Is Your State Making You Fat???

I've never been to America and I was morbidly obese, who can I blame? :sad:

No. I made myself overweight. No portion control, general apathy, and a lack of information regarding nutrition and food are to blame - not pollution. Besides, according to those charts, I live in a "pollution" state, but not an "obese state", so there's no connection there...

One other interesting note is how the obesity map seems to somewhat follow the political leanings of the United States. Compare for example this map showing political leanings state-by-state with the map of obesity in the United States.





It would be interesting to see which states were being heavily lobbied by the fast food industry and which congressmen that these lobbyist had connections to. It makes sense that the fast food industry would want to target the states with the highest populations since their return on investment would be the highest in these states. It's just a matter of statistics as to what part of the population would be more inclined towards eating out in a busy lifestyle and applying your leverage to plant the most outlets in those areas.

I've also seriously been studying the release of Harlequin romance novels kept in stores vs. the number of Baskin Robbins and Cold Stone Creamery type ice cream stores within a 100 mile location. I think that I have enough evidence to suggest that some of these major stores are tracking the sales of women's feminine hygiene products and placing signs near the front of the store promoting the sale of ice cream and chocolate at non-sale prices because they believe they stand a better chance of hitting your pocket book if you're moody and hormonal.

I think your correlation is incorrect.
Those are cultural norms.

(Says the girl from New Orleans.)

I have no one to blame for my weight gain other than myself. I let myself get this way and I am the one who has to fix it. I was very active and thin up until a few years ago. Then I stopped working out, but continued to eat as if I was working out. This of course caused me to gain weight, but its my fault. I'm not going to blame Missouri, or anything else for that matter. I did this to myself.

I'm in RI. I would never move from here. I love the fact that everything is so close, but the variaty in so great for a small state. Beach, city, country... we got it all!

Plus some really great seafood!

We are fat as a nation because we eat too much processed food, expect our portions to be supersized, and don't move our body. Colorado use to be the healthiest state but even it has moved up to the <25% category. Go to the cdc.gov website and check out the maps for the trends from way back. And we are passing our bad habits on to the rest of the world.

There is no evidence to support the idea that pollution CAUSES obesity. As someone already stated (but you guys clearly ignored), correlation does not mean causation. Pollution may be more common in places that also have high obesity rates, but that doesn't mean one is the cause of the other. They may both be results of another underlying cause, such as a less-educated populace. (Less-educated people tend to have higher obesity rates, and also to not vote for environmentalist measures, such as pollution-reducing ones.)

I find it much more likely that the obesity and pollution are both consequences of low education, than to believe pollution is somehow magically making people fat. Come on, guys. Enough with the witch-doctor hoopla.

I would maybe believe that there is a correlation, not causation. I could see that maybe the areas with higher pollutant levels are more industrialized and therefore would have a higher incidence of eating fast food.

It's very good of you to look into reason that are making people fat. However, you'd need to do some further research to prove that the two are linked, and that in fact the air pollution is causing the obesity (and not the obese people taking a car causing pollution for example). There are also a number of reasons which could cause both, or it might be coincidence. You might want to look at specific area's. For example, are people who live next to the freeway fatter than those who live further away?

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that your research so far does not warrant saying that air pollution (let alone your state) is making you fat. It'd be very premature to move before doing further research.

This.
This is not research, you found a potential match, now you must prove it right before assessing conclusions. More, you need to prove directionality: what´s causing what.

I have no one to blame for my weight gain other than myself. I let myself get this way and I am the one who has to fix it. I was very active and thin up until a few years ago. Then I stopped working out, but continued to eat as if I was working out. This of course caused me to gain weight, but its my fault. I'm not going to blame Missouri, or anything else for that matter. I did this to myself.

The first part is admitting that to yourself, so good for you! When I start slipping and want to eat my heart out, I look through all the success stories and it continues to inspire me because regular folks have made their goal.

One other interesting note is how the obesity map seems to somewhat follow the political leanings of the United States. Compare for example this map showing political leanings state-by-state with the map of obesity in the United States.





It would be interesting to see which states were being heavily lobbied by the fast food industry and which congressmen that these lobbyist had connections to. It makes sense that the fast food industry would want to target the states with the highest populations since their return on investment would be the highest in these states. It's just a matter of statistics as to what part of the population would be more inclined towards eating out in a busy lifestyle and applying your leverage to plant the most outlets in those areas.

I've also seriously been studying the release of Harlequin romance novels kept in stores vs. the number of Baskin Robbins and Cold Stone Creamery type ice cream stores within a 100 mile location. I think that I have enough evidence to suggest that some of these major stores are tracking the sales of women's feminine hygiene products and placing signs near the front of the store promoting the sale of ice cream and chocolate at non-sale prices because they believe they stand a better chance of hitting your pocket book if you're moody and hormonal.

This is a great observation. I was actually thinking the same thing.

I appreciate your research efforts and it is an interesting theory. I don't discount that pollutants in the air we breath or water we drink effect our overall health, however there is something of a flaw in the design as correlation does not imply causation. Your study fails to consider diet, lifestyle, and psychological and behavioral history as well as other variables. There have been studies that show a correlation between socio-economic status and obesity. I live in a "red" state and I'm losing weight successfully as well as others in my weight management program so it cannot be chalked up to pollution alone.

But could your weight loss perhaps be accelerated by moving to a different State?

I used to live right by the beach in San Diego. Even though it's a red state I would say San Diego as a whole is pretty environmentally friendly and also very thin and attractive. When I moved to London however I became overweight due to the smog and pollution. I have lost weight in London but I'm certain my weight loss would've been accelerated back in San Diego or a less polluted part of the world like the Caribbean.