This morning's newspaper (Deseret News) had a headline: "Utah's obesity rate has nearly doubled." Apparently the state went from 12% of the population being considered obese, to 23.4%. That number seems high, yet Utah is one of the least obese states, ranking 6th lowest in the nation (Colorado is the lowest). If they include the figures for those considered overweight, then the percentage jumps to 57.9%. Wow. That surprises me because I see so many people actively exercising in this state. When we moved here from Tennessee, we were amazed at all the people out walking, running, riding bikes. Tennessee is rated the 4th most obese state. Strangely, though, I moved from the 4th most obese state to the 6th least obese, yet I gained around 30 pounds after moving here! Go figure.
Thankfully, since starting My Healthy Eating Challenge, I have lost most of the weight I gained after moving to Utah. I'm trying to do my part to bring the percentage rate down. : )
My new state is at about 28% which doesn't surprise me, because one of my first comments here was: there are sure a lot of fat people here! No offense to fellow citizens but wow! Maybe they should spend their money on gyms instead of tattoos and cigarettes. There are a lot of those here too! Says the lady with the rather fat food beam in her own eye!
ReplyDeleteMy husband has done a lot of reading about the addition of High Fructose Corn Syrup in EVERYTHING being related to the increase in obesity. There is so much information and mis-information, it's hard to know what is safe to eat these days beside fruits & veggies!
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