Mississippi Fattest State in the Union

Almost a 1/3 of adults in Mississippi, Tennessee & Alabama are obese. People in the heart of the south have to cut back on the hogs feet and grits.

The south has a lot of poor people and a lot of fat causing foods are cheap.

The measurement used in this survey is not accurate for athletic people. The measurement is called BMI. BMI measures your height vs. your weight and doesn’t take in account muscle density.

There needs to be a more accurate follow up to this survey. Even if the results aren’t accurate, this survey is showing a big problem with the American Health Care system. People wonder why we have skyrocketing health care costs when almost 1 in 3 people in certain areas are clinically obese? Our Health Care System starts at our diner table.

Mississippi remains most obese state, CDC reports http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MED_OBESITY_STATES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Curcumin Offer Protection Against Diabetes

http://www.lef.org/newsletter/2008/0627_Curcumin-May-Offer-Protection-Against-Diabetes.htm?source=eNewsLetter2008Wk26-2&key=Archive&l=0#article

“Inflammation is believed to play a role in the onset of diabetes type 2 as well as obesity. The researchers suggest that curcumin helps prevent diabetes by reducing the inflammation that occurs in obesity. By suppressing the number and activity of inflammatory cytokines produced by immune cells in fatty tissue, which can damage the heart and insulin-producing pancreatic islands as well as increase muscle and liver insulin resistance, curcumin may help reduce some of obesity’s adverse effects.”

2/3 of Americans Are Too Fat

Nearly 2/3 of Americans are too fat or obese. Most Americans are overweight according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The amount of people being overweight has nearly doubled from 1980 to 2000. Fat people are guilty for over 1/4 of our medical cost increases from 1987 to 2001.

“People in charge of benefits plans completely, 100 percent get it,” said LuAnn Heinen, director of the Institute on the Costs and Health Effects of Obesity, an offshoot of the National Business Group on Health. It is also clear, she said, that top executives are very interested in health benefit costs. But, she added, “their perception of obesity as a driver of costs — they may not understand that as well.”

When employees take an active role in their health maintenance available from their employers they experience 18% less sick days than their unhealthy coworkers.
NY Times Article: Waistlines Expand Into a Workplace Issue