ATLANTA — Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee lead the nation when it comes to obesity, a new government survey reported Thursday.
More than 30 percent of adults in each of the states tipped the scales enough to ensure the South remains the nation's fattest region.
Colorado was the least obese, with about 19 percent fitting that category in a random telephone survey last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The 2007 findings are similar to results from the same survey the three previous years. Mississippi has had the highest obesity rate every year since 2004. But Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia and Louisiana have also clustered near the top of the list, often so close that the difference between their rates and Mississippi's may not be statistically significant.
Why is the South so heavy? The traditional Southern diet — high in fat and fried food — may be part of the answer, said Dr. William Dietz, who heads CDC's nutrition, physical activity and obesity division.
The South also has a large concentration of rural residents and black women — two groups that tend to have higher obesity rates, he said."
In all seriousness, seeing is believing and hardly a day goes by without my absolute shock upon gazing upon what would once be considered fat-lady-circus-material when venturing into town. Traveling across the world itself many times over, I have simply never seen anything as remotely disgusting anywhere else.
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