Tuesday 17 May 2022 09:43 PM Mississippi is the fattest place in America, report shows trends now

Mississippi is the fattest state in America, with two in five adults obese or morbidly obese, a report revealed Tuesday amid mounting warnings over the country's health.

Telephone surveys of more than 400,000 people nationwide showed the Magnolia state had the highest rates of obesity followed by West Virginia and neighboring Alabama.

At the other end of the scale people in Colorado, Massachusetts and Hawaii were least likely to be obese — with less than a quarter of adults falling into the category. 

Experts blamed poor diets, less access to public spaces for exercise and little health insurance coverage in some areas for the obesity crisis — particularly in Mississippi.

The figures are from a report by NiceRx — an online pharmacy — and are based on figures collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the year 2020.

America is the fattest country in the western world with an estimated 40 percent of people — or 138 million — being obese. It is followed by New Zealand (30 percent), Canada (29.4 percent) and Australia (29 percent).

President Joe Biden will reveal his plans for tackling obesity this September, and has already set targets of improving physical activity and reducing diet-related diseases — like type 2 diabetes — nationally.

The report from NiceRx used figures from surveys carried out by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which monitors health trends nationally.

It relies on individuals self-reporting whether they are overweight or obese, suggesting that the figures could be an underestimate of the actual state of the crisis nationally.

The report's authors suggested that states with the highest obesity rates were not 'looking out for the physical and mental wellbeing' of their residents.