Finding Obesity on the Map
Posted: Mar 21 in Weight Loss Blog by Staff
Each of the 50 States boast their own unique attributes—small characteristics of cultural identity that differentiate one state from the next. You don’t need to be a local to travel the borders and to note immediately the subtle changes that make one landscape different from the next. The types of trees will start to change, roads that were once straight will become wildly curvy, and the way that houses and businesses sit along the highway will start to reflect the preferences and attitude of the people who live there.
This plethora of unique differences is one of the things that people love about the United States. There is nowhere else in the world where a single country can boast of so many unique cultures and local characteristics. Even if you remove the lines on the map and look only at regions, you’ll see that every corner of the United States fits together perfectly, with certain expectations, preferences and even way of speaking.
These local characteristics are great, until you realize that an entire loved region is actually becoming known for something that is isn’t necessarily proud of: obesity.
Every year teams of researchers work on collecting data about the biggest trends facing the United States. This year, researchers looked at who was obese in this country, where they lived, and what they were attempting to do about it. A long look at the resulting list of the most obese cities in the United States revealed a heavy bias towards the American South. Data revealed that Southern U.S. cities were home to more obese residents, more instances of obesity related diseases, and more unhealthy environments that promote obesity.
This is putting a great deal of stress on Southern cities. Obesity is a major cause for medical treatment, costing the United States a total of $316 billion dollars annually. Putting a majority of this burden into one region of the United States is bad for those local areas, creating an economic disadvantage that will put undue burden on the taxpayers in these States.
With this information clearly set out on the map, it is in the best interest of the States within the southern region, including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas to put additional efforts into education people about the benefits of successful weight loss programs like bariatric surgery. Weight loss surgery is a life changing experience that can help you overcome obesity once and for all.