This is mildly funny. Evidently people think the 40% or whatever of obese Americans all live in other states. At least they don’t think we’ve migrated underground to the sewers.
Article after jump
Heavy kids
Here’s the skinny on being fat
By APRIL MIDDLETON
Salina Journal
People tend to think “the overweight people live in another state,” said Janet Callarman, community initiatives director with the Salina Area United Way.
That’s not the case, though. And the release of data concerning obesity in Saline County children should help bring the issue to the community’s consciousness, she said.
That data, as well as a plan to address the problem of obesity, will be released during a news conference at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Saline County Commission on Aging.
“It’s hard to make a case for change, without data,” Callarman said. “This data is going to reflect that it is a major problem in Saline County.”
This made me laugh because to a certain extent most of the obese people do live in another state. I was at a presentation last year where the displayed the trend in obesity based on state from 1975 to 2005. As expected the numbers and number of colours (percentage of population with a BMI over 30) kept increasing. The southeastern states were always higher than anything else and Louisianan and Georgia always led the way with new colours. In 2005 they were planning to introduce a new colour (I think 40% of population with a BMI over 30) for Louisiana; however, because of Hurricane Katrina and the relocation of people who were predominantly from lower socioeconomic groups the percentage of Louisiana residents with BMIs over 30 went down and the percentages in surrounding states went up.