Copyright Newsweek
New data from personal finance company WalletHub shows the most and least overweight states in America, based on an evaluation of key measures like obesity prevalence, diet and fitness levels. The data shows a clear trend that Southern states, particularly those in the Southeast, have higher rates of obesity than those in the west of the country. Why It Matters In the U.S., a person is considered obese if they have a Body Mass Index (BMI) higher than 30, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Obesity affects millions of Americans and is of nationwide concern as being obese is associated with higher risks of health problems including diabetes, heart disease and strokes. According to the latest data from the CDC, 40.3 percent of U.S. adults were obese between August 2021 and August 2023, with higher rates reported among those aged 40 to 59. Overall, one in five children and two in five adults are obese in the U.S. What To Know WalletHub's data shows that West Virginia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Alabama are America's most obese states. In West Virginia, 42 percent of the state's adults are classified as obese, while 31 percent are overweight, but not obese. The state also has the highest obesity rate among teens, and the second highest rate in children. West Virginia also has the highest rates of conditions associated with obesity, like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attacks and high cholesterol, and diet and fitness statistics aren't much better—it has the highest sugary beverage consumption rate among adolescents, and many are physically inactive. Obesity prevalence is also high in Mississippi at 40.4 percent among adults, with 31.1 percent classified as overweight but not obese. It also has the highest obesity rate among children, and second highest among teens. Mississippi also has the highest rates of hypertension and stroke in the nation, and almost half of those in the state eat less than one serving of fruit per day, with nearly a quarter eating less than one serving of vegetables a day. In Arkansas, 31 percent of adults are overweight and 40.5 percent are obese. Many in the state also don't eat more than one serving of fruit or vegetables a day, and it has a high consumption of sugary drinks among adolescents. The reason many Southern states seem to rank higher on WalletHub's obesity scale could be down to many things, including increased rates of poverty and food insecurity, Dr. William Dietz, a professor of exercise and nutritional sciences and director of Research and Policy at the Global Food Institute at George Washington University, told Newsweek. He added that these states also have higher percentages of their populations living in rural areas, and rural areas tend to have greater rates of obesity. "In my team’s work, we found that places with higher prevalence of poverty and unemployment also had more obesity and diabetes," Solveig Argeseanu Cunningham, a professor of global health at Emory University, told Newsweek. She added that some key factors associated with a lower incidence of obesity and related diseases include: "proximity to grocery stores and access to reliable sources of groceries; shorter commutes, access to parks and recreational facilities, and density of primary care doctors." Other potential factors include "perceptions of safety, environmental pollutants, psychosocial stressors, residential segregation, and food insecurity," Cunningham said. She said that the most obese states in WalletHub's rankings are generally ones that "tend to do worse" across all of these metrics, especially within their rural areas. Meanwhile, the states with the lowest rates of obesity included Colorado, Utah, Massachusetts, California and Hawaii. All of these states had lower rates of overweight and obese adults, teens and children, and had better rankings for diet and fitness. States in the West broadly had lower rates of obesity, according to WalletHub's data, which could be down to the fact that in those states there is a greater "culture of fitness" resulting in higher physical activity, Dietz said. He added that "upper income states with higher levels of education" are also likely to have decreased rates of obesity. WalletHub calculated its rankings based on three main metrics: obesity and overweight prevalence, health consequences and food and fitness. These metrics were made up of multiple measures, where each measure had a different weighting toward the metrics' ranking, and prevalence of obesity and overweight individuals had the highest weighting in the states' overall rank. What People Are Saying Solveig Argeseanu Cunningham, a professor of global health at Emory University, told Newsweek: "Some studies have argued that it’s not just about current characteristics of living environments, but also about historical context. For example, history of slavery and of plantations is associated with cardiovascular health (which is also strongly associated with obesity) and with mortality, even after taking account of other possible effects. The idea is that the stress, deprivation and discrimination experienced by our ancestors influences our health also; additionally, some of the stress and discrimination continues to be experienced first-hand, especially in the states with a history thereof, and this affects health. This suggests that it’s not just the contextual factor we live in at one point in time, but our experience of negative exposures early in life that affects our risk of obesity and other health conditions." Barry Popkin, a professor of global public health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill told Newsweek, when commenting on the most obese states: "These areas follow the Southern diet: high use of sugar in foods and beverages and high proportion of saturated fat fried food. These are all states with very high proportions of low income households which leads to the purchase of cheaper, filling, ultra-processed and other high carbohydrate foods." He added, commenting on the states with lower rates of obesity: "These are higher income and education areas with higher levels of activity and populations that can afford to eat healthier foods." He said: "I expect [all states] to continue with gradual continued increases in BMIs above 35 and 40 and a leveling off of overweight status." What Happens Next According to recent Gallup data, obesity in the U.S. is starting to decrease. That said, the outlook on future obesity rates remains uncertain. Cunningham said enhanced food insecurity, because of threats to the SNAP and other assistance programs, increased income inequality, a likely increase in pollution—because of cuts to health and safety regulations and non-polluting energy sources—and an increase in unemployment will continue to affect obesity rates in states. "Many of these are hitting especially hard in states and communities that already have poor health, including obesity, so regional differences in obesity may well continue to increase," she said. "There are drugs like Ozempic that may reduce weight, but access is likely to remain limited due to costs and inequality in access to care —therefore, these may also increase differences," she added.
