Regional rates of Obesity

This one is coming from the road...Your good Doctor is in Wilkes-Barre , PA enroute to the Catskill Mountains...business center at the Hilton Garden Inn.(the Ritz carlton in Wilkes Barre was booked for the night) ...no offense to anyone from Wilkes Barre who may be reading this but this sure doesn't seem to be a place where I see myself buying a second home ..

A study was released looking at the states in the US with the highest and lowest obesity rates...Highest??? Louisiana, Mississipi, Alabama, Tennessee Lowest??? Hawaii, Colorado, Conneticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island... Healthiest and Best Doctor area? 9289 Old Keene Mill Road, Burke, VA. okay, last one was made up but the states listed for obesity rates were true...

Why do the southern states have a greater than 30% obesity rate and the lowest states boast aroud a 20% rate?

The answer seems to be the cultural and socioeconomic differences bewteen the areas. When we think Colorado, we conjure up a skier drinking vegetable juice and taking supplements everyday. Think Alabama and we think of a great rib place to eat at. This obviously is a stereotypic joke, but there is some truth to the issue that certain areas of the country emphasize certain food choices that would be more damaging to a maintaining a healthy weight. From a cultural standpoint, many people who have been raised on fried foods, lots of carbs, lots of fatty red meats will continue this pattern into adulthood. Conversely, if you were raised eating food sources more nutritious and "healthier" there would be a better chance of being at a more ideal weight as you get older.

From a socioeconomic standpoint, education and financial resources allow us to perhaps make wiser food choices and understand the ramifications on our health that obesity can cause. Of course, there are certainly MANY people with very high IQs and education who are obese, despite knowing full well the damage that may occur.

I guess the point of today's blog is to have all of us take a step back and see how much of our eating patterns are based on what we were raised with, and then see how we are feeding not only ourselves but our children. If we are repeating the same patterns that have occurred in our families based on our cultural/regional food "upbringing" and there are weight problems in our family or ourselves, we need to make some changes.

By the way, the numbers listed above are obesity..not just being overweight...the % of overweight Amercians is more than double the obesity rates.

Off to my run and then the travels continue...