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One of America’s signature qualities internationally is our collective fatness. A mind-numbing seven in 10 U.S. adults aged 20 and older are either overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, causing the U.S. to spend nearly $200 billion in annual health care costs related to obesity.
My girlfriend is from Europe (I have a girlfriend, sex and stuff, no biggie) and when I asked her what her biggest culture shock was when she moved to America, she admitted to having a panic attack the first time she entered a supermarket in the states due to the volume of food and the variety of choices.
Our gluttony won’t change because it is forever embedded in the stitching of the red, white, and blue, so the only thing we can do is joke about ourselves before the rest of the world can. Pre-emptive self-deprecation allows you to control the narrative before it controls you.
In that vein, the folks at WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 25 key metrics to decipher the fattest states in the union. The primary three metrics were obesity and overweight prevalence, health consequences, and food and fitness.
Scroll over the graphic below to see where your state ranks in the obesity battle.
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For the third year in a row, Mississippi is the fattest state in America (with nearly three quarters of its residents being obese), followed by southern states West Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. The study concluded that Colorado was the fittest state of them all, followed by Utah, Hawaii, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
WalletHub
TOP 10 FATTEST STATES:
1. Mississippi
2. West Virginia
3. Arkansas
4. Kentucky
5. Tennessee
6. Louisiana
7. Alabama
8. South Carolina
9. Oklahoma
10. Texas
TOP 10 LEAST FAT STATES:
1. Colorado
2. Utah
3. Hawaii
4. Massachusetts
5. District of Columbia
6. California
7. Montana
8. Connecticut
9. Vermont
10. Oregon
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Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to pound down a double cheeseburger, a large fry, and a Mountain Dew for lunch. Fight me if you have a problem with it. Just give me a few moments to take a couple rips out of my inhaler.
[h/t WalletHub, Daily Mail]