Missouri, Kansas getting fatter

August 19, 2008
Kansas City Star

Obesity rates in Missouri and Kansas are continuing to worsen, according to a report released today. Missouri’s adult obesity rate increased from 26.3 percent a year ago to 27.4 percent, according to the Trust for America’s Health, a nonpartisan, nonprofit public health research group. Kansas went from 24.3 percent to 25.8 percent. Across the country, obesity rates increased in 37 states, and no state had a decrease, according to the report. “Though many promising policies have emerged to promote physical activity and good nutrition in communities,” the report says, “… they are not being adopted or implemented at levels needed to turn around this health crisis.” In the national rankings, Missouri actually improved, slipping from 12th fattest a year ago to 13th. Kansas, No. 27 a year ago, now weighs in at 23. The fattest state, for the fourth straight year, is Mississippi. Two states this year joined Mississippi in having an obesity rate of more than 30 percent: West Virginia and Alabama The leanest state is Colorado at 18.4 percent. The report, F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America, 2008, was sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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