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Ohio 10th fattest state, according to obesity report

28.6% of adult Ohioans are obese; a third of state’s youth are overweight.

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By Tiffany Y. Latta, Staff Writer 1:07 AM Sunday, November 22, 2009

Ohio is the 10th fattest state in the nation, according to a recent report.

The state is tied with Arkansas with 28.6 percent of adults obese, joining a top 10 list that included three states that border Ohio — West Virginia, Michigan and Kentucky.

The annual report, “F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America” by Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, ranked Ohio 17th fattest last year.

The report this year also says Ohio’s youth are among the nation’s fattest as well.

The foundation ranked Ohio 15th in the nation with 33.3 percent of youth ages 10 to 17 overweight.

“Our health care costs have grown along with our waistlines,’’ said Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America’s Health. “The obesity epidemic is a big contributor to the skyrocketing health care costs in the United States. How are we going to compete with the rest of the world if our economy and work force are weighed down by bad health?”

Adult obesity rates increased in Ohio and in almost half the states in the nation and didn’t decrease in a single state in the past year, according to the report.

Mississippi had the highest rate of adult obesity at 32.5 percent.

Expanding waistlines are predicted to get worse in the next year due to the economic downturn.

Dr. Brad Watkins of Cincinnati Weight Loss Center in West Chester Twp. said emotional eating and depression are major factors in obese patients.

“Obesity is a very intensely complicated disease. It’s not simple,” he said.

Watkins said doctors need to discuss fitness and nutrition education and address emotional issues, such as depression, sexual abuse and other factors that can lead to obesity.

The Office of Healthy Ohio released an obesity prevention plan earlier this year.

The plan has three goals: improve physical activity options and opportunities; improve nutrition and access to healthy food choices and limit access to unhealthy food and beverage choices; and improve the coordination of policy and resources directed to the prevention and reduction of obesity especially among those populations most at risk.

“This plan is a road map to use in our efforts to make Ohio the state of living well,” said Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Alvin D. Jackson. “It took us a long time to get to this unhealthy state, and it will take time and effort to reverse these troubling trends. Doing nothing is not an option.”