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The bottom line here is culture. We can talk all we want about walking for transportation or active jobs and all that, but most people in most of the country have somewhat sedentary jobs and drive a car for transportation. So why are people in the south so much fatter than people in Colorado or California? Culture.
I live in Colorado, and at least in our friend group, just about everyone is active for fun. We go on mountain bike trips or play tennis or go to the gym or hike. Even our toddlers do it. It's just the culture, and living in a naturally beautiful place obviously encourages this.
However, I'm originally from one of the red states on the map above, and I have experienced first-hand how normalized garbage food, sodas and sedentary hobbies are.
I'm not sure my hometown had fewer people walking for transportation, and there were probably more people engaged in active jobs in my hometown. But people were far, far fatter because it was perfectly normal to line up at the buffet (feeding troughs) or drink half a gallon of sweet tea per day. Fast food was considered an acceptable dinner multiple nights per week, and soda was just what you drank at meals. Few people went to the gym, and sports were for kids. I don't remember us ever once going on a family hike except on vacation to a national park or something similar.
Culture is the driver here.
Edit to add: Also keep in mind that race is a relatively strong factor here, which is of course related to culture. For example, black Americans are almost three times as likely as Asian Americans to be obese, with whites and hispanics being about 2.5x more likely. So places with high Asian populations will fare better here.
Please let me show you obesity in CO. I do not know where you grew up and why sweet tea and buffet was dinner multiple times a week. We lived in AL, GA, MD, VA, DC, WA, TX and OK as far as US is concerned. I have never had a glass of sweet tea.
Please let me show you obesity in CO. I do not know where you grew up and why sweet tea and buffet was dinner multiple times a week. We lived in AL, GA, MD, VA, DC, WA, TX and OK as far as US is concerned. I have never had a glass of sweet tea.
There are obese people and healthy-weight people everywhere. That's not in question, so a single data point isn't particularly helpful. About 64% of people in Oklahoma are NOT obese, you're not the only one, so stating that children near you play outdoors and you eat a healthy diet isn't helpful in answering the question of "why" your state is so high on the list.
But get real. A range from 25% obesity in Colorado to 41% obesity in West Virginia is obviously a significant difference, and there must be some factor or factors causing that 16% disparity.
It's immediately obvious from looking at a map that "more obese" states tend to be clustered in the Midwest and South and "less obese states" tend to be clustered in the West and Northeast. Many possible factors immediately come to mind including race, education, income, culture (including popular/traditional foods), climate, and recreation and transportation options; probably all of these are involved to some extent.
I’m in south Louisiana. Some attribute our obesity rate to delicious Cajun food. What they miss is the obesity rate wasn’t high until recently. I graduated high school in 1987 and very few were chubby or truly obese. In our time fast food restaurants didn’t use vegetable cooking oil, deserts weren’t made with high fructose corn syrup nor vegetable shortening, we drank whole milk, and we didn’t drink colas nor energy drinks at all times of the day and at every meal. Exercising outdoors isn’t as enjoyable as in other parts of the country because of humidity and mosquitoes. Wife and I are 55 years old and in poor health due to medical conditions (wife) and injuries (myself). We still enjoy Cajun foods but alternate some parts of the recipe for health reasons. We still get the great taste.
I don't know, but I think that when you don't have a lot of people around you modeling healthy diet and exercise habits, it tends to influence you. Also, while there are certainly healthy classic southern foods, like gumbo, etoufee, collard greens and mustard greens, okra... there are also a lot of breaded and deep fried meats and even breaded and deep fried vegetables, buttered biscuits, buttered corn, pies, etc that really amp up the carbs and fats.
Floridian here too. Yes, our state does seem to have more morbidly obese folks than others. I live in a fairly affluent county and it's not as prevalent here vs. the areas who are lower income. That tells me it's at least partially due to education, or lack thereof, about food and exercise.
Interesting that the map actually suggests Florida has relatively lower obesity rates than other Southern states. My guess is this is especially true in winter as the climate is more conducive to being active outdoors than elsewhere. Of course nowhere in the US can be proud of this measure and the way it has trended the last few decades.
Please let me show you obesity in CO. I do not know where you grew up and why sweet tea and buffet was dinner multiple times a week. We lived in AL, GA, MD, VA, DC, WA, TX and OK as far as US is concerned. I have never had a glass of sweet tea.
Where did I say that there are no obese people in Colorado? And there is plenty of sweet tea in Alabama, Georgia, Texas and Oklahoma. I don't see how your personal observations about sweet tea are relevant, though. I never said every person in one state is healthy and every person in some other state drinks sweet tea and eats at buffets every single day. But wasn't that obvious?
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