The Fat of the Land

Are you tired of hearing how obese Americans are? Get ready for the next round. News reports out today conclude that obesity rates are still on the rise in the United States.

You're most likely to find a fat person in Mississippi, West Virginia and Alabama, all of whom average about 30 percent of their population in the "obese" category. The skinny folks live in Colorado and Utah.

An interesting conclusion of the latest study from the Trust for America's Health: The poorest states have the greatest numbers of obese folks. Apparently, eating healthy is expensive.

So all of the hype on this topic over the past couple years and we're no closer to a solution. Can that be possible? It would be difficult to find any single medical malady facing Americans that has had more ink and air time devoted to it. What, are people just ignoring the reporting? Do they just discount the statistics that reveal higher rates of just about everything bad for people considered obese?

The solution to this health crisis seems to continue to alude us a society ... probably because obesity is such a personal issue. It would be different if the U.S. Congress or your local city council could pass a law banning obese people. That's not likely to happen, so the solution remains in impacting the personal choices of individuals.

Radio, television and newspaper appear to be doing a poor job in this particular endeavor.