I visit family in other states and I get comments like “I can’t believe you are so thin.” For context I am a healthy weight and I eat what I consider a reasonable diet. I sit and smile while I watch them drink soda and eat pure sugar and salt. I don’t care about your life choices but don’t act surprised by someone that’s a normal weight.

  • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    Is it possible they’re expressing admiration or paying you a compliment and not trying to invoke your smirking condescension?

    Incidentally, according to the most recent CDC numbers, Colorado is no longer “green” on this map, just Hawaii and DC.

    There’s only eight states under 30%. West Virgina tops the numbers at 41%.

    ~75% of the United States is classified as overweight or obese, which is staggering. It has to be pretty unevenly distributed even within states, because I live in a college town in a low-middle-weight state, and very few appear obese, and I’m regularly in a nearby major metro, and I don’t see a ton of obese people there either. Rural children are 10-15 times more likely to obese, so I’m guessing that is probably a major factor as well.

    25-35% obesity rates covers like 80% of states, so the US is just fat and getting fatter.

    • ahal@lemmy.ca
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      19 days ago

      Unevenly distributed, but also statistical bias. Anywhere you go obese people are less likely to be out and about.

        • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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          19 days ago

          That be the inverse uneven distribution. You want somewhere everyone has to go, regardless of health

          • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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            19 days ago

            Pretty sure healthy and unhealthy people go to the doctors for check ups. In fact, healthy people might be more likely to go to their annual appointment.

            • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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              19 days ago

              An annual checkup is a blip in comparison to the frequency of visits by the unhealthy

    • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      I’d expect a county map to more appropriately show the trend. Coastal cities can steamroll stats for a state with vastly disproportional representation. I would expect cities to have lower obesity rates due to increased travel by walking while deep rural counties to have higher rates due to driving everywhere, including on your own property. Perhaps it’s not California and New York that’s doing the right thing, but rather LA and NYC doing the heavy lifting. A county map could also pull in variation correlated to ethnicity of people (genetics, imported cultural norms) and ethnicity/variety of food available, too (can you get fresh fare or is it all McDonald’s?). I would expect DC to be more in line with other large metro counties.

      Basically the same issues with the electoral college. States are big and not necessarily a good representation of human statistics. Counties may not be granular enough, but I expect it to be an improvement. I’m not seeing date marked results past 2008.

      I have no relevant comments for Colorado, I don’t get it

      • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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        19 days ago

        Agreed. A more granular map would be interesting to see. I mean, something like 65% of NY state’s population live in the NYC metro, which is a tiny part of a deceptively large state.

        Re: Colorado, it’s just a relatively healthy state with a general ethos of living well. I think you’re seeing some of the urban effect through the Denver, Colorado Springs, etc. and the addition of rural areas of Colorado still having an outdoorsy culture, as well as (often) affluent rather than “rural poor.” Colorado has one of the lowest rural poverty rates in the United States.

        And since Colorado would be in the 25-29.9 category now, it’s comparable to many states that also have comparable rural poverty rates. The fact that the states with the highest rural poverty also have the highest weights makes me assume obesity rates and poverty rates heavily overlap.

        Edit: to the point, look at the county map for childhood obesity. You can literally point out almost every major city in the United States.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipOP
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      19 days ago

      I think the main problem is that people are eating way to much sugar and salt. The problem is that a lot food you can buy at the store has way to much sugar and salt. Also some people have grown up being conditioned to eat junk like heavy sugar and grease.

        • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipOP
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          19 days ago

          It doesn’t cause obesity to my knowledge. It does cause heart disease and blocks circulation.

          When I say salt I also mean cholesterol and saturated fat