting it's an extremely persuasive ad for a low-income family that is accustomed to fried foods. "I don't know what you do to counter that."
Like Economy, Residents Are Stagnant, Too
Lack of exercise is another concern. During a warm and sunny autumn week in Huntington - the kind of weather that would bring out small armies of joggers in some cities - it was unusual to see a runner or bicyclist. The exercise that does occur is mostly confined to a local YMCA, at campus recreation facilities at Marshall, or at Ritter Park in a tony neighborhood south of downtown.
Some attribute the problem to crumbling sidewalks in the city and a lack of walkways along busy rural roads. Others blame it on lack of motivation, as well as a cultural attitude that never included exercise for health.
There's a connection between education and lack of exercise, too, said Dr. Thomas Dannals, a Huntington family physician.
"The undereducated don't know the value of it. They don't have the drive for it. There's a reason you're successful, you've got drive. The same is true for exercise," said Dannals.
Dannals has been trying to change cultural attitudes. The local newspaper has called him "an exercise evangelist" for founding the city's triathlon, marathon and other projects designed to make exercise popular and fun. He's also spearheading a riverfront exercise trail project, called the Paul Ambrose Trail for Health (PATH).
Ambrose was a Huntington physician who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, jet that crashed into the Pentagon. Just before he died, he had been working on a U.S. Surgeon General report on obesity, and was on the plane that morning to attend an adolescent obesity conference in Los Angeles.
But the PATH project, first proposed more than a year ago, has yet to win the necessary funding. The lack of support is not surprising: Dannals can't even get a company to sponsor the Huntington marathon.
Local politicians tend to be equally tepid about improving health, said Dr. Harry Tweel, director of the Cabell-Huntington Health Department.
Smoking - a common sin in West Virginia - has been hard to control, Tweel said. When the health department tried to restrict smoking in local bars and restaurants, a group of local businesses fought it all the way to the state Supreme Court. (The restrictions were upheld in 2003.) Even hospitals have fought smoking restrictions in the past, Tweel said.
Other communities have taken more ambitious steps to control the amount of fat in local restaurant food. In July, the Los Angeles City Council placed a moratorium on new fast food restaurants in an impoverished area of the city with above-average rates of obesity. In 2006, New York City became the first U.S. city to ban artificial trans fats in restaurant foods. Other cities are considering similar measures.
Forget it, Tweel said. Not in Huntington.
"You're mentioning areas (of the country) that are well beyond this local region in accepting that kind of change," said Tweel.
"People here have an attitude of 'You're not going to tell me what I can eat.' The cultural attitude is 'My parents ate that and my grandparents ate that,"' he said.
Mayor Felinton echoed Tweel. Felinton had stomach surgery last year to help him lose weight and has been walking to work about three days a week. He has shed nearly 80 pounds and became sort of a local poster boy for weight loss. But in the midst of a re-election campaign last month, he said he had no plans to plunge into a fight over fat in restaurants.
"We want as much business as we can have here," said Felinton, who lost his recent re-election bid and leaves office in January. "As many restaurants as you have, it kind of enhances the livability. Maybe not the health."
To be fair, most people in Huntington don't seem to be aware of how poorly their city looks in national health statistics.
The latest numbers came from the CDC report, released in August, but little-publicized. It was based on survey data from 2006, comparing about 150 metropolitan areas. The Huntington area includes five counties - two in West Virginia, two in Kentucky and one in Ohio.
Of the 40 Huntington-area residents interviewed for this story, many had heard something about West Virginia being one of the unhealthiest states. But only one - Tweel - knew about the latest report showing how bad Huntington compared with other metro areas.
Some doctors, on hearing the statistics, noted the Huntington area is not in such bad shape by West Virginia standards. A recent state study found that health problems are significantly worse in the more rural coal counties to the south. But those places didn't show up in the CDC report, because they were too small.
Still, Huntington is an unusually obese place, said Dr. John Walden, chairman of the family and community health department at Marshall University's medical school.
Walden is a third generation physician in the area, but he's also traveled extensively around the world. He says it's always a little jolting coming home and realizing how obese his hometown is compared to the rest of the world.
"I don't know that I've ever been in a place where I've seen so many overweight people," he said.
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See all 28 CommentsPosted 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.
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!
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.
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...)
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.
Posted by runningralph
Your post is the most ignorant I have ever read.
Posted by troutfisher4 at 12:09 PM : Nov 17, 2008
I gotta agree with you here, that was the dumbest post I have EVER read!
10 health-conscious, fit people out of 10 health-conscious, fit people people die anyway!
Let the people in Huntington eat what they want to eat and stay out of their lives.
Posted by MityWhity
One of the lard azzes has self identified :)
10 health-conscious, fit people out of 10 health-conscious, fit people people die anyway!
Let the people in Huntington eat what they want to eat and stay out of their lives.
Posted by MityWhity
One of the lard azzes has self identified :)
If the economy tanks as badly as I think it will, all those Huntington lard-b*tts will be among the last ones standing after the inevitable famine.
Seriously, though, weight control is a matter of choice (you''ll notice I did not say matter of "will power") and most who are obese choose to be. I won''t outline what can be done to mitigate the problem; nolle61 did a good enough job of that.
When I say "choice" as above, I mean that controlling your weight means controlling your energy balance. What nolle61 did not mention and I will is how breathtakingly delicate that balance is....
A 15 calorie a day excess over a period of thirty years translates to roughly 45 or a bit more extra pounds. That''s enough to move you from normal weight limits to the thresh hold of obesity and over. This is what represents 15 calories:
4 peanut M&M''s
3 medium sized olives.
2 of those peeled "baby carrots"
1 Triscuit and about a third of another
One ounce of your favorite beer
3/4 teaspoon of cooking oil
One McDonald''s french fry...
And walking about 200 yards.
Posted by MityWhity
I wouldn''t call it imposing. I would consider it education. That way the children know there are choices they can make to live a better quality, and longer life. They still have the choice to be fat, but at least they will be aware of other options.
10 health-conscious, fit people out of 10 health-conscious, fit people people die anyway!
Let the people in Huntington eat what they want to eat and stay out of their lives.
But you don''t need a college education to see what''s wrong here.
Walk into Wal-Mart to see people who need those motorized carts to get around because they''re TOO FAT to walk. Watch them in line at buffet style restaurants filling up 5-6 plates in one trip. And you should see all the three to five year olds who weigh as much as a 16 year old in any other part of the country.
It''s disgusting. Read the obituaries in our local paper sometime. Look at all the people here who die in their 50''s anc 60''s after years of ill-health all because they couldn''t put down the ice cream and big-macs.
Mountaineers are always free --
Posted by nolle61
That''s a great idea but when you take a group of people who have conditioned themselves all their lives to the point they consider Long John Silvers fine dining, it will be difficult changing their habits and behavior. It''s probably too late for the adults, but you might have a chance with the children.
Life is a bowl of cherries.
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