Is your state fat? Mine is!

@AbbyGreenhill What's a shock to me is how parents can allow that. Sometimes I wonder if my kids are completely abnormal, since they love running around playing outside. There'll be plenty of time to play with the techie toys when they're older...

@yukimori I don't have a clue if parents put up with it since the kids are 'quiet' and not bothering them, but kids need to play outside!

In the south kids don't play outside - they are inside eating and playing on the computer. Its no shock to me.

I'm sure there are fat people all over the world, except maybe Japan

The kind of people who need two chairs to sit down and who bring real meaning to the description 'an a**e like two dwarves fighting in a sack'.

@AbbyGreenhill Not like the US. We really have a huge problem.

I still say fat has no borders...there are overweight (obese or just chunky) all over.

@AbbyGreenhill That's true. The thing is, even if there are higher risks of health issues for those who are overweight, no one is free from health issues. The numbers show that people getting big are on the rise - and although some just don't show it, we all still have to watch what we eat and do!

Yes, they sure do @MALUSE and @marlina. That's why we're careful what kind of rest. we go to some only serve fatty food.

@MALUSE There certainly are way to many fat children.

@Marcyaz Yes, and it's a shame and not necessary.

I thought TN would be 1 or 2

@ThankyouLord I agree with this most certainly. Lack of money leads to lack of nutritious food.

@NeldaHoxie Here's another side to all of this - I am overweight have been since we quit smoking shortly before we moved south. I've been to 4 different general prac. doc since living in 4 counties here. Not one ever even suggested that I lose weight. The staff at those offices are overweight including some of the docs. I asked one doc years ago for a 'diet plan' - he handed me a pie chart. Diet isn't addressed by the medial community. Back in Jersey there were diet practices all over the place, thriving - not here. and @Shellyann36 - people who have the money to eat the right way are overweight - we are..we're not obese but we weigh more than we should. If you look at the produce section of the stores the stuff is horrible, not fresh by any means. So if you want decent veggies you have to grow them.

These states continue to be poor because they don't invest in their people. They are also near the bottom in education expenditures. Yet they are very proud of the tax credits they give to industry. Somehow the revenues never filter to the people to need them. While we in Massachusetts are scorned by these states because we have higher taxes and invest them in people.

@AbbyGreenhill I have seen a lot of fat nurses in Arizona, not good examples at all.

For whatever reason, it's the south with the fastest people. Doctors are fat, nurses are fat - what kind of example are they?

@AbbyGreenhill Yes some junk food is just as expensive as real food but if you are really hurting for cash you buy food from the cheapest places you can, dollar tree is an example of this. Everything is $1. Some of their canned foods might be deemed nutritious but most of it is sweet, salty and full of calories. As far as making poor choices, yes lots of people just make the poor choices and it has nothing to do with the cost factor. I am afraid that our society has come so far away from days gone by when families planted gardens and lived off of the produce that they raised themselves. They were also more self-sufficient by raising their own animals and of course hunting and fishing. I grew up in a gardening family. We always had a garden, men in the family hunted and fished, collectively the family raised hogs and chickens. We went out and picked wild blackberries, wild grapes, blueberries/huckle berries etc. That way of life was passed down and some of us picked up on it and follow the ways of the past but a majority of my extended family members have not continued this tradition. It is a disappointing fact but the truth is in plain sight.

@Shellyann36 that's a long ago ideal world...people live in apartments or areas where they can't have a garden. And hunting is a dirty word in many places. We have a garden and we even give stuff away to the neighbors who I'm sure don't eat a lot of veggies.My father's life was agriculture - he was associate dean of Cook College - which is Rutgers Univesity Ag school...so gardening is in my blood.

It's not just eating heathy - it's not eat chips and soda as a meal..I don't get it, junk food in many cases is just as expensive as 'real food'.

We have some hefty kids here for sure.

If they cut back on the bad stuff they could afford the better stuff. No one has to eat fried bologna daily. Junk food is expensive.

@AbbyGreenhill eh, when you compare healthy good food to junk food, junk is cheaper. Take eating out, junk is cheaper than salad. Even cooking at home, ramen, and noodles and all kinds of loaded carb messes are cheaper. Eating right is simply not cheap, and it takes money and know how, and time...all things that are in short supply these days. Ok, I will give you friend bologna, could just eat it not fried, lol

That is absolutely terrifying

Appalachia is whole different world from the rest of the south.

I'm not a good one to speak, but we are also lacking in exercise. Sitting at a computer all day and exercising our fingers only isn't helping.

There is a lot of talk for sure, but not all that much action!

@AbbyGreenhill We have fat people.. tons of them. Our statistics are skewed because of the big city... I wish they'd make that city it's own state so the rest of us don't fall into their statistics.

High cost of living Alaska and Hawaii followed by I think some Mid-Atlantic states - I know lots of fat people there too.

@katsmeow1213 I don't know what state you are from.

Artificial flavors and colors are bad for other reasons, but they won't put weight on people. Its what those colors are on/in.

Food is the contributing factor in most cases.

People don't get up off their butts in the south! We drive down the road and all you see are people driving with a burger in one hand and a soda in the other - they don't even take the time to eat junk food in a normal manner.

@AbbyGreenhill There is no need to get up any more, with drive-thru banks, restaurants etc, electric garage door openers, remote-controlled appliances, and of course the attitude that if you are walking it must be because you are too poor to afford an alternative!

@Fleura Garage door openers are a necessity I wouldn't give up - we don't go to fast food restaurants so I'll use my remotes!