Statewide Iowa — A new study finds almost one in every three Iowans is obese, a number that’s bounded from about one in five at the start of the new millennium.
John Auerbach, president and C-E-O of Trust for America’s Health, says more Iowans need to get serious about their diet and exercise.
Kansas was the only state on this year’s report that saw a decrease in its obesity rate while five states had an increase. The rest, like Iowa, remained steady. Over the 14 years of these reports, Iowa’s numbers have continued to inch upward, like our waistline measurements.
On the optimistic side, Auerbach says Iowa’s numbers may finally be stabilizing as we’ve been hovering around 32-percent for a couple of years now.
Auerbach’s list of recommendations includes: investing in prevention at the federal, state and local levels; prioritizing early childhood policies and programs like Head Start; maintaining progress on school-based policies and programs, including full implementation of nutrition standards for school foods; and expanding health care coverage and care, including a full range of obesity prevention, treatment and management services. The top-ranking states, those with the lowest obesity levels, are Hawaii, Massachusetts and -tops- Colorado, where the obesity rate is 22-percent. The lowest-ranking states on the list are: Alabama, Mississippi and -last- West Virginia, with an obesity rate of almost 38-percent. See the full report at: http://stateofobesity.org.
