WASHINGTON, July 1, 2009
Which State Has Fattest People?
Mississippi Still Tops In U.S. Obesity Rankings; Alabama Has Most Obese Seniors
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(CBS/AP)
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It's time for the nation's annual obesity rankings and, outside of fairly lean Colorado, there's little good news. Obesity rates among adults rose in 23 states over the past year and didn't decline anywhere, says a new report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
And while the nation has long been bracing for a surge in Medicare as the boomers start turning 65, the new report makes clear that fat, not just age, will fuel much of those bills. In every state, the rate of obesity is higher among 55- to 64-year-olds - the oldest boomers - than among today's 65-and-beyond.
That translates into a coming jump of obese Medicare patients that ranges from 5.2 percent in New York to a high of 16.3 percent in Alabama, the report concluded. In Alabama, nearly 39 percent of the oldest boomers are obese.
Health economists once made the harsh financial calculation that the obese would save money by dying sooner, notes Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust, a nonprofit public health group. But more recent research instead suggests they live nearly as long but are much sicker for longer, requiring such costly interventions as knee replacements and diabetes care and dialysis. Studies show Medicare spends anywhere from $1,400 to $6,000 more annually on health care for an obese senior than for the non-obese.
"There isn't a magic bullet. We don't have a pill for it," said Levi, whose group is pushing for health reform legislation to include community-level programs that help people make healthier choices - like building sidewalks so people can walk their neighborhoods instead of drive, and providing healthier school lunches.
"It's not going to be solved in the doctor's office but in the community, where we change norms," Levi said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has long said that nearly a third of Americans are obese. The Trust report uses somewhat more conservative CDC surveys for a closer state-by-state look. Among the findings:
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Add a Comment See all 25 Comments
- Not surprising at all. I guessed it would be states in that area. lol
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- I think this [obesity epidemic] will persist until science finally debunks the low-fat dogma and our upside down food pyramid. I don't think that will happen in our lifetimes.
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- Of course gluttony is a sin but you'll never hear a fat Republican saying it's so, yet they're the first for family values..??? Fat people are a signicicant reason for the increase in health care cost ...meds for high blood pressure, meds for diabetes. Oh, but instead let's be good REPUBLICANS and complain about the illegals.
Here Republicans ..here is the cycle so you can inderstand and not be like geese that wake up in a new world every morning wondering how more government keeps coming. OK..rich ignore the little people ..don't care if have no money for retirement ..then comes social security. Then rich don't care if old people have no money to pay for medical care...then comes medicare. Then rich don't care that 30 millin people can't get medical care ...then comes national healthcare program. NOW do YOU get IT??? - Reply to this comment
- Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Arkansas......why are so many people in the southern states fat....? is it the diet of sow belly and corn pone?
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- All of these southern-fried porkers would lose weight if they couldn't buy Little Debbies with Food Stamps.
Change the Food Stamp program - disqualify junk food and soda and they'll drop a ton. Make them work in a vegetable garden in exchange for their Food Stamps and they'll drop another ton. Make them work, period. They'll drop a ton when they can no longer sit at home and worship their fridge. - Reply to this comment
- My father used to laugh at my mother for exercising. This was in the 50's when people who exercised were considered to be freaks.
My father died at 67 of a heart attack. He suffered from diabetes brought on my obesity, had gone blind, had a foot and toes and fingers amputated.
My mother is 93, and is healthy, alert, lucid and active. She say's she's going for 100. - Reply to this comment
- I flew to LA last week and had a 400 pound herford next to me who spent the whole flight with about a quarter of her lard spilling over into the seat that I paid for.....
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- Obesity rates among adults rose in 23 states over the past year and didn't decline anywhere...
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It amazes me that gluttony is more powerful than health risks and pride in personal appearance in so many. - Reply to this comment
- CBS : Another puff piece distracting from real issues: How our country is becoming SOCIALISTIC. The take over of the medicine, banks, general motors, a stimulus bill that went flat, rising unemeployments, a lack of will, withdrawal from IRAQ, confrontation with NUCLEAR NOth Korea, IRAN going NUCLEAR, a poor lack of outrage and lack of support for freedom fighting women in IRAN, and........you give us this ? and some stupid sex story ?? This is the CHICKAFICATION OF THE NEWS
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- Are you an idiot?
This is a puff piece?
The single biggest cause of death in this country is heart disease which is caused almost exclusively by OBESITY; Overeating and lack of exercise.
AND IT COSTS EVERYONE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.
Only a republican would think that personal health is a silly matter.
Stunning stupidity.
- Are you an idiot?
- People in the deep south drink more coke, pepsi and mt. dew than anywhere else in the country. For the last 30 years these beverages have substituted sugar with High Fructose Corn Syrup - which is known to cause obesity and diabetes.
This is one more failure of the FDA. The farm states have too much political clout for the FDA to stop this dangerous substance made from corn going into food and soft drinks. - Reply to this comment
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- What causes obsesity in 97% of people is caloric intake period.
Statistically, 3% of the obese suffer from hyper-thyroid although about 75% of the obese appear to claim to sufferf rom same.
Corn syrup is not the villian.
Their own gluttony is.
- By avoiding all Genetically Modified Foods [and products such as High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Oil, Corn Starch, Maltodextrin], and by avoiding aspartame and MSG, I am no longer A diabetic and my health has improved.
Many GM Foods contain the Bt-toxin that is not only toxic to insects, but also to mice, dogs, sheep, goats, cattle and me. Unlike real sugar [sucrose], high fructose corn syrup is addictive, creating a strong desire for more.
Left in a hot car, a diet soda can end up with wood alcohol & formaldehyde from the break down of the aspartame. [possible cause of Gulf War Syndrome] Both are neurotoxins that cause a loss of cognitive ability.
- What causes obsesity in 97% of people is caloric intake period.
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