Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Outdoors Our state is growing ... fatter
Posted by Pam Zubeck on Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 4:40 PM
The state Department of Public Health and Environment announced today that although Colorado ranks as one of the leanest states in the country, people here are getting fatter. Colorado's obesity rate climbed faster than the country's from 1995 through 2008, rising 89 percent while the number of obese adults nationwide rose 67 percent, the report said.
- Here's looking at you, Colorado.
The Health Department said that during that 13-year period, the percentage of Coloradans classified as obese nearly doubled, from 10.1 percent to 19.1 percent, or from one in 10 residents to nearly one in five. That's still lower than the nationwide obesity rate of 26.6 percent, but Colorado's trend is discouraging, the department said. Obesity rates in Colorado children, meanwhile, exceed the rates of several other states.
The health police say obesity is a chief risk factor for chronic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease, and a major driver of health care costs. Nationally, per capita medical spending for obese people in 2006 was 42 percent greater ($1,429 per person) than spending for people of healthy weight, the Health Department said. The latest economic data for Colorado from 2003 estimates the obesity cost to taxpayers at $874 million.
The answer could be as simple as changing policies to create more parks and trails and improve access to community gardens and farmers markets. Employers might offer more fitness opportunities, while schools could boost kids' daily physical activity and serve more fruits and vegetables.
Comments (2)
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Well, is ANYONE supprised? In a community that fears puppet boobs..gay people, "the educated/liberal ELITE", homeless people, streetlights, pagans,etc.. do you think the "neo-cons", and," rightwing-nuts" may have driven the health conscious/eco-friendly, you KNOW "educated,GASP!" folks to greener pastures?
"GREENER PASTURES"?? Where, you ask? ANYWHERE that Tom Tancredo, Douggie Bruce, Bill"will drill"Owens, and, CIRQUE-DUH STUPID, (our city council) don't reside! Our state is losing educated, healthy aware people at an alarming rate...AMAZING THEY STAYED THIS LONG!!LMAO...
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Posted by
jakeredwing
on February 25, 2010 at 12:23 AM
Would it have killed you to use a picture of a fat person with a head on your article? Or is it just easier to demonize fat people if you first dehumanize them by showing them without heads or faces?
As for the rest of your article... most of it is based off of studies paid for by groups with a definite agenda to pursue... which isn't exactly conducive to producing accurate results.
For example, the health care costs claim -- first they figured out how much each person in their study spent on health care during the study period. Then every time that person had a medical issue, they counted the entire amount again. So a fat person with a broken leg, diabetes, and strep throat ended up with their total health care spending counted three times! And it was ALL counted as health care required due to being fat, even though broken legs and strep throat are not caused by weight. And as far as the diabetes goes... there are a lot of studies that indicate weight gain, rather than causing diabetes as is assumed, might actually be caused by diabetes. But those studies never get even a moment's mention in the news for some reason.
Posted by
ladyneeva
on February 25, 2010 at 12:48 PM
