An alarming new report shows obesity rates are still rising across the country. It also reveals that nine states now have obesity rates over 30 percent: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia.
What do those states have in common? They are all either Souuthern or mountainous (the Ozarks and Appalachia). They are among the poorest and least educated states in the nation. And they have large minority populations, which correlates with poverty.
Out of curiosity, I checked the Senate delegations of the nine states (I was motivated by this excellent review by George Packer in the latest New Yorker on the institutional dysfunction of the U.S. Senate). In a Senate with 60 Democrats, the nine “fat” states split their Senatorial votes 11-7 in favor of Republicans. Only one state — Louisiana — had a split delegation, with Arkansas, Missouri, and West Virginia (mountainous) solidly Democratic and the rest (Southern) solidly Republican.
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Conclusion: Conservatism and obesity are correlated, but probably not causative.
Merrill Goozner is an award-winning journalist and author of "The $800 Million Pill: The Truth Behind the Cost of New Drugs" who writes regularly at Gooznews.com.
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