Is Iowa The Fattest State in America?
As Iowans, we're a proud bunch. We love it when our college sports teams are ranked in the top 25 of whatever poll you can think of. But, this ranking isn't necessarily something to be proud of.
The personal-finance website WalletHub has released its report on 2019's Fattest States in America! So, where is Iowa ranked? 14th! Hey, at least we're not in the top 10, so it could be worse. An interesting thing to look at is, the southeast part of the U.S. is the "fattest" part of America. (Mississippi is #1, Alabama #5, Kentucky #3 and Tennessee #4, along with others in the top 10) And the bad thing about this report is, we can't even make fun of our neighboring states, because they all scored much lower than us. The closest to us, was Kansas at #15. Interestingly, Colorado and Utah are the least fattest states.
To determine which states contribute the most to America’s overweight and obesity problem, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 29 key metrics. They range from share of overweight and obese population to sugary-beverage consumption among adolescents. To go along with this fact, Americans collectively spending nearly $200 billion per year on obesity-related health costs!
Here are some highlights (or lowlights in this case) from each report:
Obesity & Overweight Problem in Iowa (1=Fattest; 25=Avg.)
• 5th – % of Obese Adults
• 20th – % of Overweight Children
• 11th – % of Obese Children
• 21st – % of Adults Eating Less than 1 Serving of Fruits/Vegetables per Day
• 30th – % of Adults with Hypertension
• 23rd – Obesity-Related Death Rate
(hover over the state to find where other states are ranked)