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Obesity epidemic reaches new proportions as the Gallup statistic for 2014 was revealed and showed a .6% growth, from 27.1%, which was registered last year, to 27.7%. It may not sound like a lot, but when you scale back the statistic to a 250 million population, that .6% growth translates roughly to about 5 million people.
The leading states with obese citizens are once again Mississippi (35.2%) and West Virginia (34.3%). Louisiana, Arkansas and Kentucky have also made the top 10 every year, since Gallup first began conducting this study in 2008.
The first Gallup-Healthways Well-Being study meant to assess obesity rates among Americans was released 7 years ago, showed that 25.5% of Americans w obese and those numbers have been growing ever since.
The CDC (Center for Disease Control) has defined an obese person as an individual who has a Body Mass Index 30 or bigger and the major culprits for this national obesity epidemic are: desk-jobs, over-sizing portions and lack of physical activity.
The states with the smallest obesity problem, continue to be California, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Colorado and in this states, it was revealed that people have the highest degree of well-being, a direct correlation between proper weight and general health.
The title of the state with the fittest population was scored by Hawaii, with just 19% obese population, this statistic means, that only 1 in 5 persons is obese.
Obesity poses a great deal of health problems: cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and joint disorders, are a just a few of the health risks that an obese person faces.
Gallup also conducted a study that showed that obese persons take more days off because of health problems and spend $1,500 more on healthcare than a person with a normal weight. All the missing hours were added up and resulted into a $153 billion worth of loss in productivity and this loss happens every year.
However, the scariest part of this statistic is that it might not even reveal the true extent of the obesity problem, because the study relies on people introducing their real height and weight into the calculations and many of those in denial about their weight, try to cover it up by lying.
The real percentage of obese Americans could be about 20% higher than the 27.7 reported, this would mean that actually, half of Americans are obese. This is truly a nightmarish situation to consider, but the chances of it being true are not that slim.
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