WASHINGTON – The percentage of obese people has risen in every state but Oregon, with Maine having one of the fastest-growing rates in the nation from 2002 to 2004.
Those are the findings released Tuesday by an advocacy group that called on the government and private sector to get involved in Americans’ battle with expanding waistlines.
The Trust for America’s Health took data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to show that the percentage of obese adults for 2002-04 stood at 22.7 percent nationally. The percentage for the previous cycle, 2001-03, was 22 percent.
The state with the largest obesity growth was Alabama with a rate that increased 1.5 percentage points, double the 0.7 national average. Florida and North Dakota’s rates grew by 1.4 percentage points. Tennessee’s and Maine’s obesity rates grew by 1.3 percentage points.
Oregon was the only state that had no increase in its obesity rate, the report said.
An official with the Trust for America’s Health said the United States is stuck in a “debate limbo” about how the government should confront obesity. She used the report to call for more government action on several fronts, such as ensuring that land use plans promote physical activity; that school lunch programs serve healthier meals; and that Medicaid recipients get access to subsidized fitness programs, such as aerobics classes at the local YMCA.
“We have a crisis of poor nutrition and physical inactivity in the U.S., and it’s time we dealt with it,” said Shelley A. Hearne, executive director of the organization.
Radley Balko, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said he is wary of the call for more government action on obesity. The institute is a think tank that prefers free-market approaches to problems.
“I think obesity is a very personal issue. What you eat and how often you exercise, if that comes within the government’s purview, it’s difficult to think of what’s left that isn’t,” Balko said.
Maine’s top doctor, Dora Mills of the Bureau of Health, said Tuesday that she was not surprised with the data that showed Maine’s obesity growth was among the highest nationally. The problem of being overweight and obese is an epidemic “that continues. Basically two-thirds of all adults are overweight or obese,” Mills said.
The epidemic is most alarming with youth, Mills said, adding that one-third of Maine children entering kindergarten are overweight or obese. “If many interventions are not implemented, the vast majority of these will become obese adults,” she said. “The net effect is this generation will be the first in America to not live as long as their parents.”
Mills said that changes need to happen on all fronts: government, communities, schools, parents, the food and beverage industries, “even town planners. Our towns are built for driving a car, not walking. People need access to walkable communities.”
In addition to walkable communities, people also need access to healthy food, Mills said, saying much of the problem is that unhealthy food is cheaper. For example, it’s terrific that fast-food restaurants are selling salads, she said, but the salads cost about $4. “You can get a hamburger for $1,” Mills said. “If you’re hungry, are you going to buy four hamburgers or one salad?”
Maine is giving tobacco-settlement money to programs that encourage people to eat healthier and exercise more, Mills said.
According to the national data, the states with the highest percentage of obese adults are Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Louisiana and Tennessee. In Maine 21.3 percent of the population is obese. The states with the lowest percentage of obese adults are Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and Montana. Hawaii was not included in the report.
Comments are no longer available on this story