Fat Camp Articles

Rising Obesity Rates Damaging Nation's Health

By Hugh C. McBride

Louisiana has topped a recently released survey of all 50 U.S. states – but this is one “Number 1” ranking that isn’t likely to prompt citizens to break out the foam fingers and start planning the parade. 

According to America’s Health Rankings 2008 Edition: A Call to Action for Individuals and Their Communities, high levels of obesity and tobacco use (and a relative dearth of access to health care) have earned Louisiana the title of unhealthiest state in the union. Last year’s “winner,” Mississippi, finished narrowly behind Louisiana, but uncomfortably ahead of South Carolina. Rounding out the “unfit five” are fourth-place Tennessee and fifth-place Texas. 

Louisiana has been ranked as one of the two unhealthiest states every year since 1990, the first year in which the rankings were released. 

A collaborative effort by the United Health Foundation, American Public Health Association, and Partnership for Prevention, America’s Health Rankings highlights “the widening divide between haves and have-nots in our society,” Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, the president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, wrote in a foreword to the report. 

“In the past, we measured the differences and disparities by anecdote and intuition,” Lavizzo-Mourey wrote. “Now, research, data aggregation and thorough analyses are feeding a steadily growing body of evidence that pinpoints the clinical and cultural symptoms, socio-economic causes and most likely cures.” 

The Dangers of Obesity 

Though the study involves the analysis of myriad factors related to health and wellness, certain influences appear to have greater impact than others when it comes to determining the overall quality of a state’s health. Two of the most detrimental indicators are smoking and obesity. And though tobacco use is declining, Lavizzo-Mourey noted that average weights continue to rise. 

If not reversed, she wrote, this trend bodes ill for the future of the nation’s physical and fiscal health. 

“America’s teenagers are the fattest in the world,” she wrote. “Medically, they are at much higher risk for debilitating chronic conditions … [and] it is almost certain they will mature into obese adults, bringing the same severe health conditions with them. … Federal officials estimate the cost of obesity-related medical expenses and lost productivity to be at least $117 billion per year, and that is before the current crop of overweight and obese kids even reach adulthood.” 

‘Unprecedented & Alarming’ 

In the 18 years since the first edition of America’s Health Rankings, the nation has improved in a number of areas, including reduced smoking rates, reductions in violent crime, and increases in immunization coverage in prenatal care. But, the report’s authors noted, these advances have been offset by “rapid increases” in two problematic areas – the number of uninsured individuals and the rates of overweight and obesity: 

Unprecedented and unchecked growth in the prevalence of obesity has … dramatically affected the overall health of the United States. The prevalence of obesity has more than doubled from 11.6 percent of the population in 1990 to 26.3 percent of the population in 2008.

In the last year alone, the national obesity rate increased from 25.1 to 26.3 percent of the population. The lowest state rate is Colorado’s 19.3 percent, while five states (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia) have exceeded 30 percent: 

• Louisiana’s current obesity rate of 30.7 percent represents a whopping 150 percent increase from 1990, when it was reported that 12.7 percent of its citizens were obese.
• Mississippi, which tops the current chart with an obesity rate of 32.6 percent, has experienced a 117 percent increase from its 1990 rate of 15 percent.
• Though it currently boasts the nation’s lowest obesity rate, Colorado’s 19.3 percent total represents more than a 200 percent increase over the 6.9 percent it reported 18 years ago. 

Though the picture painted by the 2008 report is a relatively bleak one, experts hope that the result will bring forth a renewed motivation to improve the conditions and behaviors that have led to the current situation. The key to developing a healthier nation, most seem to believe, lies in efforts directed at America’s youth. 

“As we strive for building the healthiest nation in one generation, it’s essential that we invest in our youth and start teaching them the importance of healthy behaviors early on,” American Public Health Association Executive Director Georges C. Benjamin wrote in a message that was included in the report. “If we can successfully raise a generation of healthy children and adolescents, we have a much better chance of keeping them healthy as they move through their adult years.” 

For parents of overweight or obese children, a variety of options exist to help them attain healthier weights. Effective approaches may include nutritional education, outpatient therapy, or in more extreme cases, enrollment in a therapeutic boarding school or other weight-loss program.

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