The CBS Evening News (7/1, story 4, 0:25, Couric) reported, "From the bottom line to our waist lines, America is apparently losing the battle of the bulge." A recently released study, titled F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America 2009, "shows it is getting worse," according to NBC Nightly News (7/1, story 9, 0:40, Williams). In fact, the "adult obesity rate increased in 23 states last year," ABC World News (7/1, story 2, 2:25, Gibson) pointed out, and "no state showed a decline," despite the fact that officials are "doing things like taxing sugary sodas, putting healthier foods in schools, and requiring longer, tougher gym classes."
The AP (7/2, Neergaard) notes that "the nation has long been bracing for a surge in Medicare as the boomers start turning 65," but the data compiled by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation "make clear that fat, not just age, will fuel much of those bills." Why? Because "in every state, the rate of obesity is higher among 55- to 64-year-olds -- the oldest boomers -- than among today's 65-and-beyond." This essentially means that there will be "a jump of obese Medicare patients that ranges from 5.2 percent in New York to a high of 16.3 percent in Alabama."
Mississippi, however, is the state that is "No. 1 for the fifth year in a row, with an adult obesity rate of 32.5 percent," Jeannine Stein wrote in the Los Angeles Times (7/1) Booster Shots blog. It also "holds the No. 1 spot for obese and overweight children ages 10 to 17, with a rate of 44.4 percent." Overall, "southern states take a hit, accounting for eight out of the top 10 states ranked highest for adult obesity." At the other end of the spectrum is Colorado, with 18.9 percent of its population categorized as obese.
The Chicago Tribune (7/1, Eng), the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (7/1, Poole), New Jersey's Star Ledger (7/1), the Boston Globe (7/1, Cooney) White Coat Notes blog, the Detroit Free Press (7/1, Satyanarayana), the Indianapolis Star (7/1, Berggoetz), and the Denver Business Journal (7/1) provided various states' takes on the report. BBC News (7/1) and HealthDay (7/1, Reinberg) also covered the story.
