This week the Center for
Disease Control released its annual report on the general health and well being
of Americans nationwide. The CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
collects data from each state and prepares a national report to make the public
aware of positive and negative health trends in the United States.
For more than a decade,
the CDC has declared obesity the single largest health risk Americans face.
Obesity is defined as “the state of having so much extra fat one can hardly
move” and puts people at risk of getting heart disease, diabetes, and other
cardiovascular ailments.
The Center’s findings are
especially disheartening to residents of Indiana. The 2003 report lists Indiana
as the nation’s most obese state, moving up four spots from 2002. This puts
Hoosiers ahead of Mississippi, Michigan, West Virginia, and Kentucky with 89.4%
of the state’s residents falling into one of the three at-risk categories:
slightly obese (>40% body fat), moderately obese (>50% body fat), or meat bomb
(>80% body fat). Even worse than Indiana having more citizens in the three
combined categories is the fact that it had 15% more people per capita falling
into the most at-risk meat bomb category than the second most obese state,
Mississippi.
The CDC’s findings only
give obesity statistics; The Center does not offer information on why some
states are fatter than others or why Indiana has moved ahead of several states
in the recent year. Indianapolis physician and weight loss treatment
specialist, Dr. Harold Samuels, offers his theory on why Indiana is the fattest
state: “Our state government continues to skirt the obesity issue in Indiana
despite it growing to epidemic proportions. Other states have provided their
citizens with nutritional awareness programs on the state and local level that
have started paying dividends. Only if Indiana takes a similar course of action
will we start to see improvements in the overall health of Indianans.”
Not all believe the state
is responsible for Indiana’s problem with extra girth. A conspiracy on the part
of corporate restaurant chains is the focus of at least a few citizens. Founder
of the Fort Wayne chapter of Fatties Fighting Back (FFB) Kevin Schneider:
“Corporations take advantage of us Hoosiers. They know it is hard for us to
drive down the street and pass up a delicious pastry stand or some chili fries.
How else do you explain the huge number of Krispy Kreme stores that have been
built in Indiana in the last year? Something has to be done at the grassroots
level to stop them!”
Others interviewed by The
Hoosier Gazette don’t feel that Indiana’s eating habits are to blame at all;
that an immigration of large citizens from other states with poorer economies is
the reason for such a huge jump for Indiana in the CDC’s annual obesity
statistics.
One Corydon family in
particular has shouldered a great deal of the blame. Last fall Dave and Terri
Clark and their five children moved from Brandenburg, Kentucky to Corydon so
that Dave could work at the local Tyson Chicken processing plant after being
laid off by the Brandenburg Telephone Company. The problem is that some
estimate the Clark family to be the most obese family in the state, with a
combined weight of over one-and-a-half tons. “No wonder we are the fattest
state! Even their youngest (seven-year old Warren) has got to be pushin’ 250
pounds. That doesn’t bother me as much as the fact that they never cut their
grass,” says neighbor Elmer McCready.
Whatever the cause of the
obesity problem in Indiana, some can always find a silver lining to every dark
cloud. New Castle resident Paul Portus e-mails, “I don’t think it matters if we
are fat or not, as long as we are happy. We need to accept people for who they
are. Besides, at least we can say we are #1 at something!”
