It's a good day for the state of Mississippi as they released news today about going down in the ranks of the list that makes up the obesity rate in the U.S. Last year, Mississippi was at number one, but this year they are at the third of the list, although this is good news Dr. Mary Curries, State Health Officer, believes that it's not that Mississippi got better, it's because other stated got worse.
The number one on the list is now taken by Arkansas, with an adult obesity rate of 35.9 percent, followed by West Virginia at 35.7 percent and Mississippi at 35.5 percent. The survey was done by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Mississippi is still not clear and is still within the statistical margin of error of being number one on the list, Dr. Rick deShazo said. He also said that Mississippi needs to move from disease treatment to disease prevention, adding that high obesity rates are causing the nation billions and billions of dollars.
On another positive note, Mississippi also saw a great decline in the obesity rate among high school students. Back in 2009, they had a recorded 18.1 percent obese high school student but fell to 15.4 on 2013. At first, Currier upon hearing the good news expected it to be short of positives, thinking that the students might have nearly shifted from obese to overweight. But this is not the case because the number of overweight students have fallen too, from 17.7 percent in 2007 to 13.2 percent in 2013.
The truth is, obesity is not a disability that is easily eradicated nor is it something to look lightly upon. It creates many problems for the person suffering the disability, especially when it comes to their health. Almost 40.2 percent of obese people are suffering from hypertension. 10 states with the highest number of obese adults are all in the South and Midwest, with almost 22 states having an obesity rate above 30 percent. Clearly it is a big problem being faced by the United States.
