It’s no secret that Americans have major issues with obesity. In fact, a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that over 70 percent of American adults aged 20 and older are either obese or overweight.
Personal finance website WalletHub recently produced a study that evaluates which states throughout the United States are the fattest (WalletHub’s word of choice, not our own), based on a number of key metrics.
The study took into consideration 19 key metrics based on 50 states and the District of Columbia. Key metrics included obesity and overweight prevalence, which listed info on the share of overweight adults, share of obese children and the projected obesity rate; health consequences, which included the amount of adults with type 2 diabetes, heart disease rates and obesity-related death rates; and food and fitness, which included fast food restaurants per capita, health-food access and the share of middle and high schools offering salad bars.
Based on the assessments, Ohio was ranked the No. 10 fattest state in America. We ranked No. 10 for obesity and overweight prevalence, No. 16 for health consequences and No. 8 for food and fitness.
Mississippi came in at No. 1 as the fattest state in America, while Utah ranked the least fat at No. 51.
According to the study, Ohio’s most popular comfort food is buckeyes, a sweet peanut butter and chocolate treat that resembles the nut from a buckeye tree and is also the mascot for The Ohio State University. A typical serving of buckeyes is 362 calories.
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 12, 2019.