I think the problems of Huntington are repeated throughout West Virginia, most of the rural South, and most poor urban areas. Singling out one city seems like the typical silly game the media love to engage in.

Wherever you find ignorance and poverty, American style, you will find massive health problems.

deleted---dupe post


Last edited by Heineken on Tue Nov 18, 2008 3:48 am; edited 1 time in total

So in other words W Va is just a bunch of fat stupid toothless hillbillies who's main production is moonshine.

I read about this stuff happening now globally. In 3rd world rapidly developing countries eating like in the West fast food and living in cities without physical labour weights are exploding. Thailand, China, whatever. This is the American Disease, fat + debt,etc.

The cure??? PO

YOU ARE in the third world amigo..........

The US South is similar to 3rd world as it developed industry later and moved away from it later. People go through phases quicker in NICs as in The West where we have had time to adjust our habits to the extreme amount of excess sugary foods and lack of physical work to adopt for example a meidterranean diet on purpose to avoid heart disease. I am in Germany by the way and thin and bike to work and have no car.

[quote="Sixstrings"]

Here's a photo of David Felinton, the obese mayor of America's fattest city.

I wish these fatsos would have a fast crash rather than a slow crash. The former is much more affordable for our healthcare system!

There was a bit on NPR last week about all of the doctors beginning to specialize in diabetes in India. "Sedentary lifestyle and poor diet" were still mentioned as the two main causes. They even mentioned a few doctors who traveled between small cities/villages to treat all of the people developing the disease.

By the way, Houston TX is no longer the fattest city. We built a bunch of sidewalks and bike lanes. Not that anyone uses them, but they're there now!

It's dumb to single out Huntington, which btw has one of the best high school basketball programs in the U.S.

People are fat EVERYWHERE in the U.S.--sheesh!

Uhm... that's obese? Oh my. I hate to say it, but the mayor's weight is just average for up there.

It is sort of nasty.. Big city reporter comes to small town, mayor is courteous enough to grant an interview. And the reporter calls the mayor fat right in the article.

Maybe there needs to be more balance with this story. I'm not a statistician or scientiest, but I'm willing to bet more gross obesity can be found in places like American Soma, Hawaii (they love their Spam), and the Indian reservations. Especially American Somoa, some big people there.

Here is a map I found at the CDC website:

What do the percentages refer to? Percentage of the state's population above ideal body weight?

I'd like to say, as an aside, that I've been to West Virginia and found the people to be tough, gritty, proud, and rather more self-sufficient than most of us. Friendly, too, if they decide they like you.

All the abuse that gets heaped on West Virginia troubles me.

It's a very interesting state to visit. Different. A lot of beauty mixed in with the ugly. Down in the hollers you'll see amazing vistas of poverty.

Overall not a bad state for "prep"-type relocation. Cheap land. Good rainfall. Cool summers, great for growing fruit.

Agree. Just back from holiday in Thailand. "Westernised" fast food joints everywhere. KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts you name it (except the good old English fish & chip shop !!!).

Ever heard of Pak Chong ?. - No, neither had I 'til the other week. A pleasant small town in Thailand on the main road from Bangkok to the East. Just outside town is a brand new Tesco Lotus store. Stopped for fuel & had a look inside, yes the above franchises all there, all full of young Thais, eating western fast food. No, we didn't eat there. I dont fly 6000 miles to eat fast food. Especially when Thailand has probably the most delicious food on this planet.

I'm not a hater of fast food, or fish & chips, we use them occasionally ourselves. Quick cheap and convenient BUT the important word being occasionally.

PO may well be the cure.

Gasmon

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Oil (see pic at bottom left)

But hardly anybody lives in that blue rectangle in the middle - is it because they don't have any donut shops?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-08-27-obesity-rates_N.htm

Thea rticle shows a picture of 1991 map compared to average 2004-2006 map and there is a really big difference. They are measuring BMI, Body Mass Index, over 30 is obese.



It's the stories you read about super big coffins or people needing to buy two ariline seats. Any anecdotes dudes? I don't live in the good ole USA anymore. The problem is normal is always changing so you don'T get surprised. say I was to catch a trip on a plane ot NYC or LA today or to Texas, what would I see after another ten years away? I bet PO and GDII will save these peoples' lives.

Wow,

If any state in the country had over 30% of it's population with Aids, cancer, the flu.... there would a huge outcry but other then a million infomercials and "magic" pills you see very little coverage of this fact.

Sad

"supersized" The planes can't actually take off due to the weight of the passengers, so they taxi along the interstate highways from city to city.

Problem? No...
America has vast untapped oil deposits trapped in the bodies of their land whales. An eco-friendly approach to the extraction of this natural resource could come in the form of solar powered rendering plants. One would simply need to insert the ambulatory oil depots into the center of a parabolic dish and allow clean, all-natural solar heat to drive the process. The oil that runs off would go to proudly power our energy-hungry hummering burbilicious crowds . The nostalgia invoked by returning to whale oil strikes a deep chord within us all as well. One day people will say that it wasn't an obesity crisis, it was an obesity opportunity.