there's a very good (or very disturbing, depending on your perspective) feature on Revolution Health today, about whether your state (they have US only) is fit or fat. Here's the link - these maps have been shown over the years at diabetes and obesity meetings where doctors gather and where we go to learn what they are learning.
http://www.revolutionhealth.com/healthy-living/weight-management/obesity-epidemic?ipc=B00162
The maps are divided into different shades, showing the states where less than 10% of the state is obese, between 10 and 15%, and so on. I always got depressed when another year went by and they'd have to add another color, because the percentage had gone up.
So Revolution Health does the maps better than anyone - you can slide between 1990 and 2006 and chart exactly what the country has done. It's mind blowing.
If you move the cursor to 1990 (a year that I remember vividly - it wasn't that long ago!), there's only one lone state that has over 15% of the population obese - and that was at a time when the national average was 11.6%. So 12% obese, that obviously doesn't sound great, right (obesity was defined as a BMI over 30 - yes there are problems using BMI as a definition, but still...)
So 1990, Mississippi (remember spelling that out as a kid?!) was 15%, and that was a green state. The only green state on the map - all the other states were gray (less than 10%) or, forebodingly, blue, which was between 10 and 15%. No states were yet yellow (20-24%), orange (25-30%), or red (over 30%). There were still at least 10 gray states then.
Flip to 1992 and there were just three gray states (Hawaii and Colorado - makes sense - and Arizona).
Flip to 1995 and there's a new color introduced, yellow, to signify 20-24% obese. One state is there, Indiana, with 20.1%.
Flip to 2000 and there's yet another new color introduced, orange, to show states with 25% or more obesity - and there, Mississippi again, 25%.
Move to 2001, 2002, 2003 ... and just more and more orange seeps into the graph. It's surreal. Meanwhile, Colorado is still blue, so below 15% obesity, oh good. Oh, no, actually, 2002, Colorado is green, so 15-19% obese.
Wow. 2005. ANOTHER new color, red, to show over 30% obese (30%!), and right away, the first year red hits, already there are three states. Which? Mississippi, right, at 30.9%, Louisiana at 30.8%, and West Virginia at 30.6%. Whew.
And then, today, the 2006 numbers are out. Overall, the obesity avarage has gone from 24.4% a year ago to 25.1% today. The map is so much more orange, allofasudden - in 1990 (which remember, I remember vividly and I'll bet you do too!), the obesity average was 11.6%. There are still three red states and still just
A word about green. In 2006, the only green is Colorado, but in 2004, there were at least five green states, among them Montana (19.7%), Massachusetts (18.4%), Connecticut (19.7%) and Vermont (18.7%) AND Colorado (16.8%) - but in 2006, there's just Colorado in green, though the obesity percentage there has increased to 18.2%. Stay green, Colorado! You can be the inspiration!
Here's one glimmer - obesity did according to these figures increase less from 2005 to 2006 (24.4% to 25.1%) than from 2004 to 2005 (23.2% to 24.4%). Is that because more people are out walking, paying attention to their hearts if nothing else? Mmm, I'm waking up our two year old and headed out now - this is all pretty frightening, especially for someone with diabetes.
So I am sort of morbidly fascinated with these graphs. It's 7:40 am and I feel I could play on it all morning. ...Exactly! That's the problem. Okay, I'm going to wake up Coco, get her her favorite soy milk in a sippy cup and walk with her to the Mission and get a coffee, sans the favorite Tartine morning bun ...if nothing else, the maps are inspiring me to turn it around and I hope I feel this way again tomorrow morning!
