[SeekAndFind]

I also notice that in terms of per capita income, the fattest states happen to be some of the country's POOREST states.

Who woulda thunk that poor is now fat...

[Aria]

You can’t be too rich or too thin.

[freedomfiter2]

Certain ethnic groups don’t do well on the American diet. Native Americans and Mexicans skew the results here in OK.

[WilliamRobert]

These states look like the list of least desirable states to live in as posted by Yahoo days ago.
I also noted that they are almost all Red states in the south. According to the elite journalist in the stuck up Northeastern cities southerners are still a bunch of stupid fat toothless hicks who have to many guns to much religion and to many God given rights. F’em.

[a fool in paradise]

“Poverty is a key predictor that can lead to obesity.”

I’m so poor that all I can do is eat and make babies.

I wait, I can’t afford to do either of those!

[randita]

Ohio and Delaware surprise me. The rest of them don’t.

I don’t get the correlation with poor. We’re always hearing about the need for more money for food stamps and the school lunch program (which now includes breakfast and in some areas, dinner as well).

You’d think the poor would be the thinnest because liberals always claim that they don’t have any money for food.

[rellimpank]

—I recall a comment from an Asian Indian source that is amazing that in the U.S. , obesity is the leading health problem among the poor-—

[Monterrosa-24]

I was expecting to see Alabama in the top five and we didn’t even make the top ten!

We’ll try harder next time...grits with extra butter, BBQ with extra white bread, Spinach sandwiches made with four slices of Colby, and pancake stacks with bacon in between the cakes and drenched in real maple syrup and...

[BeadCounter]

Long distance information give me Memphis Tennessee

And so they say Memphis is one of the “fattest” cities, must have something to do with barbecue, spare ribs but El Paso, the border city is usually up there too.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/11/health/memphis-weight-loss/index.html

[pallis]

Obesity is linked to poverty, and eating the wrong foods, eating too much, and not working or exercising. Blame food stamps and Democrats.

[BeadCounter]

Makes me think of that McDonald’s diet guy, he walked 45 minutes a day. I wonder if he skipped the sodas, that is my downfall, I try to skip or drink very little of the sodas.

[dangus]

Makes sense, actually. Poor people fill themselves up on empty calories so they don’t feel hungry, but it doesn’t work because they don’t get the nutrients which keep them from being hungry. So they eat more, cheaper, higher-fat foods.

McDonald’s double cheeseburger: 99 cents
McDonald’s grilled chicken sandwich: 4.99

[skeeter]

Government cheese.

If the First Wookie really cared, she'd kick the president's arse for dramatically increasing the food stamp program.

[freebird5850]

Who woulda thunk that poor is now fat...

EBT cards buy a lot of convenience food. No need to try and cook healthy meals when you can get a bucket of chicken or a slab of ribs to go...

[fwdude]

Hey, we just have better food in the South. Lay off.

[ckilmer]

What you'll notice that these same states also correlate with states with the highest percentage of welfare and food stamps. http://www.city-data.com/forum/politics-other-controversies/1849761-welfare-us-just-facts.html

Source: Welfare Statistics | Statistic Brain

Map of which states have the lowest welfare rate as a percentage of population (lowest = 1st place) to states with the highest welfare participation rate as a percentage of population (50 = highest).



Finally, we can consider food stamps (SNAP) which technically isn't welfare as it isn't run by the department of health and human services and instead is run by the department of agriculture under the farm subsidy program. Here is a graph with the percentage of population receiving food stamps by state.

Percent of State Population Participating in SNAP Program, FY2011


Source: Author's calculations using U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
Proposed rules give states more power to fight food stamp fraud | CSG Knowledge Center

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/politics-other-controversies/1849761-welfare-us-just-facts-unemployment-gallon.html#ixzz2vgFgCjIL

[fwdude]

[Pollster1]

In case anyone is interested, the least obese states (percent of adult population labeled as obese) are:

Montana: 19.6 percent
Colorado: 20.4 percent
Nevada: 21.1 percent
Minnesota: 22.0 percent
Massachusetts: 22.2 percent
Connecticut: 23.2 percent
New Mexico: 23.5 percent
California: 23.6 percent
Hawaii: 23.7 percent
New York: 24.0 percent

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

Wonder how many of those obese are unemployed and food stamps.

[dhs12345]

Yup. Mississippi and Louisiana. :)

A few years back, we took a fun little road trip to New Orleans. After a week or so my wife and I were craving a salad. After all of the gravy and rich sauces, we were desperate for something green.

We asked the attendant at our hotel if she might recommend a place with a good salad. She thought for a few seconds and suggested Wendys and then repeated an old saying: “here in Louisiana, we live to eat, not eat to live.”

[latina4dubya]

Who woulda thunk that poor is now fat...

i know! it used to be that portly was a sign of wealth...